Static with no warm-up

[O'Boy]

Congratulations to all your results, guys.
It' s good to see that this method works for you too.

Thanks Eric. Your wish may in fact come true. There's a doc, who finds our results very interesting. We're part of his study on 'Diving reflex' and he wants to make some experiments with etCO2 monitor too. He plans it for summer, so we have to wait till. Maybe I should start to breathe on my girlfriend after max attempt. If she survives it, it won't be that bad.

Counting contractions helps me a lot. I find the rate of contractions very important. In the end of my max attempt I get 5 contractions in around 13 seconds which is for me a signal that the end is coming. I don't know how accurate this is, yet it is the only way I can analyze the hold.

I will try for a new PB, tomorrow. This time I will push it to samba, though. There has to be some limit for me in this method.

Kingohyes - high CO2 levels are part of interval training. There's nothing wrong with it. I don't know if 10 minutes rest is enough for the CO2 to become normal. That depends on your apnea time and training intensity. You have to experiment with it.

[kingohyes]

Hi, yesterday I took my monofin to the pool.. It is quite new, so I have only used it 3 times or so. I have never tried to do a max attempt before with my mono, since there was no one watchin me, I decided to not push it 100%, but rather 85-90%.

I applied the no warmup or breathup method, and easily did 75 meter this I did eventhough there was 2 places I had to stop on the way, cause of persons swimming in the way. + my turn on the shallow side took me 7 seconds or so.. What I will have to train is turning on the sides.. I much rather want to do dynamics in a 50m pool..

But what the heck 75m is a start

Kingohyes

[DeepThought]

3:28, 70 contractions starting at 1:10~.
20 seconds (and 20 contractions and 20 seconds of contrations) improvement in one day. I think I just relaxed better before I started today.

Anyway, the reason I am posting is that I had a slight headache all during the apnea and even afterwards. I can still feel it's remnants in my head a few hours later.
I'm afraid it's related to too high cerebral blood pressure created from this kind of apnea (which I have no proof of so am just theorizing). I know my familiy has a genetical tendancy to develop high blood pressure at older age but I don't think I have it yet.

Has any of you got these sort of headaches from this kind of apnea before?
At the time of apnea it feels like the end of a fighting phase, with each contraction "pushing" more blood into your head. But I get it at the start of the hold alteady.

I will keep trying, but if I'll get a headache each time I'll jus tassume it's not healthy and stop.
I hope I'm not risking rapturing some blood vessel in the brain.

[kingohyes]

Im concerned about this too. I have had a slight headache almost every day of this week. Today it ceased a little bit.. I hope this will gradually stop..

[derelictp]

The headache can be because the high CO2 levels.

I did a dynamic pb of 118m today. Lied on the edge of the pool and did sub-neutral breathing and pack stretches and shorter holds for 10min then go.

It was the first time in nearly 2 years I have had the chance to try a pb.

I think the training we do (no breathup/no warmup) is a very good CO2 tolerance training, probably better than any table...
I really enjoy the strugglephase more now since I started this kind of training.

[efattah]

There is an EASY way to avoid CO2 headaches -- Jalandhara bandha. Personally I always do jalandhara bandha during the contraction phase in static.

When I was testing my ultimate CO2 tolerance last year, the first time I went over 9.2% CO2 (without doing jalandhara), I had a horrible MIGRAINE headache which lasted for an hour or more. I concluded I had to either stop the experiment or find a work-around.

That was when I recall the yogis recommending jalandhara bandha on any breath-hold longer than 30 seconds, 'to prevent excessive pressure in the head,' as they described it.

I tried doing jalandhara bandha during my contractions, and using this method I was able to go over 9% CO2 with NO headache or 'exploding' head feeling. I even went over 10.0% CO2 with only a very MINOR head throbbing after, which was gone in a one or two minutes.

This is one of the reasons that in the pool, I have to do my static without a hood. The hood prevents me from doing jalandhara bandha.

To do jalandhara bandha, just touch your chin to your chest. During strong contractions, you must really 'push' your chin hard onto your chest. Doing jalandhara bandha causes you to tense your neck, which I suppose burns a little bit of energy, but all my pb's have been done while using it, so it can't burn that much energy, and it prevents those horrible CO2 headaches...

If I try jalandhara with a hood on, the hood makes it very hard to do, requiring FAR MORE muscular effort, plus it causes my hood to choke my throat.

[watts]

Cant pronounce it but I will try it thanks Erik.
Nathan

[ADR]

Hi Peter,

Congrats on the new PB!

"sub-neutral breathing and pack stretches and shorter holds"
I don't want to rain on your parade but depending on how you are doing the sub-neutral breathing it could well qualify as a breathe up and "shorter holds" definitely qualify as a warmup. I dont think that kind of prep is the no warm-up/no breathup prep we have been talking about.

congrats again on the PB!

Andy

[derelictp]

Thanks ADR!

My preparation was definately a breathup, no doubt!

If you read my earlier posts you can see that I state that as soon as you think about your breathing it's not normal breathing. (=hyperventilation (or hypoventilation))

[kiwi chick]

Hi guys

I've been following your thread for a few weeks & thought I should start contributing I've pretty much had 6 mths off statics because I got way too bored of it but I like the idea of no warm up because I never really had a warm up anyway! It's also a good time for me to experiment with something new because I'm so out of practice with long breathholds - I've been experimenting for the last week.

My routine is basically 2 mins of snorkle breathing to relax (I train in a cold pool & thats about all I can handle - no wetsuit) and then one hold & thats it. At the start of the week I was doing 2 mins & contracting from about 45 secs (totally mental!)...but today I did a new 'no warm up pb' - 4 mins which I was happy with. My contractions started at 2 mins and I had 30 through to 4mins. Am getting excited about this approach...will keep experimenting.

[O'Boy]

I got serious headache after 9 days of max statics in a row.
Since then I take a lot of sleep every night before and after max static attempt.
There is no problem with it anymore (even after my latest 4'29" of contractions).
Performing Jalandhara bandha in max static surely needs some practise. If the headache occurs again, I'll give it a try.

[derelictp]

I had headache during my first months of serious freediving training but now almost never.

Maybe one gets used to high levels of CO2??

[kingohyes]

Maybe.. I hope so Yesterday an today I had no headache!! Yahoo

[DeepThought]

Thanks Eric.
I guess your jaw has to be totally shut to do this banda?
I usually leave mine ajar. (or can that word only relate to doors? )

I didn't feel any headache during or after the today's breathold. If the headaches will return I'de certainly play with this banda. Ofcourse I'll have to change my entire posture.

I still suspect high blood pressure ovef CO2 since the headache apeared almost immidiatly at the start of the breathholds in previous times. I guess that banda should solve whichever.

Today I did 3:51, contractions started @ 1:10~ (might change a song if they'll keep apearing at the same time), had 80 or 90 of them - too much fun to focus on proper counting.

I like the taste of quick results.
I'll start updating now on a weekly basis.

[naiad]

I don't know what to do with my static training now - I have been a bit put off by a scary samba in the pool, well within my limits.

I will try again soon when I am feeling brave again, and let you know how it goes.

Lucia