Exhale Holds

[samdive]

Who's using exhale statics as part of their warm up? and how?

Stavros gave me this funky routine to try and crack 5 minutes - it pushed my contractions on the longer holds back by about a minute but they were so hard and horrid that it didn't increase my overall breath hold - anyhow, I am keen to put some exhales into my warm up to try and delay contractions but not sure quite how to plan it.... any ideas? aiming for around 5 minutes max

First part is exhale statics

normal breath up

Exhale hold for something that feels relatively comfy like 1 to 1:30 or thereabouts
2 minute breathup
Exhale hold for same time as 1st
1:30 breathup
Exhale hold for same time
1 minute breathup
Exhale hold same time
30 sec breathup
Exhale hold same time

5 minute breath up

Then start an exhale hold as before but now at around 1minute or when you are beginning to struggle get your face our of the water and do 3 packs (don't do a normal inhale just 3 packs) then hold for 15secs then another 3 packs then another 15 secs then another 3 packs...etc for the max you can go...you should go for 60%-80% of your max.

5 minute breath up then a normal hold (same as you do on your max) to the first contraction

5-6 minute breath up and then max...

Try it out and let me know what you think....

(although it sounds like a lot it is not as the breath ups and holds are not very long)

Cheers Stavros

PS. Legal desclaimer - do not try this at home ...children do not practise apnea unsupervised ...and Twitchy do not try this warm up since you need to be quite experienced in order for this to actually work

Sam

[Donna]

Sue and I were playing with a static warm up a few weeks ago - worked for me as I did a 4min PB! And it worked for Sue as she did a good comp hold!!

Warm up inhale hold, just to get head in hold your breath mode - as long as comfy
4 min breathing
exhale hold for as long as comfy (about 1m 15 in my case)
4 min breathing
exhale hold for as long as comfy (about 1m 35 in my case)
6 min breathing
Go for it!


(Sue added another hold between the 2nd exhale hold and the 'go for it' hold - I tried that first time, but did a crap 'go for it hold'!)

Donna

[OceanMan]

Hi Sam,

I used to do exhale holds as a warm up for max statics. Two or three max exhale holds with 2 minutes rest in between and I was able to reach my max when I was in your range of performance (~5'-5'30"). This warm up did not really increase my max time but I could reach a max very quickly (10 minutes of warm up only) and, contrary to what you experienced, without huge contractions.

Strangely enough, it's not working anymore for me now and I had to go back to a more classical warm up aproach to reach a max. It's a shame because now my warm up time has considerably increased.

I still use the exhale approach as a warm up for dynamics and CW though.

Hope it helps,
Matt

[jome]

Same as Matt, I use them to make the warmup time shorter. So I sort of kick things off with a couple of exhale holds, then do one pretty long one with full lungs, then max (instead of 3-4 progressively longer full inhale statics). I find that I don't need much other preparation. I can come to the pool stressed, heart beating, not relaxed at all, but with that first exhale I just sort of force my self to static mode again. I don't much look at the time, it's just to calm me down to get started...

The curious thing about my warmup, that I don't see many good static divers doing is that I actually do more or less 2 max attempts, the last one is just considerably longer Ie, the last warmup is pretty hard...

[Bill]

"(negatives) make the warmup time shorter................
the last warmup is pretty hard"

Good thing I read Simo's post. Only one thing to add, me too.

Bill

[Stavros]

Originally Posted by samdive

Who's using exhale statics as part of their warm up? and how?

Stavros gave me this funky routine to try and crack 5 minutes - it pushed my contractions on the longer holds back by about a minute but they were so hard and horrid that it didn't increase my overall breath hold - anyhow, I am keen to put some exhales into my warm up to try and delay contractions but not sure quite how to plan it.... any ideas? aiming for around 5 minutes max



Sam

Hi Sam...
The routine actually pushed your contractions back by a full minute?...darn...thats the best result I ve heard from this routine...I assume you didn't hyperventilate before the max hold right?
(as most guys and gals said the main point of exhale is to reduce the time of the warm up)
About the nasty contractions only two things to say: are you doing your CO2 tables? if yes were you totally relaxed (both physically and mentally) ?
But one minute more without contactions is a good thing...I get contractions at around 2:30-3:00max and can hold to 6:00-6:20...if I got contractions at at 4:00 I would be able to hold practically forever ... or at least until someone dragged me out of the water yelling "BREATHE"

Cheers
Stavros

[samdive]

thanks guys - Simo, that sounds a lot like me. I generally struggle on my last warm up too - will try something along those lines in the pool tonight - two exhales, one full warm up and then go for it... results tomorrow

Stavros - wasn't totally relaxed, was a bit too excited to try it and didn't wait that long after eating which might be why. However I also think that is just too many holds for me - I normally do only 2 or 3 warm ups and then my brain gets too tired..... and no, no hyperventilation, I gave that up for a new years resolution back in January... (or rather when I saw what it was doing to my heart rate!)

anyhow, when I hit 5 you'll hear about it... party time! only 10 seconds to add but its damn hard!

S

[Stavros]

Sam, You went and did a static a few hours after having eaten... no wonder you got horible contructions. I normally go without eating anything on static days. (thats why I hate them) I sometimes end up doing the static at 7 or 8 in the evening with my last being the night before...almost like a mini-fasting type of thing, you should try it out...it sucks :P

But just go for it - only 10 secs left...

Stavros

PS. I realy need to do a static...not done any since the cyprus competition.

[naiad]

Originally Posted by jome

The curious thing about my warmup, that I don't see many good static divers doing is that I actually do more or less 2 max attempts, the last one is just considerably longer Ie, the last warmup is pretty hard...

Same with me. I need the warmups to be hard. I always do at least 3:00 for the first warmup, and sometimes 4:00.

[samdive]

doing static almost every day at the moment - for sure I am not giving up food that long!!! I do find them best first thing in the morning though.

[rbsub]

One question: If you do exhale statics, do you exhale as much as you can or do you only do a confortable exhale?

[samdive]

usually just a passive exhale

[OceanMan]

Well I thought you meant full exhale.

[Waterysmile]

Well I had a bash this morning at it.

3 minutes breathing
2 minutes hold, comfortable to 1:40, 3 contractions after that
3 or 4 minutes breathing
50 seconds exhale static (exhale to when I would normally breath in again)
1 minute 30 seconds breathing
1 minute exhale static (exhale to when I would normally breath in again)
4 minutes breathing
4 minutes full lung static.

4 minutes was a new record by 15 seconds for me. I felt comfortable to 2:25, then had easy contractions. I wanted to give up at 3 minutes but held on, nearing 3:30 I wanted to beat 3:30 because I have been stuck at that for a while. Then I wanted to get to 3:50 to beat my previous best of 3:45 (set several months ago) and having done that I wanted 4 minutes a lot so held on. Yeah! I then ripped off nose clip, panted very quickly like a dog for several seconds before giving the ok sign and saying 'I'm ok' to the imaginery judge.

Thanks Sam for starting this topic as I hadn't tried a couple of exhale statics before in a warm up.

Good luck with 5 minutes.

[samdive]

for the second time in a week my pool training got f*****d up - too much chlorine in the pool or something so I didnt get to try
off to egypt for the WC on Friday - will try there

S