Heart rate during dry static

[Lindby(DEN)]

Hello, I just started doing a bit of dry static just as a supplement to all the water-training. I was very surprised to see that my heart rate was as low as 36-37 per minute during some of the apnea's. Usually my resting pulse is between 50-60 per minute????. Is this normal and has any of you got similar experiences. And if so, how low have you measured your pulse to be.
I have been training freediving only for about a year and a half, but maybe that's enough to develope a good dive reflex.

Greetings LiNdBy

[perow1]

That sounds like a pretty normal dip i suppose. I find that exhale statics tend to render a more dramatic (or at least faster) drop. I have measured drops down to sub 25. The decrease in heart rate do not seem to stop at a certain point, but it goes on until I start breathing again. However, I have noticed, when doing full lung statics my heart rate gets stable around 30. The continous drop in heart rate seems to be something that is exclusive for exhale statics. At rest my heart rate is somewhere in the 38-40 range depending on status.

[Lindby(DEN)]

ok you must be in a really good shape since your rest puls is below 40. how many years have you been training freediving?

[perow1]

About my shape i have to say that I am not in the kind of shape that my heart rate suggests. Generally I am "hard trained" in sports that require good VO2-max. I do however run somewhat regulary an I also do some cross country skiing. Still I am far from good in those sports.

As for heart rate I suspect that you do benefit from a low heart rate, at least during static but i suspect that the real issue might be the drop in heart rate. Your drop from 60-35 might be as beneficial for freediving as mine fron 40-30, or maybe even more.

A low resting heart rate often suggest a big cardiac output but it is no rule, that is why I do not think that heart rates alone can be compared between two athletes as an indicator of apnea capacity.

To answer your second question I have trained apnea for about two years.

[Lindby(DEN)]

Hi Perow1
thanks for your answer, and I agree that you can't directly compare heart rate and apnea capacity

[Jorg]

My heart rate in rest is around 55. When I do a dry static, and that's pretty rare these days, my heart rate goes to 40-42 within 30 seconds and stay there until my contractions start. If I hold on to the contractions my heart rate starts dropping again, but because I'm probably the weakest person ever to fight contractions I normally stop immediately after I get my first contraction with static and go do something else that doesn't hurt so much... llike playing with my babygirls soft teletubbies toys...

Anyway, the lowest heart rate recorded by my polar heart rate monitor ever was 17 beats per minute during a freedive session in 2 degrees water. I did a dive to 10 meters and did a small static at that depth... I think within 15 seconds laying down there my heart beat went slower very fast, increasing the force with each beat and slowing down. After 45 seconds laying there my watch registered 17 beats per minute... It felt amazing!

[Lindby(DEN)]

17 beats per minute, I sure would like to try that! each heart beat must feel like a small explosion in ones chest. But I don't really think its possible to slow that much down just doing drystatics or what? Anyway, thanks for your answer Jorg...