Freediving Tips - Hold your breathe for longer

[jaymz]

Hi guys,

recently got the nack for helping out new freedivers/spearfishing with some basic tips. Here i've wrote a post on the basics of how to hold your breath for longer. Would be grateful if you could check it out and I really hope it helps.

http://free2spear.com/freediving-tips-hold-breath-longer/

Regards

Jaymz

 

[Udi Dagan]

Hi Jaymz
Checked out your blog and all the smart plain tips. loved it.
even that i'v been freediving for over 20 years - you can still learn new stuff every day !
keep them coming

 

[cdavis]

Jaymz,

Consider adding some qualifiers and detail to your description of breath up. Decreasing your c02 level does work to extend the comfort stage of the dive, but it is less safe. Further, it is tricky as heck and very hard to not overdo it. Way too many divers using that style of breath up grossly overdo it.

Depending on volume of inhale, that breath up could be either a very substantial degree of hyperventilation, or none at all. Water conditions:temp,wave action and current, also play a major role in what level of ventilation is needed.

If your advice is targeting relatively inexperienced divers, its even more important to explain the dangers as well as the advantages. It would also be a good idea to provide some of the more cutting edge information about forgetting about your breathing, or breathing very shallow in the last portion of the surface interval(the object being maximum relaxation and to slightly raise your c02 level and kick off a strong dive reflex early.) That stuff takes practice and may be more than early spearos want to tackle, but they should have the knowledge.

Connor

 

[Kars]

Hi James,

Cool thing you did the write up!
Such things always challenge me to be sharper in my formulations.

First a little spelling error I noticed: Relation (-> Relaxation) slows the heart rate, which will inevitably help you to hold your breath for longer as the heart isn’t using as much oxygen to pump the blood around the body.

Secondary about it's content.

I agree with Connor that when dealing with beginners it's important to also explain what can go wrong, and what to avoid, and why.

In regard to 'breath-up':
I really hate this term because it is very misleading. One cannot gain O2 by 'breathing up'.
I suggest to naming it pre dive relaxation, because that is what we do. The relaxation helps us to slow down our metabolism and mind.
When we resurface and breathe, recover and replenish our buffers, our heart-rate and metabolism goes up. After this peak metabolism we need to slow down again, which we do during the pre dive relaxation.
In order to do this pre dive relaxation, one can focus on relaxing parts of the body. The most effective way is to guide and follow our breathing style and rhythm to a steady, slow, and smooth pace. Easy belly breathing. This is a skill, with practice one can lower the breathing, heart-rate, pulse and metabolism within just a handful of slow easy breaths.

Focussing on breathing has a possible downside; it can lead to ventilating more volume of air then naturally needed: over breathing also known as hyperventilation. Hyperventilation decreases CO2, the gas that gives us the vitally important urge to breath. Delaying that urge by hyperventilation is dangerous because it makes feeling when to come up very inconsistent, ranging from a normal urge to breath to NO(!) urge to breath at all. Divers who hyperventilate can swim into a black out without even feeling even the faintest sensation of needing to breath.
Another reason not to hyperventilate is that the body will burn extra O2 - increases metabolism - to quickly increase the CO2 levels to normal. This also dramatically decreases the safety margin, the time between the urge to breath and Black out. Hyperventilation decreases performance and increases danger.

Purge breath:
When we feel relaxed, strong and ready it's time for the dive. Many divers then do 1 to 3 deep exhales to get rid of stale air in the lungs, this is a purge breath. Doing more then 3 is dangerous because it then becomes hyperventilation. Some dives think that even 1 purge breath is hyperventilation.

Final breath:
Last breath before the dive. When feeling relaxed and strong, it's time to get an efficient full breath in.
Start with a deep exhale (5 seconds), then start your inhale by first lowering the underbelly, then moving it forward, then add the chest, then add the upper chest and neck. It's important to keep the diaphragm low and forward while you add chest and neck volume. It's also important for retaining your preparations' relaxation to not inhale too fast (< 10 seconds).

CO2 tables:

I would let the ventilation times go down to 15 seconds, and say that the ventilation in between holds should be normal, after all it's our goal to learn to stay relaxed and get used to high CO2

O2 tables and Co2 tables:

- Do them on soft land. (falling damage in case of a BO)
- Start of with modest numbers.
- During the holds focus lightly on relaxation, distractions, but forget time.
- There is software (even a webpage) where you can have a table calculated and have voice commands so you do need to watch the time.
- When you do them in water, any water, always have a buddy (who knows how to rescue a Black Out victim!) checking and guarding you.
- Beginners profit the most from CO2 tables. People who can do 5 minutes + will have more benefit from short O2 tables.
- Lifeguards and pool managers hate risky behaviour, like breath-holding. Make sure you know what you're doing, look professional, have your own safety and have a good standing and relation with the pool staff.

General points:

In freediving blunt force is counter productive. A freediver must be like water and find a way around the obstacle.
When you try something new, make sure you try only 1 thing new.
Explore with small steps, so you'll be more safe and have many victories to celebrate!
Advice people to invest in doing a freediving course. They'll improve years of technique, and will have the knowledge how to be a safer diver and reliant buddy.


I hope this helps.

btw great photo's!

 

[Dr_phil]

As a new diver I have a question about the "breath up" described in the OPs article. Currently I do this same breath up because that was the advice I got from reading around this form and others. However I do not want to put myself in any unnecessary danger. I see that cdavis said this breath up could be fine our hyperventilating I'm liking for any advice more experienced divers can give. Normally I breath in slowly for about 5 seconds then out slowly for ten this helps me slow down my heart rate and relax (or so I believe) when I do co2 tables I get mild contractions starting about half way through the hold. If all this seems like hyperventilating please let me know so I can change my pre dive routine. I have just read so many different opinions on what is and isn't hyperventilating that I would like some personal advice.

Thanks
Phil

 

[Kars]

Hi Phil,

It's a difficult thing to measure hyperventilation. You can be fine breathing for minutes with your or any other rhythm, because the volume per minute you in and exhale is close to what your body normally needs. This volume of air is dependent on how deep, and with what pace you breath. 1x 6L = 6x 1Litre of air.

Like I indicated above, I've come to realisation that the 'breath-up' is not about accumulating air, or energy, but it is about finding calm and lowering metabolism.
People also confuse recovery with breath-ups. After a dive of a few minutes your body needs minutes to recover. The recovery gradually shifts over to the breath-up, though I would say the recovery part is much longer then most think it is. For recovery one needs to breath more, tapering off to a natural pace. When you're at the natural rested pace, then you proceed with the pre dive preparation, slowing down the breath, heart, mind and metabolism. After this 1-2 purge breaths (deep exhales - not disturbing the relaxation), inhale and dive.

With practice the 'pre dive preparation' can become rather quick, just 2-3 slow breaths. So after a 2' dive I may need 2 minutes recovery, 1 minute 'breath-up', 1 or 2 purge breaths, inhale and dive.

If you have not recovered, then your body still contains an excess of CO2, then you'll experience the urge to breath (much) quicker.
If I need or want to dive a quick follow up dive, having too little recovery and preparation time, then hyperventilation is perfectly practical. I do it when doing 16x50m dynamic, where it's the goal to do this in the fastest time possible. The best way to succeed at this is to have very short surface times. The only way to have those is to hyperventilate.

To gain more certainty you'll need to explore the extremes a bit in a safe setting, like on a couch. Do a few normal holds, with enough recovery and prep in between, to get warmed up, and to get a base level numbers/feelings indications. Take notes. Then do a few holds with modest hyperventilation, medium and extreme hyperventilation and feel and note how that compares to the base ones. With this experience you'll have a indication on what hyperventilation does, and how it feels. Therefore you'll recognise it better in the water.

I hope this helps.

 

[Dr_phil]

I believe it will help a lot thank you Kars

Phil

 

[cdavis]

Phil, this thread expands on the above:

http://forums.deeperblue.com/threads/mild-hyperventilation-or-no.101979/#post-936488

The nomenclature for all this stuff is a mess, but Kar's idea of surface interval consisting of "recovery from the last dive" then "predive preparation" is a good way to think about it. Just remember, your numbers will be unique. For example, Kars does longer dives and recovers quicker than me(probably because he's in better shape), even though we are using essentially the same system for surface interval. Further, it takes a while to get used to a higher c02 level and figure out how to change your diving style to be more relaxed and other things that aid DR.

The breathup you have been using is common to many divers, I used to use it. It is reasonably good at promoting relaxation, but, it is extremely easy to overbreathe, run your co2 blood level down too low, and maybe end up dead. As an experiment and example: relax on the couch and get a feel for how minimal your breathing is when you are trying to relax. Think % of a full inhale times number of breathes per minute equal how many liters of air. Thats all the air you need to keep your 02 level up. Now try the traditional slow and deep breathup. Again % of a full inhale times number of breathes per minute. Most divers will be ventilating 3 or 4 times more with this approach. That doesn't give you any more 02, but really reduces your c02, sometimes too much.

 

[abdessalam]

Hi James,

Cool thing you did the write up!
Such things always challenge me to be sharper in my formulations.

First a little spelling error I noticed: Relation (-> Relaxation) slows the heart rate, which will inevitably help you to hold your breath for longer as the heart isn’t using as much oxygen to pump the blood around the body.

Secondary about it's content.

I agree with Connor that when dealing with beginners it's important to also explain what can go wrong, and what to avoid, and why.

In regard to 'breath-up':
I really hate this term because it is very misleading. One cannot gain O2 by 'breathing up'.
I suggest to naming it pre dive relaxation, because that is what we do. The relaxation helps us to slow down our metabolism and mind.
When we resurface and breathe, recover and replenish our buffers, our heart-rate and metabolism goes up. After this peak metabolism we need to slow down again, which we do during the pre dive relaxation.
In order to do this pre dive relaxation, one can focus on relaxing parts of the body. The most effective way is to guide and follow our breathing style and rhythm to a steady, slow, and smooth pace. Easy belly breathing. This is a skill, with practice one can lower the breathing, heart-rate, pulse and metabolism within just a handful of slow easy breaths.

Focussing on breathing has a possible downside; it can lead to ventilating more volume of air then naturally needed: over breathing also known as hyperventilation. Hyperventilation decreases CO2, the gas that gives us the vitally important urge to breath. Delaying that urge by hyperventilation is dangerous because it makes feeling when to come up very inconsistent, ranging from a normal urge to breath to NO(!) urge to breath at all. Divers who hyperventilate can swim into a black out without even feeling even the faintest sensation of needing to breath.
Another reason not to hyperventilate is that the body will burn extra O2 - increases metabolism - to quickly increase the CO2 levels to normal. This also dramatically decreases the safety margin, the time between the urge to breath and Black out. Hyperventilation decreases performance and increases danger.

Purge breath:
When we feel relaxed, strong and ready it's time for the dive. Many divers then do 1 to 3 deep exhales to get rid of stale air in the lungs, this is a purge breath. Doing more then 3 is dangerous because it then becomes hyperventilation. Some dives think that even 1 purge breath is hyperventilation.

Final breath:
Last breath before the dive. When feeling relaxed and strong, it's time to get an efficient full breath in.
Start with a deep exhale (5 seconds), then start your inhale by first lowering the underbelly, then moving it forward, then add the chest, then add the upper chest and neck. It's important to keep the diaphragm low and forward while you add chest and neck volume. It's also important for retaining your preparations' relaxation to not inhale too fast (< 10 seconds).

CO2 tables:

I would let the ventilation times go down to 15 seconds, and say that the ventilation in between holds should be normal, after all it's our goal to learn to stay relaxed and get used to high CO2

O2 tables and Co2 tables:

- Do them on soft land. (falling damage in case of a BO)
- Start of with modest numbers.
- During the holds focus lightly on relaxation, distractions, but forget time.
- There is software (even a webpage) where you can have a table calculated and have voice commands so you do need to watch the time.
- When you do them in water, any water, always have a buddy (who knows how to rescue a Black Out victim!) checking and guarding you.
- Beginners profit the most from CO2 tables. People who can do 5 minutes + will have more benefit from short O2 tables.
- Lifeguards and pool managers hate risky behaviour, like breath-holding. Make sure you know what you're doing, look professional, have your own safety and have a good standing and relation with the pool staff.

General points:

In freediving blunt force is counter productive. A freediver must be like water and find a way around the obstacle.
When you try something new, make sure you try only 1 thing new.
Explore with small steps, so you'll be more safe and have many victories to celebrate!
Advice people to invest in doing a freediving course. They'll improve years of technique, and will have the knowledge how to be a safer diver and reliant buddy.


I hope this helps.

btw great photo's!

thank you soo much for these informations , i was confused about the " breath up " ! you made it very simple .