Alternative way to do 'Dry Apnea'

[opllars]

(I have posted this earlier as a reply in another tread, but now that I am more aquanted with using the forum, I can see that it should have been posted as a New Tread, so my excuse to those you have read this post elsewhere before...)

I have a question that I have wanted to ask someone for 10 years, but didnt know who to ask. I hope someone at this forum can help!

I once was taught a breathing exercise which is very close to what I can see divers call "dry apnea", but done in a little different way, were you:

Breath in - take 20 paces while walking - breath out and in again. This is done for 10 minuttes. Next day take 16 steps,... and increase as much as possible.

I did this for some month and was amazed about the immediate increase of vitality, power, ooncentration etc.
The explanation was that holding the breath repetetively like this, increase the relative blood flow to the brain, as oxygen to the brain has highest priority in the body. Then as returning to normal breathing, the brain for a while will get MORE oxygen than usual, which explains the energy boost that is experienced. I found that the exercise increased my condition in many ways. In a month or so I was able to double the ammount of paces, - a 100% increase! Even though I got so good results from doing it and I also really enjoyed it (I almost felt adicted to these walks, as I could increase my wellbeing in only 10 minuttes - faster than by any other physical exercise), I stopped practicing it, as I had never heard about this kind of breathing exercise before, besides from this teacher. I was afraid it could cause damage. I was aware that my pulse would get very fast, and at one time I felt dizzy and when I checked my pulse, it felt like there were blood streaming but without a distinctive pulse, so I got afraid of doing the exercise and stopped.
Today I tried it, and I can still feel the positive effect from it 2 hours later. You know the wellbeing like after running.

-Have any of you tried to do "apnea" exercise the way I describe?
-Do you think that its riskfree to do this exercise?.....
-And do you think that this way of doing it is more safe than the usual way divers do it?
-Do you think that it has a positive influence on the health to do this exercise or would just running for 10 minuttes be just as good?
- Do you also experience lot more energy, clarity and wellbeing after doing this exercise?

Thanks,
Ole

 

[LastOneOut]

Oli,

This is my first reply here in a long time - been busy diving. Here are my answers to your questions some might disagree but this is my take:

-Have any of you tried to do "apnea" exercise the way I describe?

Yes I consider that dry dynamic training.

-Do you think that its riskfree to do this exercise?.....

NO it is dangerous you can blackout, fall and hit your head see the other thread(s) on this.

-And do you think that this way of doing it is more safe than the usual way divers do it?

Yes I think dry is safer than wet but its a close one - if you have a great spotter in the water with you that is a lifesaver and makes wet really safe IMO.

-Do you think that it has a positive influence on the health to do this exercise or would just running for 10 minutes be just as good?

Tough one to answer as well, I think it depends on the intensity of your running. I believe that intense cardio training helps my apnea times. If my cardio base is really low (out of shape) so are my times. 10 minutes of intense cardio could be just as good for your apnea as the dry dynamic training IMO. I guess it depends on what condition you are in.

- Do you also experience lot more energy, clarity and wellbeing after doing this exercise?

I would not describe it as energy, clarity and wellbeing more of a euphoric feeling that lasts only a short time after.

- be safe

 

[opllars]

Hi Lastoneout,

I am glad to know the name of the exercise now - dry dynamic training.
I was not clear in my questions about the dangers - what I meant was if this 'dry dynamic training' is more safe than the usual dry apnea training (the one that are described many times elsewere at this forum). I would guess that as the body has longer time to adjust to the breathholding (for each pace one takes it gets a little bit harder), it might be more riskfree - i.e. less danger of blackout or damage to the heart ?

Thanks,

Ole

 

[LastOneOut]

The training you are describing is dry apnea training you can do it by steps, strides or by time intervals ext. IMO the blackout part of the equation has to do with individual limits so I don’t really have a comment on that. I do think that from my experience the training you are describing will have little effect on diving times unless I push it really hard for many weeks and even then it’s hardly noticeable. I personally quit doing it and currently train my cardio on land and will sometimes go for a few months doing dry static CO2 and O2 tables when I don’t have a buddy for the pool. I do this to try and kick it up a little before the spring spearing season here in California. Then I spear and do high intensity cardio the rest of the time. I get the euphoria more from high intensity cardio than I used to from the dry dynamic training.