I have just recently read about alternatives to traditional O2 and CO2 tables in the book "Freediving" by Simo Kurra, Kimmo Lahtinen, and Ari Nissinen. Here is the cover of the book, and a link to it on Amazon:
I'm familiar with classic O2 and CO2 tables, but some alternatives for more advanced divers are mentioned on page 58. For CO2 tolerance it says that a lot of CO2 builds up in tissues during a long breath hold. Oxygen gets replenished with a breath or two. It suggests that a diver could hold her breath for a while (perhaps to the point where relaxation is compromised), then take one or two recovery breaths, then repeat the breath hold. I tried this for about 15 minutes as an experiment. I found it to be much more time effective than traditional CO2 tables.
Here is what is suggested for O2 work and getting the body more hypoxic. It says, on the same page, that this is only really practiced in the final moment at the end of a max or near maximum breath hold. It suggests that partially filled lungs should be used instead because a full breath would only make the entire breath duration much longer. So, start with partially filled lungs, hold it to near maximum, then inhale just a little bit, and continue to do this until lungs are full and we are near our limit.
The book, on the same page, also stresses the importance of not doing these kind of exercises too often.
I would like to know if there are names for these exercises or if anyone else does them or practices them.
I'm not looking for instant results and I'm not trying to overdue it because I've experienced burnout with tables before. I find traditional tables to take way too much time when there are other areas in fitness I'd like to do as well.
I'm familiar with classic O2 and CO2 tables, but some alternatives for more advanced divers are mentioned on page 58. For CO2 tolerance it says that a lot of CO2 builds up in tissues during a long breath hold. Oxygen gets replenished with a breath or two. It suggests that a diver could hold her breath for a while (perhaps to the point where relaxation is compromised), then take one or two recovery breaths, then repeat the breath hold. I tried this for about 15 minutes as an experiment. I found it to be much more time effective than traditional CO2 tables.
Here is what is suggested for O2 work and getting the body more hypoxic. It says, on the same page, that this is only really practiced in the final moment at the end of a max or near maximum breath hold. It suggests that partially filled lungs should be used instead because a full breath would only make the entire breath duration much longer. So, start with partially filled lungs, hold it to near maximum, then inhale just a little bit, and continue to do this until lungs are full and we are near our limit.
The book, on the same page, also stresses the importance of not doing these kind of exercises too often.
I would like to know if there are names for these exercises or if anyone else does them or practices them.
I'm not looking for instant results and I'm not trying to overdue it because I've experienced burnout with tables before. I find traditional tables to take way too much time when there are other areas in fitness I'd like to do as well.
