Any correlation between Still Apnea results and your weight?

[Jozef]

Hey guys, do you find any correlation between achieved still apnea results and your body weight?

My math is simple (although may not be correct), more body mass should mean more oxygen consumption and that would result into shorter times one is able to hold his breath.
(Just look at some really overweight people, they have a hard time to breath...)

Anyhow, should I expect to get better results if I had dropped some weight?
I have good 15kg above what I should have,... :head

Joe

 

[BennyB]

Short answer - probably.

Longer answer - it's not going to stop you too much. I'm carrying probably an extra 10kg's on me at around 91kg, am a shade under 6 foot but I can still do reasonable depths and distances. My static, whilst usually crap, has improved a bit lately and is around the 5min mark, give or take.

I'm fairly sure that if I dropped a few kg's and got fitter (my cardio is pretty lousy) i'd do better. But then my 2 Elios wetsuits wouldn't fit me anymore :duh

Cheers,
Ben

 

[Jozef]

I guess, I should drop those 15kg and see what difference it would make
I should loose some weight anyway...
Or I can keep it and I'd be the only fat freediver on this forum...
Hm, tempting thought

 

[BennyB]

You're not the only one mate

 

[Jozef]

Maybe it's just two of us... But still, it would be interesting to get the answer from freediver who already lost some significant weight...
I still feel there must be some correlation between weight and results in static apnea...
But the way it looks, most of freedivers are naturally skinny

 

[gman]

But the way it looks, most of freedivers are naturally skinny [/quote]

As my old diving instructor used to to ask when this subject came up;

"Have you ever seen a skinny seal?"

 

[Jozef]

I would tell him: "Yeah, look at Martin Stepanek, Tom Sietas..."

 

[gman]

Ya got me there..

 

[Jozef]

My avatar should look more like this:

 

[Mark Tomkins]

Fat does not use oxygen like muscles do....Older you get the slower your metabolism is also a factor in statics...

 

[rslomkow]

I am just a rank amatuer. But acording to BMI I am about 37kg overweight but my doctor says about 10-15kg for my frame. Once I finally tried doing static not moving (have been trying to do it climibing the 4 flights of stairs up to my apartment and I can only do 30-40 seconds - 1 flight) I can do 3 minutes, 2min max at -5m. I do 50m dynamic withought practice. -26m CW.

I do have low breath hold capacity but I was diving -20m CW in 32-40 seconds and feel easy on my legs and lungs for the dive.

What does that tell you?:hmm not much. The one thing I can say is the "bioprene" does keep me much warmer in colder water than most other divers. I am sure being in aroebic shape helps. I suspect arobic fitness and training is actually more important than body fat. As another poster said, fat should not actually retain or consume much gas.

 

[DiverTodd]

Before I started my freediving training in Early May, I weighed 185 lbs and had a 32" waist. I changed to a healthy diet, and started exercising (mainly swimming 3x a week). Becoming extremely active revved my metabolism back up, and I now weigh 155 lbs, with a 30" waist. I feel much better, my body is toned, and I "look" like a freediver now, too! I've also started work on improving my cardiovascular health. It does seem to stand that, the better shape you're in, the better you'll be with any athletics in general. Today I saw some real progress during my CO2 table, too; I managed to get through almost EVERY 1:45 hold (save the first and last) WITHOUT a contraction! Now, I just need to work on improving my static holds while sitting upright...

Todd

 

[DeepThought]

I think a good dive response is more critical for results than extra mass. I think Martin Stepanek with his muscle mass might have a higher basic metabolic rate than quite a few fat people (which explains why they are fat).
I've been wondering for a while if a bad cardiovascular system has a lesser DR. Anyone knows of a correlation?

 

[Jozef]

I've been wondering for a while if a bad cardiovascular system has a lesser DR. Anyone knows of a correlation?

I don't know about any correlation between bad cardiovascular system and dive reflex/response in human subjects.
But there was a research done in harbour seals, which were manipulated using specific pharmacological antagonists causing blockade of heart.
Heart rates was recorded using subcutaneous electrodes and data loggers, while diving behaviour was monitored using a video camera. None of the blockers had any effect on average dive or surface interval duration. Seals maintained a high percentage of time spent diving in all treatments. Thus, harbour seals do not appear to need the dive response during short dives in order to maintain an efficient dive strategy. But as far as I know, this was done in 11m deep water tank. So it's hard to be exact.

One thing is sure:
- In human subjects, effect of diving reflex will be larger in cold water than in warm water, so additional fat might not be as much helpful.
- Bad cardivascular system can cause blockage in peripheral vasoconstriction, which means that the restriction of the blood flow to the extremities (to increase the blood and oxygen supply to the vital organs, especially the brain), may not be as good as in healthy subjects
- Also bad cardiovascular system may be a cause of not very funtional "blood shift". The shifting of blood to the thoracic cavity, i.e. the chest between the diaphragm and the neck to avoid the collapse of the lungs under higher pressure during deeper dives.


So I guess, in any situation, healtier you are, better of you'd be in the water.
I think I will start to work on my weightloss guys. I am 95kg and 176cm, I used to do a bodybuilding and powerlifting, so there is little more muscles than on average guy, but still... it needs to go off.

Thanks everyone for their answers, it's nice to see that you care to speak to some newbie like I am...

 

[jome]

Well, from personal experience, there's not much of a difference. My static did improve a bit, but it could be basically any factor and I would contribute more of it to improved general fitness as a side effect of becoming generally more physically active to loose all that blubber.

But the difference in resistance to cold is huge! I used to be able to stay in the pool without a suit for a good 2 hours, but now, 15 minutes is pushing it unless I swim pretty hard etc.

Even if loosing weight didn't improve my apnea, it just feels so damn good that I sure have no regrets. But being blessed with an appetite much bigger than my consumption, it really takes some concentration and will power to keep from puffing up again.

 

[JPPLAY]

I don't know about losing weight but since I started rowing my recoveries got much faster.
I got a large resistance to cold so I don't think it has a huge amount to do with weight. I am guessing that I do have a higher percentage of body fat then other athletes that do the same amount of physical activity that I do.

 

[Jozef]

Well, there are different body compositions, some people have more fat around the muscle, others more of what is called "The Forgotten Fat" or Intramuscular Fat. So you may look skinny and ripped, but still have a twice or three times more of this type of fat storage than someone else who is perhaps slightly overweight.

This type of fat I asume would also give somewhat of a good isolation against the cold water and it's just as important to both the power output and endurance of your freedive as a regular fat that is stored outside of the working muscle tissue.

 

[naiad]

I don't know how much effect fitness training has on freediving performance. I thought it would make a difference, but there hasn't been any dramatic improvement in anything. I have given up all fitness training, and I will see what happens with my static and dynamic performance.

 

[Narsil]

There is a correlation between height and lung size/ capacity as I understand it. So tall rather than wide may help a bit.

Personally I find that minimal excersize is important in the days leading up to max static. Given that I'm a bit overweight, medium height and lazy anyway, I'm quite attached to that belief!

 

[Stavros]

Ok there is too much information on this thread so I will just tell my bit of personally experience.
I have been spearfishing for about 10 years and started freediving on May 2005 with last winter being the first season when I did some proper freediving training.

My aerobic capacity was poor and now I would rate it at average at best - my anaerobic capacity is excellent (I was a good level competitive weighlifter a few years back). I am 1,72 and weigh about 92-94 kg before I started training and my best performances before any training were CWT 63, STA 4:45 and DYN 100m. After training this year I have dropped my weight to 84kgs while managing to maintain the same height (rofl ) my current PBs are CWT 73m STA 6:17 (just yesterday) and DYN 159m

I think the improvement had to do wih training and not so much with the loss of weight...

In general I do not think there is a direct link with % of fat and the ability to perform apnea. However having a good aerobic capacity will help with recovery so training will improve and results will come faster. And since there is a link between our aerobic capacity and how much fat we are carrying, improving your aerobic capacity to improve recovery will bring you the loss of fat as a bonus

My goal for next year is to dramatically improve my aerobic capacity (and drop another 5-7 kg) so I will have more details for you next summer

One problem I have seen however from my training is that since I have stopped all cardio work when I started the sea training my aerobic capacity has decressed rapidly and my recouperation times after each training session are getting longer and longer (I did the tripple depth with 7 deep dives in 9 days in June and now I can do a max of about 2 deep dives per week) -So aerobic is good for you :t

Thats my 2 bits of personal info - hope it helps

Cheers Stavros