Question Basic Training plan for a rookie

[Mr_Marshall]

Hi all,

I'm a new free diver looking for some ideas on training. My wife and I have done the first part of AIDA 2 and will be completing the open water component in August. We're physically fit and have a regular routine of running, cycling, yoga and lifting weights. What we would like to add is some breath hold work. I have a basic idea of how i'd like to proceed, but wanted to draw on the experience of this community to see if it seems reasonable/ideal. Here's what I'm thinking.

1) establish max breath hold in the water (backyard pool). Haven't don't this since an indoor pool session back in February.
2) use max breath hold time with the STAmina app to establish O2 and CO2 tables.
3) do one O2 table and one CO2 table per week on different days
4) one backyard pool session per week to re-test max breath hold, followed by some no fin dynamic work. Pool isn't really big enough for finning.

Still haven't worked out exactly what the dynamic work will look like. How does this plan sound? Enough? Too much?

Thank you!
Greg

 

[Nathan Vinski]

Hi all,

I'm a new free diver looking for some ideas on training. My wife and I have done the first part of AIDA 2 and will be completing the open water component in August. We're physically fit and have a regular routine of running, cycling, yoga and lifting weights. What we would like to add is some breath hold work. I have a basic idea of how i'd like to proceed, but wanted to draw on the experience of this community to see if it seems reasonable/ideal. Here's what I'm thinking.

1) establish max breath hold in the water (backyard pool). Haven't don't this since an indoor pool session back in February.
2) use max breath hold time with the STAmina app to establish O2 and CO2 tables.
3) do one O2 table and one CO2 table per week on different days
4) one backyard pool session per week to re-test max breath hold, followed by some no fin dynamic work. Pool isn't really big enough for finning.

Still haven't worked out exactly what the dynamic work will look like. How does this plan sound? Enough? Too much?

Thank you!
Greg

In my opinion, (keeping things simple sticking closely to your current plan)

1) good

2) good

3) For beginners I don't think CO2 training is a good idea. (contrary to what you're told in AIDA 2 or AIDA 3 course). You need to learn to relax into longer and longer holds, and push those contractions as far into the hold as possible: So just do the O2 tables which are great for this, and forget about the CO2 table for now. **There's some scientific evidence collected by Erika Shagatay (freedive physiologist) supporting this as well** 2-3 tables per week is enough at the beginner level.

4) don't "test" your max every week.. You're aim should be to TRAIN, not to test. If you can make that 80% O2 table really easy, it won't be much effort to set a New PB.. (I'd say, you're better off adding 5-10s to your O2 table every week, than you are "wasting" the session on such frequent max attempts. Maybe try TESTING every 3 weeks)

as for the DNF training in your backyard pool.. Thats up to you. It could be a fun alternative to STA, although there probably won't be much transfer to deep diving with fins on. Again, I'd recommend multiple reps of a long(ish) but still comfortable distance, vs doing hard CO2 training.. Improve staying relaxed instead of suffering though CO2 work.

 

[Mr_Marshall]

Thanks Nathan! This is really helpful info. I appreciate your time to give some feedback.