Best preparation for Static

Alastir wrote

Perhaps most importantly, hyperventillating is only going to help my 'artificial' results (statics) and never my dives. I really need to follow your advice and train properly if my general freediving skills are to improve.

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This is exactly what I was trying to tell to you, no more, no less. I always have understood my training in statics in combination with dynamics like a tool to progress in my diving capacity, that’s because I never use hyperventilation or other techniques that I can not use later on the sea.

In this forum you can find another point of view of people that agree is using this techniques in his statics trainings or performances and to me this is as respectable as my point of view it is and always very interesting in his positions and results, helping me a lot in the understanding of all of the aspects of the apnea phenomenon.


I should not say that with hyperventilation your results in statics are “articicial” because no any artifice or external mechanism to the nature of your body is used when you hyperventilate. Hyperventilation is as natural as ventilation it is, but the results you get are not valid for improving your diving capacity, that’s because I never use it. For me, one clear example of artificial techniques can be breathing pure oxygen, this is real artificial. But ok, this is only a conceptual or pilosophical discussion.


Agustín

immerlusting

No I never use Hyperventilation in my training, not in low O2, not in high CO2 tolerance.

Agustín.

Comments on some of the issues in this thread:

- Exhale statics cause hypoxia (without hypercapnia), which is the fastest way to contract the spleen. This is why they work so well as a warm up

- Hyperventilating accelerates the blackout, by eliminating the bohr effect. If you hyperventilate, you start out with more O2, but you lose consicousness sooner, because CO2 is also required to retain consciousness (this is why you eventually blackout if you hyperventilate for 20 minutes; you have no more CO2). The common myth is that hyperventilating delays the breathing reflex. That is true, but that is only a minor effect compared to the true effect of hyperventilation, which is the destruction of the bohr effect and the acceleration of the blackout.

For example, in my case, I once did an experiment where I did repetitive 63m dives, without hyperventilating, with hyperventilating, without, and with. Each time, the dive with excessive hyperventilation felt easy until the last 15m, then I samba'd. On each of the two dives to the same depth without hyperventilation, I got many more contractions but was totally clean on the surface. So, this is just one example of how hyperventilating accelerates the blackout.
i.e.
slow breathing
Dive #1: 63m -- okay at surface
12 minute interval, hyperventilating
Dive #2: 63m -- felt easy but samba
12 minute interval, slow breathing
Dive #3: 63m -- okay at surface
12 minute interval, hyperventilating
Dive #4: 63m -- felt easy but samba

PLEASE, I do NOT recommend diving after having sambas, so don't use this as an example!

Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

More O2

Peter Lindholm's thesis explains in detail how much extra O2 you start off with when you hyperventilate, but he also concludes that you still lose, despite this extra amount.

Here is where the extra O2 comes from:
- After hyperventilation, the arterial Hb saturation (SaO2) only increases a tiny amount, from around 97% to 98%. This is insignificant.
- However, VENOUS blood oxygen saturation increases dramatically (from something like 60% to 80%, see his thesis)
- The drop in CO2 in the lungs from 5% to 2.5% is replaced by O2 (i.e. O2 in lungs was 17%, increases to 19.5%, or something like that)

In his thesis, Peter Lindholm calculates the precise amount (%) that the O2 store increases.


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada

Bohr effect

With your permission Eric,

for better understanding of fattah’s post.

Bohr effect:

http://www2.austin.cc.tx.us/~emeyerth/bohr.htm

Bohr effect and other definitions:

http://www.xrefer.com/entry/459933



Agustín.

OK, now I understand everything.

Thank you for all your points of view and expertise.

If any of you ever feel that you should stop being so open with your experiences and conclusions, then know that they are invaluable to beginners like me. Not only does your selfless sharing of information help improve the level of those practicing the sport, it MUST SURELY have saved a few lives.

Thanks.

Al