Hi everyone!
I’m looking for some advice in a problem I’ve come across in my freediving training. I was out yesterday practicing deep hangs, starting at 10 meters, 15 meters and finally 23 meters. All the dives felt great, very mindful and in the moment. After coming up from my last dive and taking a few breaths I started to cough a lot, eventually coughing up mucus containing blood. I immediately ended the dive and checked my O2 saturation which was back at 100% on land. Given the fact I felt fine, had good o2 saturation and wasn’t coughing that much, I didn’t think it was worth panicking about. For now I’m staying out of the water for a week and intend to ease back into it slowly.
A little bit about me, I’m still pretty new to the sport and have only just got back into it since moving closer to the ocean.
Constant weight PR 31 meters, static 4:30, age 25.
On the dive before yesterdays session my instructor followed me down and noticed that I was making a straining sound in my throat the whole way down while equalising. For every dive before that I thought that was normal but apparently not. The sound itself is like a high pitched groaning sound that seems to originate in my throat. It usually begins around 5 meters and continues getting louder the deeper I get. I’m pretty sure I'm doing Frenzel or at least part Frenzel, being conscious of my tongue position too where it’s either in the H or K lock in the latter part of the dive. My equalisation feels pretty aggressive and forced, particularly at depth.
I have a suspicion that I’m not transferring air from my lungs into my mouth in a safe way, hence the sound. I really think its like I’m straining my throat muscles to bring air up to my mouth. I understand the correct way to move air up is through reverse packing but I thought that was only used when the lungs get to RV (25-30 meters), and the straining sounds begin at 5 meters. Is reverse packing something that we should do constantly, little by little as we go down? Slowly controlling air into the mouth with correct use of the tongue and glottis?
The dive yesterday was the first time I’d done a hang for so long at depth, ending up at 23 meters for 2:30. Given the time at depth and the contractions perhaps this contributed to some throat or lung damage at the surface? I do remember looking up for some time during the hang and I seem to remember reading somewhere that looking up can expose the throat to damage at depth.
The blood that did come up was red (not pink or foamy), causing me to think it wasn’t a lung squeeze. There was no shortness of breath and as I said my saturation was good.
Personally I think I need to reconsider how I equalise or at least how I get air into my mouth for equalisation. Until I can get past 5 meters without the straining sounds then I won’t push it. Would love to hear opinions of others on this
Many thanks in advance,
Ross
I’m looking for some advice in a problem I’ve come across in my freediving training. I was out yesterday practicing deep hangs, starting at 10 meters, 15 meters and finally 23 meters. All the dives felt great, very mindful and in the moment. After coming up from my last dive and taking a few breaths I started to cough a lot, eventually coughing up mucus containing blood. I immediately ended the dive and checked my O2 saturation which was back at 100% on land. Given the fact I felt fine, had good o2 saturation and wasn’t coughing that much, I didn’t think it was worth panicking about. For now I’m staying out of the water for a week and intend to ease back into it slowly.
A little bit about me, I’m still pretty new to the sport and have only just got back into it since moving closer to the ocean.
Constant weight PR 31 meters, static 4:30, age 25.
On the dive before yesterdays session my instructor followed me down and noticed that I was making a straining sound in my throat the whole way down while equalising. For every dive before that I thought that was normal but apparently not. The sound itself is like a high pitched groaning sound that seems to originate in my throat. It usually begins around 5 meters and continues getting louder the deeper I get. I’m pretty sure I'm doing Frenzel or at least part Frenzel, being conscious of my tongue position too where it’s either in the H or K lock in the latter part of the dive. My equalisation feels pretty aggressive and forced, particularly at depth.
I have a suspicion that I’m not transferring air from my lungs into my mouth in a safe way, hence the sound. I really think its like I’m straining my throat muscles to bring air up to my mouth. I understand the correct way to move air up is through reverse packing but I thought that was only used when the lungs get to RV (25-30 meters), and the straining sounds begin at 5 meters. Is reverse packing something that we should do constantly, little by little as we go down? Slowly controlling air into the mouth with correct use of the tongue and glottis?
The dive yesterday was the first time I’d done a hang for so long at depth, ending up at 23 meters for 2:30. Given the time at depth and the contractions perhaps this contributed to some throat or lung damage at the surface? I do remember looking up for some time during the hang and I seem to remember reading somewhere that looking up can expose the throat to damage at depth.
The blood that did come up was red (not pink or foamy), causing me to think it wasn’t a lung squeeze. There was no shortness of breath and as I said my saturation was good.
Personally I think I need to reconsider how I equalise or at least how I get air into my mouth for equalisation. Until I can get past 5 meters without the straining sounds then I won’t push it. Would love to hear opinions of others on this
Many thanks in advance,
Ross
