I know involountary release of air with contractions is the first and most significant sign of hypoxia. With that said, is it possible to have this happen before hypoxia? I did a PB static of 4mins and i noticed i was breathing a little out my nose on contractions close to the end of the hold. Could it be i just wasnt able to totally hold it in any longer because contractions were so harsh? I doubt i was getting hypoxic at only 4 mins.
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Blowing out my nose in static
- Thread starter FreeRestriction
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Where is that from? I am quite sure involuntary release of air is neither the first or most significant sign of hypoxia. Anytime I have done that it was bad form from a CO2 level I couldn't maintain (hypercapnia), mostly during dynamics. Unless you are packing upwards of 10L air before your dry static and/or have a dive response that is terrific even by freediver standards, your blood O2 would be at less than normal levels after 4 mins (hypoxic).
Its what i was taught word for word in my FII class. They backed it up by showing videos of it happening. So are you saying i likely was fighting hypoxia aproaching 4 mins?
I can be significantly hypoxic without involuntary exhale as can most anyone I dive or train with, although one guy I train with once mentioned to me that he leaks air right before samba. What is medically considered hypoxic and what your freediving instructor considered hypoxic may be different, although I would consider myself signficantly hypoxic well before samba. An O2 meter is very cheap. You can train with it, do research, and learn a lot about your personal responses.
Yeah one may be hypoxic well before they start involuntarily blowing air with contractions. But still when you finally do start losing air uncontrollably that would be the first "sign" that you are hypoxic. I dont think it was meant as a person isnt hypoxic UNTIL they start losing air with contractions.
But i think what your saying is you and or others can go all the way to a black out and never involuntarily lose air with contractions. That correct?
You could be losing air just by a muscle getting tired, for example the epiglottis. No hypoxia involved at all.
I have never had a BO or samba. I don't train that way and any training I do is to--as much as possible--insure that I won't dive that way. I am not a safety diver or competitive line diver and the guys I train/spear/dive with do not regularly blackout or samba. As far as 'going to blackout,' or just 'hypoxia' I get other signs that are pretty freakin obvious especially when the tank is running extremely dry. Involuntary exhale from contractions is not one of them. Everyone is different.
Ok now rather then start a new thread perhaps i can some what stay on topic and ask this.
When i am face down in the water doing my static in the pool as i progress through my hold i find myself less and less confortable being face down floating in the water with nothing to hold onto to spring up when the holds over. I feel like i need to get more vertical to regain comfort. I end up bringing my feet under me and grabbing the side of the pool much sooner then i should to regain some comfort(around 1 min before the end of a max hold). And obviously all that moving around and lack of relaxation is hurting my time. Is this something that will go away as i do more and more holds? Or perhaps some one has a tip to help get rid of the feeling.
When i am face down in the water doing my static in the pool as i progress through my hold i find myself less and less confortable being face down floating in the water with nothing to hold onto to spring up when the holds over. I feel like i need to get more vertical to regain comfort. I end up bringing my feet under me and grabbing the side of the pool much sooner then i should to regain some comfort(around 1 min before the end of a max hold). And obviously all that moving around and lack of relaxation is hurting my time. Is this something that will go away as i do more and more holds? Or perhaps some one has a tip to help get rid of the feeling.
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It does not hurt the time that much. In the final phase of the breath-hold, the vasoconstriction is usually already so progressed, that the muscle work is anaerobic and does not consume oxygen. So as long as it helps you, I would not bother too much about it.
A small (and repeated) discharge of air from the nose is my body's stress response.
I find it very difficult to control and it happens even 30 seconds into a spearfishing breathold if I go deeper than I am comfortable with, and also toward the end of a long (for me) dynamic.
I wonder if it is a learned behavior from spearfishing (I think most of us automatically perform mask equalisation to reduce discomfort at depth) or just my own physiological response to stress.
WRT statics: I hardly do them, but when I do I can't stand floating in the pool at all. It feels like I am drifting off somewhere and rolling upside down. I always do statics hanging onto the side of the pool from the beginning to the end. I can't see it being a bad thing if it makes you more comfortable
I find it very difficult to control and it happens even 30 seconds into a spearfishing breathold if I go deeper than I am comfortable with, and also toward the end of a long (for me) dynamic.
I wonder if it is a learned behavior from spearfishing (I think most of us automatically perform mask equalisation to reduce discomfort at depth) or just my own physiological response to stress.
WRT statics: I hardly do them, but when I do I can't stand floating in the pool at all. It feels like I am drifting off somewhere and rolling upside down. I always do statics hanging onto the side of the pool from the beginning to the end. I can't see it being a bad thing if it makes you more comfortable
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I didnt think about equalizing the mask thats possible. Perhaps my subconcious is attempting to regain comfort and blowing into the mask works when diving so why not here. And thats funny because it was just small puffs just to totally fill the mask then id suck it back and id then give another puff. I remember because no air escaped my mask. If it had my dive buddy probably would have flipped me over.
Use a nose clip! Problem solved.
Actually, I did a bit of dry static training with a nose clip and then found that when I played UWH or wore a mask, I would blow air out of my nose like crazy when I was pushing myself.
I think it was a conditioned behavior of being able to "lean against" the nose clip during a breath hold.
Actually, I did a bit of dry static training with a nose clip and then found that when I played UWH or wore a mask, I would blow air out of my nose like crazy when I was pushing myself.
I think it was a conditioned behavior of being able to "lean against" the nose clip during a breath hold.
BTW, losing motor control of the respiratory muscles, including the epiglottis is indeed one of signs of hypoxia. The loss of motor control of respiratory muscles is reported to be among the first to be affected by LMC, according to some sources. It does not mean you cannot loose air due to strong contractions, but if you start releasing big quantities of air, it is a clear sign for the safety to pull you out.
All this is interesting; I have never involuntarily released air that I am aware of (except from extremely high CO2 on a dynamic, and I know that while I may have been hurting I wasn't hypoxic, even in the medical sense). On tough sets/holds I have gone until loss of vision, but not full LMC. It may be since I was a comp swimmer for a long time from a young age. We we did not swim in the kind of hypoxic states which are routine to freedivers, but breath control under duress was part of starts, turns, and finishes, especially for sprint and middle distance swimming, which was what I did. I have never worn a nose clip and have many more thousands of hours in the water in goggles than with a mask. Mask EQ is something I do not do unconsciously although EQ ears is nearly so.