Breath-holds after full exhales

[breda]

Hi all,

I'am just starting freediving training with some basic CO2 tables... So, I'am a complete newbie
So, I have a couple of questions regarding breath-holds after full exhales...

What's the benefit ? I mean is training this way increases your body's low O2 tolerance or ... ?
And, how safe are they ? Both, out of water and in the water (shallow water — max 8m) ?

Thank's! And dive safe!

 

[Apneaddict]

Don't do full max holds after intense full-exhales.




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[Kevin Kao]

Don't do full max holds after intense full-exhales.

can you elaborate on this? I've been doing my dives and breath holds after a full-exhale.

 

[Apneaddict]

I did a series of 3 dry, max holds on FULL exhale with the goal of getting a strong dive response. Boy did I.

I then wanted to do a max static to capitalize on the DR and in my breathe-up I felt a little "gurgly", but it didn't raise any alarms.

Turns out I had a strong blood shift from the empty holds and then halfway through the full-lung hold it didn't feel right and I spit up a bunch of the red stuff. [emoji33]

Only heard of 1 other person doing this while dry...

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[cdavis]

Ditto on Apneaaddict. When going for a max, you will almost certainly get into hard contractions. A side effect of those contractions is a large drop in air pressure in the lungs. Combine that drop with empty lungs and you get a recipe for squeeze.

I do empty plus reverse packing holds several times a week, hold till mild contractions. It took me a year to slowly work up to this without getting squeezed. Going for a max in those conditions would be much worse.

Open water diving at empty courts the same thing. Eventually something interesting will happen and you stay down too long - big contractions - squeeze. Diving about half lung results in a very strong DR and provides a considerable safety margin to squeeze unless you are doing depth to the edge of your equalization ability.

 

[growingupninja]

The mentioned squeeze issues with full exhale may or may not hold true for you, but full exhales in the water are dangerous because of the negative pressure--if you black out, it is far more likely that you will end up with water in your lung (could be secondary drowning some hours later if not instant drowning). Especially for a newer diver who may be less aware of their hypoxic limits, it is much easier to BO on an exhale since you are starting with less 'gas in the tank'.