Breathing Techniques (heart rate reduction)

[l11kenwn]

I've been interested in freediving for many years but have only recently begun to understand the basics of the breathing techniques used by professional freedivers to dive to the ridiculous depths they reach.

I am keen to learn more about such techniques so if you know any breathing exercises that improve breath holds, specifically ones which reduce heart rate I would love to hear from you.

Cheers

 

[Salehthefish]

Hello and welcome on DB lots of info from professionals here...

All best

 

[agbiv]

Welcome from Texas! I always screw up the heart rate thing when I see a good fish!

 

[ribonzz]

Hi
Good to see u here, and i interested on you because your nick is "ken"..
I's my nickname in the real world

 

[cdavis]

Welcome to DB.

There is lots of info on heart rate reduction. Find the search button and search for "reflex" "dive reflex" "heart rate" "yoga" "relaxation" and similar. Lots of threads will come up; skim until you find what you are looking for.

Connor

 

[efattah]

In fact heart appears to be not so important for breath holding. During my longest pool statics in the 8 minute range, my heart rate was over 100 for more than half the breath hold. During FRC statics my heart rate is far lower, around 70 in the beginning, and dropping continuously.

 

[demasoni]

In fact heart appears to be not so important for breath holding. During my longest pool statics in the 8 minute range, my heart rate was over 100 for more than half the breath hold. During FRC statics my heart rate is far lower, around 70 in the beginning, and dropping continuously.

Hold on a sec... From my experience HR goes up during an inhale breathold, then starts to drop. However, what is your HR right before your last inhale pre-hold? My HR is not over 100 bpm pre-hold or during breathe-up.

l11kenwn, I have started to use a simple HR monitor (thanks for the tip cdavis) during diving to experiment with breathing patterns to establish among many things a low pre-DIVE HR in order to check my stress level. So far my HR starts around 65 and goes to 45 on inhale - these are holds at 10m. On FRC or less volume without wearing hood or mask, HR drops quicker to less than 30 bpm.

Welcome to DB. Lots of info here.

 

[Bill]

Josh
What heart monitor U got that works at 10 meters in the ocean?

 

[demasoni]

Josh
What heart monitor U got that works at 10 meters in the ocean?

It's the basic and cheapest Polar HR monitor I bought at Sport's Authority for $50. The back of the watch says it is water resistant to 50m.

It looks like the older version of this one:

FS2c, Black - Official Polar Store

 

[cebaztian]

I've been interested in freediving for many years but have only recently begun to understand the basics of the breathing techniques used by professional freedivers to dive to the ridiculous depths they reach.

This might be of interest:
Breathing in freediving

Sebastian

 

[trux]

Just a note: you actually do not want to have low HR before the dive. That's counterproductive. By forcefully reducing the HR during the dive preparation by diverse techniques, you slow down and reduce the blood circulation, and hence the oxygenation of tissues, which means increasing their oxygen debt, and desaturating the blood. What you want before the dive is minimizing the O2 consumption, relaxing, but it is actually preferable having higher HR than the body needs despite the relaxation - in this way you can increase oxygen saturation of the venous blood without resorting to hyperventilation which would have many negative effects on the performance.

 

[cdavis]

Thanks Sebastian, Reading your stuff, I always find something of real value.

Are you still sailing?

Trux, your logic seems spot on, but in practice, at least for me, it's different. My longest dives come with a very low heart rate. That is not exactly contradictory to your comment, since my low rate is associated with extreme physical and mental relaxation and what seems to be decreased 02 consumption. Now, how do I get to the same level of relaxation/low 02 consumption AND and higher heart rate?


Connor

 

[trux]

That's exact - you should search the relaxation, not the low HR. It is clear that with deeper relaxation the HR drops too, but is should not be you primary concern. I even saw people using vagal nerve stimulation for lowering their HR - which is the wrong way, on my mind. As for keeping high HR while being relaxed - the stress of a competition works usually rather well, and while with some training you'll manage to relax the muscles despite the stress, the HR may still stay rather elevated.

 

[sgnips]

i just made my PB in STA last sunday during a comp (my first STA comp, and i also won that... wow!)
i remember my HR was incredibly high right before the beginning while i was looking for relax and concentration, and began falling down only after about 1' of the breathold

indeed, i felt better during this attempt than in the last training sessions, with similar performances

 

[cdavis]

Could this be an area where practice needs to be different between comps and serial diving?

For me, in serial diving, its real clear that being really relaxed leads to low heart rate and one or the other (or both) make for my longest dives.

Are comps(never been in one) different?

Connor

 

[sgnips]

Are comps(never been in one) different?
Connor

i don't have enough comp experience to answer your question, but at first sight, i might say yes, they're different

still i can't be sure about this as last sunday i went to that comp soooo relaxed and soooo in peace with myself for a number of reasons that i did not even think of it as a comp, even if just before starting my STA i felt that comp fear i knew from the past (i competed in fencing for many years)