Chest Compression Contractions

[Travis Michalzik]

Hey Guys,

To cut to the chase, I have been freediving a couple of years now, the past say 9 months something extremely strange has happened to my body rendering me almost incapable of freediving. In the past I was doing 40M dives clean and 5Min Statics no worries at all. When all of a sudden one day my contractions went from bareable and comfortable to completely out of control, coming on at 20 or 30 seconds every single time I hold my breath be it dry or in water, Static or Depth diving. The contractions went from the natural up and down movements of the diaphragm to extremely strong downward movements of the diaphragm, almost as my body is forcing me to breath, not trying to expel C02. Due to this my chest compresses almost as if someone is performing CPR on me, you can simulate this by closing your epiglottis and trying to breath in rather hard. I surface with bruised ribs and quite a saw chest plate. This has basically destroyed any enjoyability of freediving. I was wandering if anyone else has come into anything like this before and if it can be resolved? I am 22, healthy and fit. Really hoping to sort this out so I can start enjoying diving again!

Any info would be fantastic,

Cheers freediving community!

- Trav.

 

[Apneaddict]

Any significant dietary changes? Lifestyle changes??

Are you training any less?
Wondering why you're reacting so differently to CO2...

 

[cdavis]

That sounds very similar to what I experienced when I started diving deeper, 80-100 ft. In my case, pretty sure it was pressure contractions not co2 contractions. After a couple of very weird dives, I started getting them almost the instant I left the surface, couldn't equalize deeper than about 30 ft., and was completely bewildered until I figured out that my chest was trying to inhale. And yes, it was making me sore in the chest wall. Once figured, it only took about an hour to retrain my chest to behave and a couple of days to get back to deeper diving. I've had a few pressure contractions on deep dives since, but always controllable.

For me the key was figuring out what you already know, chest is trying to inhale. I'd suggest starting slow, hold to the first whisper of an urge to breath, pre-contraction, and then stop. Next time go a little farther, focusing on keeping your chest relaxed. Notice what it feels like in the chest, especially at the beginning of an urge to breathe. Back up if you experience a pressure contraction. If that process works, keep doing it until you have control back.

Good luck!

Connor