continuous pack?

[The111]

I've been doing static tables, and while I don't pack in the traditional sense, I have noticed that if I do my long inhale with a "straw sucking" mechanics at my lips (as opposed to having my mouth wide open and inhaling purely with lung and diaphragm muscles) I can get a slightly larger volume of air (it feels this way at least). Does this qualify as packing? Is it "continuous packing" (I made that term up)? Does this make sense?

 

[fpernett]

I think it can't be called packing.

When you pack your lungs you are putting more volume of air using pressure from your cheeks and/or tongue. It means a different way to increase lung volume apart from diaphragm and other respiratory muscles.

 

[Pezman]

Matt,

I tried this and noticed exactly what you mentioned. When I broke it down a little, it turned out that the jaw action was similar to packing, so I'd say that breathing this way amounts to one pack.

I've done some experiments using a Capri Sun drink pouch (very scientific) and determined that each swallow when I pack puts about 100ml into my lungs, so I think that you are probably adding at least 100 ml of air when you inhale through pursed lips (assuming that you are opening your jaw wide to do this etc.) However, the difference in fullness seemed to be more than the extra 100ml could explain, so there might be something else going on here.

At any rate, I'm going to try this next time out. I like to fill up for medium deep dives, but I don't like packing since it takes some of the relaxation out of the dive. This technique seems like a nice compromise.

 

[The111]

Yeh, that was my first guess, maybe I'm just doing one pack. But like you said, when I have tried packing, which I'm not very good at, it takes more than one pack to get as full as this method makes me feel.

Let me know how it works out for you. Not sure how easy it would be with a snorkel. I understand the difference between normal packing and normal snorkel packing, but I'm not sure if it would be the same "conversion" to go from "continuous" packing to "continuous" snorkel packing. Oddly enough, I've started doing about 3 snorkel packs before each dive... I can do them fast enough that it doesn't waste too much time, but it feels like it does get me more air than I could otherwise.