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Dealing with the urge to breathe on my chest/Contractions for longer breath hold time.

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Conan777

Member
Dec 7, 2016
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I'm looking for a safer way to extend my breath hold time than hyperventilation. One way I find to try to do that is to take in all the breath to fill my lungs up to my throat with my head tilted down just before the dive. Then when the urge to breathe on my chest hits, I try to ignore past it and keep holding my breath past that time. I heard that the urge to breathe on your chest does not mean low oxygen in your body, instead you have high carbon dioxide. In fact, you still have plenty of oxygen in your body when your chest hits the urge to breathe pain while breath holding, contrary to what many people believe about that. So what else could I do? Or is what I'm doing good enough.
 
What you are doing is "good enough". There is no way around the urge to breath/contractions. Freediving is learning to relax and accept the urges - make them your friend.
 
Let me start by saying hyperventilation is not only unsafe, but also highly inefficient. It increases the heart rate, tenses the body, and it doesn't even give any extra oxygen. It does not increase your dive time, it only increases your chance to black out.

Before the dive breathe slow and deep, you'll want to try and slow your heart rate and calm both your mind and body. During the dive your main focus should be relaxation in order to preserve oxygen (and therefore also have a slower CO2 buildup). The urge to breathe is inevitable though no matter how relaxed you are. This is where the mental aspect of freediving comes in: don't try to fight it or suppress the feeling, allow it to come naturally and greet it without aversion.

Also please never dive alone, no matter how easy the dive
 
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