Dry Depth preperation and training

[timm]

Hi All,

Does anyone have any dry training plans, examples, tips or anything.

I am going to be doing a competition in May, and due to circumstance need to prepare pretty much out of the water. I am going to do a 12 week plan like I have for DYN's etc and might get in the pool a little and know about bhanda's, empty lung pool training, but would like to see what else others have done, plan of activities, stuff that worked, stuff that didnt etc etc.

I remember seeing somewhere about Sebastian N doing dry prep for Kalamata, but couldnt remember where or any specifics, so anything you guys know or have done would be of great help.

Ta

Tim

 

[Kars]

Ribcage stretching, ear tube practice, dive visualisations.
In pool, slow and fast swimming (slow down, glide, fast up), empty lungs head down equalisations, mouth-fill.

 

[otrebor]

Nice thread, Timm. I'm interested to know the same things too. I'm a spearfisher for 9 years and i'd like to improve bottom time and depth maybe. When I'm in shape I fish at about 22 mt for 1,50 minutes dive time (my PB is 32 mt for 1,40 dive time). I haven't enough time to go in gym or in pool, then I do just dry training at home (02 and C02 tables and running) for two weeks and spearfishing once a week. I'll see next months if my dry-training works. If anyone has a dry-plans or dry-tips or other stuff could works, share please...
Anyone has any suggestion for preparing a dry-training plan?
I hope you understand my bad english.

Thanks, Roberto

Tim, I have found that: http://www.freediving.biz/education/FREEDIVING_TRAINING_version_3pdf.pdf

 

[Peppehav]

Could this be the article you are referring to?

http://freediving.biz/education/FREEDIVING_TRAINING_version_3pdf.pdf

I find myself in a similar situation as I am preparing to compete for the first time later this year (cwt). I follow a programme of both dry training and DYN series in a pool, waiting for the winter to pass. Tonight - it´s the pool.

 

[timm]

Great doc guys, thanks (thanks to Sebastian! a lot of it reminds me of stuff he showed us in BBH Dahab 2007, that I had forgotten).

Peppehav I am in same situation as you and need to prepare for a CW dive in May with little depth time.

Do you mind sharing any Dry training exercises you do? I am mainly interesting in adapting to depth, Sebastian's comments about the empty lung yoga stretches was interesting, do you know is he talking about standard postures as well as the Nauli, Bandha's etc. Also the eq practice against transactions was a good, one, going to play with that.

I am going to try and do a 12 week plan in preparation, and do "stuff" 5 - 6 days a week that will aid me for the comp. Current thoughts are lots of stretches from Mana's book, some nice big DYN's when I do get in the pool, empty lung stuff in the deep end, some STA's if I can get in the pool a 2nd time each week, yoga 2 times a week, eq practice 2 times a week, and some cardio 2 times a week for fun! I would like to aim the yoga at depth so any Asana's anyone could recommend would be great. Have used visualisation in the pool a lot, but not done for depth much, think this is the time I should as its going to be the most time I will have practising depth.

I have done lots of STA, DYN and DNF over the winter, which has paid off and got a few PB's which is great motivation, and feel if I can take a rest and get back into the longer swims, lactic, co2 in the second 6 weeks quite easily. Will add a few harsh c02 tables into it for fun, love that c02.

Any thoughts, ideas or feedback appreciated.

Tim

 

[Peppehav]

Hi again!
So, this is a schedule I plan to follow until the ice melts around here.
I do lung stretching every day. I have been doing resistance traning a couple of years (two split, four times a week) – but not as a part of my freediving training. I hope it won´t hinder my progress. Hopefully the extra muscle tissue and blood volume might give me a boost when vasoconstriction kicks in.

Monday: Strength and DYN series. I do series like the ones Pelizzari introduces in Manual of Freediving (347-351). I mix hypercapnic with hypoxic series. I am not sure if this is ideal.
Tuesday: Strength, STA (CO2 – one breath recovery)
Wednesday: STA tables (O2), with iHoldBreath for iPhone
Thursday: Strength, STA (CO2 - one breath recovery)
Friday: DYN series
Saturday: Strength, DYN series (FRC, with Frenzel maneuver)
Sunday: STA tables (O2), with iHoldBreath for iPhone

I´m thinking of getting a small oximeter to have by the poolside. Do you use this? Any recommendations?
I will do apnea walks when the weather gets a bit warmer. As for depth training, I plan to do FRC dives in a quarry fifteen minutes from my home. It´s only 10-12 meters deep. There is another quarry that is much deeper ( 50 meters), about 1,5 h from here. I guess I will be going there on a regular basis from April or May. I haven´t made up my mind whether to do cardio training or not.
That´s about it.

 

[Kars]

Peppehav,

Depending on the intensity, it looks like it could be a nice recipe for over-training.
Make sure you take high quality food, and extra rest to recover. Don't be fearful of taking an rest day, actually you body needs it, otherwise you're only breaking down, not allowing for recovery, nor allowing for growth.

Freediving has a big mental component, and things like concentration, focus, auto hypnosis, autogenic relaxation can be done without straining your body (actually relaxing it).
With a buddy doing FRC to 10-12 is nice. You can gradually reduce the lung volume, increase relaxation and bottom-time. Wear a warm suit, warm muscles are more flexible.

For years I've had little preparation for my deep diving endeavours.
Every year it's another search for that good equalisation technique, that nice flexibility, the serene relaxation at depth, all in a duel with the clock. It's not a nice scenario. And I've pushed myself too often a bit too much. What I need is a week of many increasing time at depth - slow quality dives, long sessions, good food and extra rest.
However I've learned some valuable lessons and principles, and am experiencing feelings of pride seeing people copy 'my' no-warm-up-dive approach in Sweden. - I'm not sure they do the on-land preparation that goes with it however.

Actually my wish is to work my way up to a CWT of 80m. That would for me demand a lot of discipline and dedication and also some special people and the equipment to facilitate this.

Given this time of year I think I better work on my pool stuff, where I can explore some new recent insights. Let's find that rabid in that high hat

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

 

[Azrael3000]

Kars, can you expand a bit more on the "on-land preparation" that you speak of?

 

[Kars]

I ask a buddy to help me to stretch my back and ribs. I lay on my belly, exhale and he puts his hands to the sides of my spine on a section of the ribs and applies pressure effectively holding a few ribs down with some resistance. Then I breath in slowly from the belly up, against this local pressure applied to a few ribs, until I'm full and exhale. Upon in and exhaling my buddy is sensitive to go with my breathing movement applying resistance to the inhale and assistance to the exhale on the ribs, not on the spine. His palms are next to the spine and his closed fingers follow my ribs, effectively isolating 2-3 or 4 of them. He starts at my lower back pressure - inhale - exhale, then moves his hands up for another pressure - inhale - exhale, until on top. Also the angle of pressure is important, it should be perpendicular to the spine, following it's curve. So this may mean for the top section he needs to sit at my head and push from there.
Usually I do two breaths per rib-hold, and two full backs.
As a preparation to this stretching you need to warm up your back muscles, because that is needed if you want to increase flexibility.
After this your ribcage will feel very flexible, and it's a good work out for the breathing muscles too.

As always with new things, go slow, think, communicate, be careful.

Other parts of my on land, pre record dive preparation were, warming up under hot shower and cleaning tubes and sinuses, drinking some hot herbal tea, eating two banana's, perform exercises to warm up main muscle groups, stretch them gently. Then have a real good breathing muscle group stretches, including but not limited to the one I mentioned above - which I reserved for last.
I think also it's important to avoid high heart-rates before the dive.
Then packing the gear walk slowly to the boat.
On the platform seek a quiet warm place, rest / meditate etc. Do everything slow from the moment you awake in the morning.

Yes Nordic Deep has given me some fond memories, Thank you Sebastian.

 

[Peppehav]

Timm,

I don´t know enough about yoga to be of any assistance to you here. You might consider having a look at this site: Brittany Trubridge Yoga
I listen to the ”autosuggestion” (at the end of Dive preparation sequence) each time I do static tables. It seems that she gives classes through Skype.

Kars,

Overtraining is of course a concern. I´ve cut down a bit on intensity as far as the resistance training is concerned. But there is still a risk. I hope that as long as I see some progress and, maybe most important, as long as I feel some kind of joy when training, I will still be on the right track. I obviously have to feel my way through this interesting process.
Is it by the way you doing the ”frog flow” on Youtube? I like it!
Peppe

 

[Kars]

// off topic:

Yes it's me who you see in the Frog Flow youtube video. :thankyou
Can you tell what you liked?
Also have tried and tested anything out for yourself, how did it work for you?

I've some more inspirational video's in mind, but don't have the camera any more. One was stolen, the other drowned. ​

 

[apneaboy]

Hey Timm, you'll get some good breath hold practice in between nappy changes mate ;-)

If you do wanna get out let me know i'm flexible outside of meet dates

 

[timm]

Cheers steve, hope to get down to do some diving before the comp, will see and let you know.

Peppe, Thanks, same sort of thing as me, lung stretches, etc, and did a course with will and Brittney so have a couple of yoga stretches, just gotta research a little more from asana, pranayama mudra bandha and make a plan.

I was using a finger oximeter the other night but only to check my chest hr monitor was correct. I have not used an oxi for training, only used it to see the 02 drop in experiments, did a few in Egypt a couple of years ago to see what breath ups effect ease of hold and O2 levels. Would be interested if anyone uses it to train.

Reckon a rest day is important, I like to train lots too, and sit behind a desk most the time so have to beat myself to not want to run, swim or do something. I did a load of cardio last year, marathon, triathlon, and then did a short weights program for strength. After all that I tapered it all off and did lots of diving, and did lots of progress. I have done pb's in dnf, dyn and sta in the last 3 months, so it worked for me!

Tim