Interesting thread. a few comments
Hang in there, experimentation and practice will work in the end.
Listen to Kars, he knows what he is talking about.
We are all different. ANY time anybody quotes times or distances, adjust them to your abilities. Stressing too hard to reach somebody else's numbers doesn't work. In general, take it slow and don't even try to get very uncomfortable. A little discomfort can be good, but not too much.
You probably have some things unique to you that are blocking. Need to figure out what they are and work on them. Possibles: you get unusually strong contractions, how can they be minimized? You may be in poor cardio shape. What can you do about that?
To minimize contractions, you might try an FRC approach. You can do this dry. The above mention of "exhales" is along this line. Try not deep breathing, just breathe normally, then take a big breath, exhale all the way and inhale a little less than half, hold. You should see contractions come on somewhat quicker, but softer, maybe a lot softer. Don't worry about time, just play with the technique and see if you end up going longer into contractions before they get too hard. If you get to the pool, same technique, maybe one extra big breathe and inhale slightly more (about half), then static for half your normal dive time. You should be able, with practice, to get the same distance and much longer time. Again, play with it, see what works and what doesn't
Contractions on the way down on a relatively short dive? Something ain't right. Too much hyperventilation(its insidiously easy), too little breathup, not enough weight, too much work going down, not relaxed enough(this is a biggie), some combination that works with you strong tendency to contractions. Get the technique better and this problem should go away.
Kars is on to something with the fast bike day. I'm seeing something similar.
Connor
THANKS for the patience, Connor. This means a lot. Really.
You are really on to something - the reasons why I get contractions so soon and also why I can not stand them might (indeed) mainly be:
- I can not yet relax enough - not by a long shot: I get nervous, intimidated and scared very easily - fear of the unknown is very present with me and new things easily seem very daunting to me. (And yet, I WANT to freedive.
)
- Combine that with really poor fitness (cardio, stamina, etc.) and you have a recipe for a very fast heartbeat and massive oxygen consumption. And early contracations as well. And not being able to relax through them.
About the CWT dives:
- weight: on our AIDA 2* course we did a surface buoyancy test (wetsuit + weight): keep a vertical position and exhale fully. If we didn't sink, it was ok. I know buoyancy should be tested at around -10m, but for this first test with people who hadn't even been freediving to -5m, I think the surface test was ok and wise to do. (Besides that, I doubt whether I can dive down to -10m, and hang there for a while after exhaling fully and return to the surface...)
- I wore a 5.5mm open cell wetsuit + 6 kg of lead. I'm 1,86 m tall and weigh around 72-74 kg. Not a fat guy at all. My bones are not heavy, so I tend to be very buoyant, even without a wetsuit. I don't know whether there's a better approach to testing buoyancy than on the surface - one which I actually could manage.
- The hyperventilation: spot on, thinking back, I realize I did way too many purge breaths (short but deep inhales and longer but also deep exhales - which is downrigh HV. Stupid me.)
- I was nervous like crazy for the CWT dives. Besides that, before every dive I got to -16m, the instructor had to tell me: go now. Twice or three times. I thought he felt like I was taking too much time and it made me even more nervous than I was - like he was pushing me somehow - I know he didn't mean it like that and our time was limited and there were 8 students! (There was an assitent instructor, don't worry). But it made me do the purges without realizing it...
As for the FRC: a FULL exhale and then a passive (small / 50%) inhale sounds interesting. I always did FRC by a "passive exhale", leaving the residual volume in my lungs and then going into the hold. Somehow I thought it was more comfortable, but I had never tried the full exhale + passive inhale and then the hold. My last "action" before the hold was always an exhale, not an inhale.
I experimented with that this morning and you are right: as I knew, contractions come earlier on FRC, WAY earlier (around 25-30 seconds already for me), but they are "softer" indeed - it's hard to describe but if compared to waves they are longer and less high in the beginning. I was able to stand a few FRC holds like that (static - dry) of one minute with only 30 seconds of breathing. I still have to be careful not to hyperventilate though!
Interesting... Very interesting.
Oh, one more thing, even though my session yesterday left me a bit lost, I DID enjoy being in the water again.
