Exhale diving, aka, half lung, FRC, etc, is the "new thing" in freediving. Experts like Sebastion Murat and Eric Fattah have blazed a fascinating trail. It seems like a better way to dive, but doing any depth with it takes quite a lot of perseverance, at least for some of us. None the less, more and more "average joe" divers, people like me, are trying it and liking the results. I’d love to hear from some more divers about their experiences, what they did to train, how long it took, results, what type of diving they have adapted the technique to, etc. We are in very much an experimental stage in exhale diving. Getting our experiences together could be valuable to all. Below is my story, what’s yours?
I can remember reading stuff several years back about Sebastion Murat and thinking "this guy is nuts, fascinating, maybe superman, but nuts. This can’t possibly work for average diving." Or can it? The question ate at me.
About a year ago, I started playing with exhale technique, having read everything I could find on DB and elsewhere about the technique. Progress was fast. In a couple of months, I was diving 70 ft at about half lung. Straining like crazy to equalize at the bottom, but, hey, I could do it. Serious swelled head. Decided I really liked the technique after diving exhale all one day in 70 or so then going full lung for some deep dives the next day. It was such a huge and unpleasant amount of work fighting buoyancy to swim down the first 30 ft or so full lung, yuk! I was definitely hooked on exhale. And, being a full speed ahead type, if 70 was good, 90 was better. A couple of months later, I did a 90 ft dive, felt really great, I was pumped. Did another about 5 minutes later and got squeezed, but good. This started a several month period where I kept re-injuring myself, trying to go too fast. Got to the point where I got squeeze symptoms from diaphragm stretches, even from contractions during dynamics. Got to the point it was scary; maybe this mess was permanent and I couldn’t dive anymore. This was serious! Time to call for help. Enter Laminar.
I asked his advice on how to learn exhale diving. Being a gentleman, he didn’t comment on the intelligence of my previous activity. However, his response wasn’t what I wanted to hear. "You need to dive 2-3 days a week to get your lungs used to exhale" Mouthfill also seemed really important. Since there’s no way I can go real diving 3 days a week and I can’t mouthfill, things looked bleak. Being inventive, I got him to help me work out a training program for learning exhale in the pool. Neither of us was sure it would work, but I could get to the pool 3 days/wk so, lets go. He wanted me to proceed at a pace that I thought was ridiculously slow, but I guess he was right. I kept speeding up and re-injuring myself, although to less and less degree. I backed up and started over a bunch. Anyway, here is what I did, minus all the starting over.
Exhale dynamics, shallow water: Starting with minimal exhale, slowly, over weeks, exhaling more and more, down to FRC, about 2/3 exhale for me. Exhale, stay still in the water till the first urge to breath, start swimming, come up when it feels necessary.
Exhale for depth and equalization, 4 meter deep end. Starting with minimal exhale, same as above, but with more emphasis on equalization. Continue process with more and more exhale. Less distance as exhale got deeper.
Note: spotter required for all of above
After a month or so, I was comfortable with a full exhale in 4 meters, lying on the bottom for a minute or so. Then I started reverse packing, about 1 extra per week. This is my own idea, not Laminar’s. You can hurt yourself easily with negatives, especially when staying on the bottom for an extended period. Never-the-less, being bull headed, I felt I needed this to get acclimated to increasing depth, especially since I couldn’t mouthfill. This time it seemed to work, but I had to go real slow and back up several times.
Results:
First, as the body got used to exhale, my times in the pool got longer and longer. Same thing in real diving, so training was carrying over into the real world. Now I am diving longer, sometimes much longer, on exhale than previously on inhale. Quicker recovery, too. The key is making the first half of the dive as close to a static as possible.
Second, I got comfortable again in deeper and deeper water. Right now 80 ft is a slight stretch, but ok. 70 ft is no problem at all. 90 will take some more time, but I will get there, safely.
Third, as the months went by, I could feel my lungs getting comfortable with greater and greater levels of negative pressure. Some discussion in this forum about thickening blood vessel walls in the lungs aiding engorgement of the lung with blood. Maybe this is what’s happening, I don’t know. Whatever, I’m comfortable at levels of negative pressure that would have squeezed me in the past.
Bottom line, you can train exhale in the pool, but putting it all together requires real diving, too.
Sincere appreciation to Laminar for all his time expertise and patience.
Ok, that’s my story, what’s yours???
I can remember reading stuff several years back about Sebastion Murat and thinking "this guy is nuts, fascinating, maybe superman, but nuts. This can’t possibly work for average diving." Or can it? The question ate at me.
About a year ago, I started playing with exhale technique, having read everything I could find on DB and elsewhere about the technique. Progress was fast. In a couple of months, I was diving 70 ft at about half lung. Straining like crazy to equalize at the bottom, but, hey, I could do it. Serious swelled head. Decided I really liked the technique after diving exhale all one day in 70 or so then going full lung for some deep dives the next day. It was such a huge and unpleasant amount of work fighting buoyancy to swim down the first 30 ft or so full lung, yuk! I was definitely hooked on exhale. And, being a full speed ahead type, if 70 was good, 90 was better. A couple of months later, I did a 90 ft dive, felt really great, I was pumped. Did another about 5 minutes later and got squeezed, but good. This started a several month period where I kept re-injuring myself, trying to go too fast. Got to the point where I got squeeze symptoms from diaphragm stretches, even from contractions during dynamics. Got to the point it was scary; maybe this mess was permanent and I couldn’t dive anymore. This was serious! Time to call for help. Enter Laminar.
I asked his advice on how to learn exhale diving. Being a gentleman, he didn’t comment on the intelligence of my previous activity. However, his response wasn’t what I wanted to hear. "You need to dive 2-3 days a week to get your lungs used to exhale" Mouthfill also seemed really important. Since there’s no way I can go real diving 3 days a week and I can’t mouthfill, things looked bleak. Being inventive, I got him to help me work out a training program for learning exhale in the pool. Neither of us was sure it would work, but I could get to the pool 3 days/wk so, lets go. He wanted me to proceed at a pace that I thought was ridiculously slow, but I guess he was right. I kept speeding up and re-injuring myself, although to less and less degree. I backed up and started over a bunch. Anyway, here is what I did, minus all the starting over.
Exhale dynamics, shallow water: Starting with minimal exhale, slowly, over weeks, exhaling more and more, down to FRC, about 2/3 exhale for me. Exhale, stay still in the water till the first urge to breath, start swimming, come up when it feels necessary.
Exhale for depth and equalization, 4 meter deep end. Starting with minimal exhale, same as above, but with more emphasis on equalization. Continue process with more and more exhale. Less distance as exhale got deeper.
Note: spotter required for all of above
After a month or so, I was comfortable with a full exhale in 4 meters, lying on the bottom for a minute or so. Then I started reverse packing, about 1 extra per week. This is my own idea, not Laminar’s. You can hurt yourself easily with negatives, especially when staying on the bottom for an extended period. Never-the-less, being bull headed, I felt I needed this to get acclimated to increasing depth, especially since I couldn’t mouthfill. This time it seemed to work, but I had to go real slow and back up several times.
Results:
First, as the body got used to exhale, my times in the pool got longer and longer. Same thing in real diving, so training was carrying over into the real world. Now I am diving longer, sometimes much longer, on exhale than previously on inhale. Quicker recovery, too. The key is making the first half of the dive as close to a static as possible.
Second, I got comfortable again in deeper and deeper water. Right now 80 ft is a slight stretch, but ok. 70 ft is no problem at all. 90 will take some more time, but I will get there, safely.
Third, as the months went by, I could feel my lungs getting comfortable with greater and greater levels of negative pressure. Some discussion in this forum about thickening blood vessel walls in the lungs aiding engorgement of the lung with blood. Maybe this is what’s happening, I don’t know. Whatever, I’m comfortable at levels of negative pressure that would have squeezed me in the past.
Bottom line, you can train exhale in the pool, but putting it all together requires real diving, too.
Sincere appreciation to Laminar for all his time expertise and patience.
Ok, that’s my story, what’s yours???
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