four minutes of no air on the land!

[XyseR]

acutally four munites and 13 seconds :duh . before i took in air i was trembling / twitching like non other. that's normal or what? another question acutally... hahah i hear people saying: after so long you hear muffled sounds, and tunnle vision. this time i had neither but just shaking crazly.. is this okay? when the muffled sounds start it's seems easier to hold your breath and you can keep on holding it.. but it got a lot harder the longer i kept on going. maybe a little words of wisdom? i've only been doing this for like a week.... so i don't know what's the things to look out for hahaha. one more thing.... back in elemetry school my freinds and i alwasy tried to figure out who could trun their fase the redist in the least amount of time.... my face felt like that after four munites... it was heating up and then i got a little head ache for a few munites later... i assume this is okay? but back in the day they told us it kills brain cells to trun your face red/purple?? maybe just a dumb thing to say to make us stop. just kind of want to know what is toooooo long? i haven't passed out yet, and i don't want to.. but i bet ill know when im about to and ill stoop myself before i acutally do that. k thanks a lot!

-MatthEw

 

[Dobs]

One word on the trembling thing - samba.
Search the forum and you will find tons of info.
Cheers!

 

[Poida]

All animal instincts is to protect it's species. Any animal will protect its ability to reproduce for which reason it does not need the brain to a great extent. For example, even the most simplest of organisms can reproduce, by simplest meaning the smallest brain.

Think for example people who have been subject to lack of oxygen. They will first of all sustain brain damage. So people who hold their breath, thus reducing their oxygen intake, will sustain brain damage.

This of course will not reduce their ability to freedive because they are in fact acting like fish, a species of animal that has a reputation of having a tiny brain.

Freediving also reduces the ability to enter into a rational debate as indicated by any freediver that claims that what I have written is a pile of crap.

Your body by nature requires you to breathe in and out at a regular rate. Deviating from that is not natural and will cause brain damage.

Good luck.
Poida

 

[fjohnson]

Poida,
rofl rofl

 

[miles]

Your body by nature requires you to breathe in and out at a regular rate. Deviating from that is not natural and will cause brain damage.

AHHHH, so THAT'S the reason why people call me STUPID!!!!

 

[immerlustig]

hi poida,

can you name an instance where someone holding his/her breath acually suffered brain damage?

your observation that all freedivers have a tiny brain is most interesting as well.

that's probably the dumbest post i've read on this forum in ages.

congratulations, man.

roland

ps: also, poida, you don't need to reply here since i won't be able to enter a rational debate anyay.

 

[miles]

Freediving also reduces the ability to enter into a rational debate as indicated by any freediver that claims that what I have written is a pile of crap.

rofl rofl rofl

 

[Mr. X]

can you name an instance where someone holding his/her breath acually suffered brain damage?

Nope. Not the sort of thing you'd shout about even if you knew. Somebody referenced some recent research on "black spots" (brain damage) on the free diving safety/dangers thread, I don't think we ever saw details though.

BTW World record apnea is an incredible 8 mins & 58 secs. according to the 2006 Guiness Book of Records. [Presumably the following headache would be akin to drinking 20+ pints Guiness ]

 

[Alexx]

Guys, you're mixing things up...
8min58sec without LMC/BO will NOT do any damage to the brain. 3min 30sec with LMC/BO will DO some brain damage. Tom Sietas did not experience hypoxia on that dive, as you can see on the video.

I heard somewhere that Marco Bardi has some necrotic spots on his brain, but I'm not sure if this information is correct.

 

[XyseR]

so if i get samba then i should stop correct? i just don't want to danger myself doing something stupid..

 

[Dobs]

XyseR,
If you get samba and don't stop you will pass out and if you are in the water you will stop for good. If you are on land, you will probably regain consciousness at a certain point.
If you are really serious about freediving or holding your breath, please search and read through the forum for more info. Breath holding is dangerous, not to mention the brain damage the guys above are talking about

 

[Aquagenic]

Shouldn't this be in the beginners thread? Mods, you out there?

Thanks,

~JP

 

[island_sands]

Shouldn't this be in the beginners thread? Mods, you out there?

Thanks,

~JP

Done bit slow on the uptake...

 

[Groupermadness]

. So also every one of the million or so people on this planet who hold their breath to stop hicups are brain damaged :duh . and i thought it was from age, Thanks mate i would have been puzzled for years otherwise :hmm .

 

[Poida]

Sorry Immerlustig something I forgot to mention.
Freediving may completely stuff up a person's sense of humour.

 

[XyseR]

okay, this has been a huge help for me, thanks! i stilll have one question... i don't think you can truly answer it,but here i go: what is to long to hold my breath? i think i've had smaba before,but i'm not 100% sure. if you can try and think waaaay back,back when you first started, how did you know you reached your maxumin time while holding your breath and you knew going further would be bad? around half of the time for me,at least, i hold my breath and then i stop around two minutes beacuse i panic or something. did you just hear a click in your mind saying it's to far, STOP? i usually hold my breath untill i start to..i don't know how to explain it,but i think it's samab? i start to like move and shake? i think that's it, now that i think about it. is that dangerous for me to keep on doing? so when you OB underwater that kills brain cells since there isn't any ox,but OBing on land is okay? well not okay but you won't lose any brain cells because there is ox for your body to breath if you OB? thanks a lot you people have been very helpful these past days. i've read a lot about this stuff but it just doesn't cut experiences which i belive you people have a lot.

PS: only 13 more school days till winter vaction!!!!

Matthew~

 

[naiad]

i usually hold my breath untill i start to..i don't know how to explain it,but i think it's samab? i start to like move and shake?

That means it's too long! Try doing 15 or 30 seconds less next time, and build up slowly.

Lucia

 

[Cornholio]

I'm put in mind of a hibernating animal. Its breathing is very slow and shallow, but it suffers no harm as its metabolism is also slow. With apnea you aim for a similar thing, to reduce the body's oxygen consumption via a relaxed state and minimal movements.

I'm a great physical coward and do not like discomfort. However, I'm still good for a six-minute breath hold as with relaxation I can postpone the desire to breathe for more than four minutes. It can be a surreal experience to glance at the stopwatch at the first 'need to breathe' signal and see it reading 4:30 or such. Although I have absolutely no medical expertise, I'd be surprised if any harm occurred during that time.

 

[donmoore]

Moving and shaking while holding the breath could just be contracts not necessary Samba. And also I do not believe there is any scientific evidence that Samba causes brain damage. If anything the studies seem to show that the body goes into blackout (which is much worse than a Samba) to protect the brain from damage. If a person is able to start breathing within a reasonable time, like 30 seconds, no brain damage with occur.

The main reason AIDA didn’t want Samba was because it can look ugly -- Public Perception! For 2005 we finally got past the subjectiveness on what is a Samba and what isn’t by new rules that say if the diver can do the protocol of removing their mask, saying Okay, and making the Ok sign all within 20 seconds, unless there is violent moving, they had a clean performance.

Mathew, if when you stop the hold and start breathing you are no longer shaking, than you are not having a Samba. A Samba is caused by low SaO2 in the brain. The lowest SaO2 in the brain will happen about 10 -20 seconds after you start breathing (lag between your first breaths and the O2 making it to the brain). CO2 on the other hand is the main cause of contractions and you will be breathing it off with your first breaths which should end the contractions.

4 minutes and 13 seconds is very good for a beginner. As a beginner you probably don’t have as good as CO tolerance as someone who has been doing apnea for a longer period of time. Infact most people who don't work on CO tolerance often are going to have some uncontrollable contractions after 3 minutes. Even if you have good CO tolerance you still may. Martin Stepanek, when he set the then World Record of 8:06, had contractions the last 4 minutes! He said it was very uncomfortable.

The truth is that very few people push themselves into the lower SaO2% and higher CO2 they are capable of. I have know many people who will say they just can’t hold their breath past like 2:30. I ask why and they don’t know what to say so I say, "here put my Pulse/Oximeter on and we will know if you’re getting close to your limit". They can’t get their SaO2% below 90% when they are probably capable of maintaining consciousness down to 60%. Simple reason is holding the breath is hard and they haven’t learned to handle it yet!

So be wary of who you are taking advice from. If they make statements about brain damage and don’t substantiate with a scientific study then they don’t know what they are talking about. There are several scientists who have done extensive study on apnea. A few even post here from time to time.

A tip that might help you is I find that if I fight the contractions it will be harder and may result in shaking, then if I just go with them. Contracts are simply your body trying to get you to breath. By doing exercises specifically for increasing CO2 tolerance you increase your ability to handle the contractions and they will be less painful.

Another good tip is take a freediving course like PFD. They will dispel the myths and help you understand the science behind what your body is doing as well as teach you the things you need to be safe and increase your performance.
don

 

[XyseR]

WoW,donmoore you know your stuff! hehe.. i've been kind of waiting for someone like you to clear everything out. when i was reading what you said i do belive that i have been no were close to samba and that makes me more relaxed. the reason for this is beacuse when i breath after i finish holding my breath i'm fine and i just go on to do whatever. i must say it's quite weird feeling your contractions so much but next time i'm just gonna go with the flow. I'm sure there are some type of freediving course around here but maybe only at colleges. i belive that will help a lot on my understanding of all the different things about freediving and holding your breath. i heard that setting goals is not really good for holding your breath because you concentrate too much on it, but i'm going for 5 minutes for this next weekand. i run/walk while i hold my breath and i truly belive it builds up some talarance of something or maybe i just get more used to it. the only thing i find kind of werid about holding my breath for so long is that it's like four minutes! i mean it's almost 1/6 of 30min t.v show ~_~. during this winter vaction i plan to visit the local pool every day and just work on holding my breath underwater since that's what i'm kind of missing... i'm not going to push myself way as hard and it will be just to get a feeling for water since i don't really havea buddy who does this. of course i'm gonna tell the life guards to watch me since i hear shallow water BO is very common since you think you'll be okay beacuse you are close to the surface. oh and this is kind of a simple question , but at what time do you think i should take this sport to the next level? i'm going to check the web out for my hometown team, if there is any? i think it would be pretty cool to get all those little thingies on your body to tell what's going on in your body! hope you are having a blast


THANKS TO ANYONE WHO HAS POSTED HERE

-Matt