• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Have you ever had one of those days....

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

fjohnson

The land of ice and snow
Sep 5, 2001
373
32
118
Today I was at the pool and my plan was just to relax and do some extended breath holds..(no workout) nothing too serious... just to push it a little bit. It was darn near impossible.. in fact, I gave up. My breath-hold today was almost half the time of what I would normally do (o.k.- maybe not quite that bad). But I was completely uncomfortable. I've done better when I've gone for a good work out first and then done some breath-holds. So what was going on today? Does everyone have this kind of a day sometimes? I hope it doesn't last...
 
I firmly believe in having better days than others...

Look at these and see if any of them click with you:
  • Is there any amount of undue stress in your life right now?
  • Are you coming down with a cold or flu?
  • How crowded was the facility you were working out in?

And there are just days when I couldn't buy a decent workout. Biorhythm type of thing maybe?
 
Cliff,
I understand having a bad day at other sports.. say basketball or hockey, or whatever... but I didn't expect to have a bad day holding my breath. Maybe bad days are part of this sport as much as any other sport.

You asked some questions that I thought about...

As far as stress the only thing different today than most days is I sat down and paid bills before I went swimming....Next month I can see if bill-pay-day this has the same effect but I really didn't think about it when I was on the bottom of the pool. And I did get them all paid...

As far as being ill, I'll have to see over the next few days... maybe I feel a bit of something in my sinusus.... I passed it off as being in the chlorine so much.

The Pool Crowded?? ....again it was just me and the life gaurd... it's pretty rare that there are more than 2 or 3 other people there if any. $1.50 an hour and I get the pool to myself most of the time but it's a 20+ mile trip just to get there... I try to use those miles to settle down for the swim.

I'm going to give it a rest over the weekend and see how monday or tuesday goes. I really hope it doesn't take long to get over what ever it is I have to get over.
 
Expectations

Somtimes our expectations get in our way. If we don't start where we think we should be we end up adding pressure on the next trial which screws up the next trial and so on. One of my coaches years ago pointed out that if the training effort is genuine then there are real gains, reagardless of the performance. Learning to manage less than perfect performance is one those demands. We all have down times them so you are not alone. Don't get bummed if they continue for awhile either. Octo has talked about how he has made some of his best dives when he felt very uncomfortable and not as "ON" as on other dives. Condition for the conditions.
 
concentration

Static apnea is, for me, the most hard discipline in freediving. So, the results can be disappointing if you don't balance everything. As other sports you have to be well trained, well rested, well nourished, well hydrated and well prepared. The last part is related to your mental status. I recommend a predive routine, nobody can tell you wich is the best, some breathing exercises work for some, but could not work for you, it's important tha you develop a predive routine to gain concentration. The security is very important, you are training alone, it doesn't matter if you have a life guard out of the pool, when He notices that you are unconscious maybe is too late. I think you probably are aware about it, and that is an stressing factor during your apnea. It's better to have a partner that is checking if you are OK, during your performance.
Find out what are your stressing factors and if you balanced everything before the dive.
Keep on training and forget the "bad days"

Frank Pernett
 
Here's a thought...

One of the things that Kirk Krack mentioned at the Long Beach Clinic was how many top level freedivers will avoid eating 24 hours before a static attempt at a major competition. THey also avoid alcohol and consume large quantities of water as well.

I got to thinking about this and was wondering what you had eatin earlier in the day. Maybe you were still digesting it and as such, the blood that would have been used for carrying O2 to your system was busy helping your stomach digest food. How hydrated were you? Any alcohol the night before?

Just a thought...
 
You have all pointed out some good reasons why I may have had that very off day. Somethings I didn't think about.. mainly in the stress/psych aspect. I was kinda leaning toward the food issue.. I hadn't had much to eat that morning but I had stuffed myself the night before, and I mean stuffed myself. No wine with the meal and since I rarely imbibe I don't think alcohol is a factor, caffiene has been out for a few months (that was stressful for awhile). I and my daughter had the opportunity to meet Kirk awhile back (before we knew "who" he was) and he mentioned staying hydrated as being important. I never realized that before but more homework verifies the benifits of drinking lots of water. It may be that apnea is like other sports I'm in or used to be in that require concentration... like shooting a pistol.. on a day you don't think about it, you'll knock the bull out, but if you start to miss a few times pretty soon you're analizing everything to death.... trigger sqeeze, grip pressure, sighting, stance, breathing, etc., etc... and soon it just builds on itself until you've got to just pick up the blasted gun and shoot it, just do it. This over analization seems to be one of the toughest things for me to get over. I guess I really do have to get a routine down that works for me, and that is another goal to add to the list.
 
Kudos

Hi FJ,

I appreciate your willingness to openly ask for support and then to apply that support and by openly acknowledging an area that needs work. Too often we are just looking at the successes and not the process of achieving them. You have presented us all with a positive model of how healthy growth occurs and reminded me of the importance of openly seeking support for my areas of weakness, shortcomings, and difficulties. Thank you.
 
Hi FJ,
You said in your original post that you did your disappointing static apnea sessions without any prep or workout; you just got into the pool and started your session.
I always do better after some moderate workout. I usually swim about a half mile of freestyle but not too vigorous. I swim slow and steady and sort of meditatate on my breathing. After that I just hang on the pool wall and do deep breathing for a couple of minutes while my body settles down; then I begin my apnea workout. Theres something about a light workout that "tunes" my body for breath holds. I can't explain it but it works for me. Having said that, I too also have "off" days where I just can't do a good breath hold.

Mark Jeffery
 
got over my off day apparently

Mark,
well Mark, it didn't take long to get over the down day. And yes I now believe that's true about working out a bit before starting apnea. I'm still surprised at how much apnea is like other sports in many ways, including the warmup. My mindset was - go over to the pool, stay relaxed, do a few routines, don't get the hearbeat up, and hold my breath - it just really surprised me at how bad it was. Between not working out and stuffing myself the night before I think they both contributed a lot to my off day. Today, after a workout, and a not so big meal last night, and no food this a.m. I increased my personal best in dynamic apnea, a v.good increase. This one is going to be tough for me to break anytime soon I think, maybe not. I'm starting to find a good routine in preparation for my workouts. I'm sure having my wife there as a spotter helped the mindset today also. (I think/hope she'd try to save me if something were to happen) Now, what I wonder about is, at the end of the p.b. dynamic today I felt good..... did I have to come up? I guess the body knows best.
 
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT