Head rush during dry static training

[Davey Jones]

This has probably been addressed here, but a search didn't help much. When doing static training, at the beginning of my breath holds sometimes a get a small head rush and I'm not sure what is causing this. I'm doing my breathe up with deeper but longer breaths than normal but nothing that I would consider hyperventilation. I've tried making small changes to my breathe up but still get these head rushes. Is this normal? Is this just from taking a large breath before I hold?

Thanks in advance...I know the collective knowledge of this board has some answers or very educated guesses at the least.

 

[Simos]

You are probably hyperventilating a bit which won't help - not sure what you mean by 'head rush' exactly but it sounds like you might be taking in a bit too much air.

Just as an experiment, don't do any breath up, just breath normally and then take a smaller breath in, around 80% say of your full lung and relax into it and see if the head rush happens again.

Also - how's your blood pressure in general?

 

[Davey Jones]

You are probably hyperventilating a bit which won't help - not sure what you mean by 'head rush' exactly but it sounds like you might be taking in a bit too much air.

Just as an experiment, don't do any breath up, just breath normally and then take a smaller breath in, around 80% say of your full lung and relax into it and see if the head rush happens again.

Also - how's your blood pressure in general?

Normal blood pressure is really low. Went to donate blood one day and they told me if my blood pressure was any lower, that they couldn't legally stick me with a needle. That day it was lower than normal but you get the picture.

 

[Simos]

Hmm BP 'normally' rises during apnea but in theory it could also drop if your HR drops before vasoconstriction kicks in so could be BP related.

If you have low BP you definitely need to be extra careful at the end of the hold, where BP drops significantly and you will be more susceptible to samba/blackout. Always practice with a trained buddy and make them aware, they should keep a close eye on you for the first 20-30s after you start breathing.

In addition to a buddy, if you have low BP you should learn how to do hook breaths after a hold to keep your BP high and also, make sure you stay low after you start breathing, don't stand up (more relevant to pools obviously)

 

[Simos]

Also especially if you will be doing any holds in the water and especially depth, you should get the BP situation checked with a doctor beforehand - in AIDA courses/competitions you need to get a medical and one of the things checked is BP.

BP is important and top divers check their BP prior to doing deep dives - might not be a bad idea if you do the same so that at least you can avoid diving altogether if your BP is low.