heart rate and the dive reflex

[jenks]

Hello all,

Have been doing a bit of reading on the dive reflex, more out of interest than anything serious, read on one website to test it " fill a bucket or basin/ sink with cold water (i used just straight out of the tap), measure your heart rate before, then submerge your face in the water for about 2o secs then measure your heart rate again". Tried it last night and tonight, got out my polar heart rate monitor, hooked myself up. Started off with a heart rate of 80 beats per minute , once placing my face in the water i could hear the monitor indicating a heart rate drop straight away, 20 sec later checked my heart rate at 40 beats per min. As soon as most of the water had run from my face my heart rate climbed back to 80 beats per min within 20 secs. I tried this "little experinment" at least ten times each night with pretty similar results (give or take a beat or two). Everytime i stick my face in the water my heart rate does exactly the same thing immediately.

Am going to try this again in the next day or 2 as sitting here my true resting heart rate is 55-60 b/p/m (typing this ), the slight elavation to 80 i put down to moving around juggling buckets, towels etc. Will try to eliminate this variable , maybe see if my heart rate will go lower than 40.


Questions:

I have read that it takes some people quite awhile to get the reflex to kick in?
Is a drop from 80 B/P/M to 40 B/P/M ie halving a normal or poor response?

Thoughts?

Also just like to say thankyou to everyone who contributes to this forum, ive found it to be a great source of info, my static breath hold (out of water) has gone from 1.05 to 3.15 in four weeks just from tips ive picked up. Cheers

 

[naiad]

I think that is a very good response. My heart rate hardly changes at all!

 

[Evita]

Halving your heart rate is a very good response, at least that is what I was told by researchers doing tests on us at competitions. If you get the opportunity to participate in tests, you should try it, it is fun to get that data and some info on how to interpret it. See e.g. Summary of results . Although you also seem to be doing fine on your own

 

[Paul Kotik]

I'd be interested in knowing your age, height, weight, sex, and general state of fitness. Also any unusual medical or other factors.

 

[watts]

Last year in Dahab i had the chance to do one of Sebastian Murats Courses and during the course we did frc (pasive exhale) holds followed by a max swim my heart rate went from a super high stressed 144 to 50bpm in under 10 seconds and stayed that way through the entire swim even sprinting at the end. Only on surfacing and after a few seconds did my heart rate peak and i had lots of lactic acid. Seb said that without a mask and nose clip the drop should of been even more. Interesting hey.

 

[BennyB]

Doing several dry 5min statics at home my heart rate was between 65-75bpm resting, roughly staying the same until after contractions would start at around 3min-3:30 then it would drop to around 50bpm, the minimum I noted was about 48bpm.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[naiad]

My heart rate during dry statics is about 60-80, rising to 90-100 when it starts to get difficult.

 

[BennyB]

Isn't it obvious? Clearly you need to do your statics in fire...

 

[jenks]

Hi Paul,

Age: 31
weight: 84kgs
height: 184cm
sex: male

My general fitness would be quite good but i dont consider myself to be an elite athelete by any stretch of the imagination. I run 7-8kms (about 5 mile i think) three times a week as well as three weights based gym sessions. As for unusual factors dont know i have any of them, nothing medically. Pretty joe average.

My dry static time improved again last night to 3.45 from 3.15 on tuesday.

 

[jenks]

Just did my dry static times again, first attempt 2.35 but i didn't feel all that focused, so i thought id allow myself to settle and have another go.
(Have only been having one attempt per day)
Second attempt 3.32, was close to my PB last night (3.45), decided to settle myself again and have a third go= 4.33 new PB.

Is it normal to get better like this in a sequence building up?


Sorry if i sound stupid this is all quite new to me

 

[naiad]

Well done with your static PB.

Yes, it is normal to do better on each attempt. I usually do best on the third or fourth attempt, then if I try to do more it will be about the same.

 

[Bill]

'Is it normal to get better like this in a sequence building up?'

I think that's the main reason that tables are based on eight holds. Try one very easy one, one or two to discomfort and one that hurts for a while. Then stay very relaxed for five minutes and do the max. Each one will probably be longer, even if you do a second max.

 

[Vedrana]

My heart rate during pool statics is in begening about 64-72, then around 5 min static is 34-37.
This static a made few month ago and it was after 8h of work, lunch ....
When i doing packing for static the h/r is lower

 

[watts]

Realy, mine definetly raises with packing.