heart rate

[iggy_92]

g'day guys,
i have started some breath hold exercises lately and it has been pregressing fairly well. just wondering how do you guys slow down your heartrate? i have no idea how professionals manage to get it down to 10 or less a minute. are there anything i can start doing at this stage to help decrease my heart rate? mental prepartation? more cardio fitness?

cheers
iggy

 

[jome]

I don't know where you got the idea that professionals go down to 10 bpm. I think Umberto has once said he THINKS his heartrate is below 10 in very deep no limits dives, but certainly in a normal static-competition for example, people are quite in the normal numbers, say 40-70 depending on the strategy and individual. No special tricks are required, simply relax into it as much as you can.

The heart rate does drop dramatically in deep dives as a result of the dive reflex (or what ever you want to call it), but that is mostly an involuntary reaction to incresing pressure, immersion and cold. But such heartrates are not required to do impressive breathholds...

What you can do with settling down, relaxing, stretching and warming up is brining your self to a generally more relaxed and prepared state, a sort of "dive mode", one effect of which is a slighlty reduced heart rate.

I usually stay over 60 bpm throughout a full lung breath hold...All in all I would say don't obsess about the HR, concentrate on other aspects and you will get much bigger benefits.

 

[naiad]

I agree with Jome that heart rate is not that important. My heart rate is usually over 60bpm throughout a static breath hold, and it isn't a problem.

I also agree that the best thing is to get into a relaxed and prepared state.

Lucia

 

[jimqpublic]

Good heart fitness results in lowered resting heart rate, no question about that. The other thing that I did a couple weeks ago is eliminate my daily caffeine intake. That seems to make it much easier to drop my heart rate even several hours after my last coffee.

I'm thinking of going back though. My mornings just drag on without the dope.

Jim

 

[naiad]

Caffeine definitely has a bad effect on my freediving performance. I don't like coffee that much, the only time I have it is when I am working in a place where everyone else has a coffee during breaks.

My resting heart rate is lower than before because of improved fitness, but not by that much. (I measured my heart rate just now and it is 102. Maybe it isn't lower...) I don't go to the gym any more because it is too tiring and has a minimal effect on freediving, resting heart rate or anything else. I do go swimming, it's the only fitness training I am prepared to do for now, and it doesn't make me too tired.

That's just me though, for most people fitness training should make a difference and most good freedivers I know do some land-based training as well.

 

[Bill McIntyre]

My own experience indicates that land-based endurance exercise can dramatically lower resting heart rate. When I was in my early 20s and my exercise was primarily lifting weights, my resting heart rate was in the low 70s.

In my mid-30s I started distance running, and then in my mid 40s added cycling. My resting rate gradually dropped to 38-39 and has remained at that level even though I don't do nearly the mileage now at age 67. I have no idea what it is during breath hold because I have never measured it.

OTOH, there is a lot more than heart rate to apnea time, as my breath hold is lousy. Perhaps that has to do with emphasis, as I am not really a "free diver" but just a spearfisherman who holds his breath while doing it. My policy is to dive as short and as shallow as necessary to spear the fish, and maybe I'd do better if I tried for deeper and longer.

Hmmm. I notice that this is the Beginner Freediving forum, so maybe I shouldn't even be posting, but I'll leave it up simply as one data point that indicates that endurance exercise does alter heart rate.

 

[jimqpublic]

Bill-

I appreciate your experience and advice. "Beginner" refers to basic questions or those at the beginner level asking for advice. I don't think you need to be a beginner to respond though!

Hopefully some day I'll have the opportunity to dive with you and see you in action. You are legendary in your stealth diving and ability to hide from the fish.

On Caffeine:
I'm going to take it up again. I just had a cup of decaf and it was like @% with a &$*@ up #*&@. Especially for afternoon dives I don't see how a cup of coffee at 6:00 will make a significant difference. My employees would prefer me slightly caffeinated.

Jim White
Long Beach, CA

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Jim,

My comment about not being qualified to post in the forum was not because I was not a beginner freediver, but because I was not an experienced one. I'm not really qualified to be giving advice on pure freediving since it is not something I do. Frankly, the idea of tolerating chest contractions or samba, or doing tables to train my body to ignore warning signals from CO2 buildup, is totally foreign to me. I feel that when my body tries to warn me of impending death, its not something I should ignore.

But before I start an argument in a forum where I don't belong, I realize that competitive freediving has to involve coming as close to death as possible without going over the edge, so I'm not knocking it. Its just not something I want to do.

So my only reason for being here was to confirm that at least for me, endurance exercise can lower heart rate dramatically. For the rest of the beginner freediving subject, I defer to the experts.

On caffeine, I'm with you. Its too important to give up for a possible few seconds of bottom time. And maybe its because I've built up tolerance, but I've gone to the doctor right after consuming my morning dose, and the EKG still reads 38 to 39 and gets him all concerned that I'm about to die on the table.

 

[jimqpublic]

... I realize that competitive freediving has to involve coming as close to death as possible without going over the edge, so I'm not knocking it. Its just not something I want to do.
...

Bill,
Obviously Deeper Blue has some very top-notch competitive freedivers. Personally I'm not interested in that other than as a training tool. I want to learn how to be a safe, competent breath-hold diver for general underwater sightseeing and food gathering.

If there were an annual local competition with static/dynamic/depth disciplines I think it would be interesting to enter. Not to seriously compete but as a safe place to push my limits. You can be sure that I'm not going to be pushing for a maximum breath hold at the bottom of a kelp bed with my dive "buddy" 100 yards away.

Finally, I was quite serious about the value of experience and wisdom imparted in your many posts.
Jim

 

[naiad]

On Caffeine:
I'm going to take it up again. I just had a cup of decaf and it was like @% with a &$*@ up #*&@. Especially for afternoon dives I don't see how a cup of coffee at 6:00 will make a significant difference. My employees would prefer me slightly caffeinated.

Maybe it won't make much difference. For me the effect only lasts a few hours. I would definitely avoid coffee just before attempting any serious training, but after several hours the effect is much less. Some people are also affected more than others.