Hi, great site! I used to be a competitive swimmer, at a national level. I'm now 47 - almost - and two weeks ago I had a bash at holding my breath. I did a pretty amateurish breathe up and after one or two attempts made 4.30. This got me quite excited, and for the last two weeks I've been practicing some deep breathing and this 'air packing' business (not so successful) but I was thrilled to make 5 minutes a few days later, and then 6 minutes, and this morning after a long buildup and quite a few 5 minute attempts I made 6.31. I'm now intrigued about the whole freediving scene, it's something I'd love to get into (I did quite a bit of spearfishing in my youth) and I honestly think I might have another minute in me with the proper breathing techniques.
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Hi
- Thread starter MilesD
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Hi MilesD,
Welcome to the forum I love how much there is on this forum as well, really is an almost limitless mine of information.
Those static times are impressive, Sounds like you are a bit of a natural at this breath hold lark
and the swimming background is alway going to help.
I started freediving with a club NoTanx in brighton about a year ago and I know they have a couple of groups that meet up at a few different pools in London if your are looking for a group to meet and train with. Some of the guys are pretty hardcore and are pushing for comps and stuff.
I would offer a small word of warning, Take it easy on the packing if you don’t really know what your doing the injuries can be quite serious (check out the link below), and the right training massively reduces the risk. But you know your body right?
http://forums.deeperblue.com/general-freediving/97519-lung-squeeze.html
I haven’t done a course as yet but only because I’m a student and cant afford it. Getting on one of those sooner rather than later will stop you picking up bad/dangerous habits.
Remember; Enjoy it and the slower you swim the less oxygen you use.
diddavetellyou
___________________
Have drybag will travel.
Welcome to the forum I love how much there is on this forum as well, really is an almost limitless mine of information.
Those static times are impressive, Sounds like you are a bit of a natural at this breath hold lark
and the swimming background is alway going to help.I started freediving with a club NoTanx in brighton about a year ago and I know they have a couple of groups that meet up at a few different pools in London if your are looking for a group to meet and train with. Some of the guys are pretty hardcore and are pushing for comps and stuff.
I would offer a small word of warning, Take it easy on the packing if you don’t really know what your doing the injuries can be quite serious (check out the link below), and the right training massively reduces the risk. But you know your body right?
http://forums.deeperblue.com/general-freediving/97519-lung-squeeze.html
I haven’t done a course as yet but only because I’m a student and cant afford it. Getting on one of those sooner rather than later will stop you picking up bad/dangerous habits.
Remember; Enjoy it and the slower you swim the less oxygen you use.
diddavetellyou
___________________
Have drybag will travel.
Hi and welcome to the DB family. This is a great group of people on this site who can help with training tips and equipment decisions. I make monofins, so feel free to contact me if you have any questions on them. Even though I make and sell equipment, I think I've formed a reputation for being a straight shooter when it comes to equipment advice.
Train safely, always with a safety-buddy, and I'll see you around the DB forums!
Train safely, always with a safety-buddy, and I'll see you around the DB forums!
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Hi Dave, thanks for that, much appreciated. Yea I know about the dangers of packing, ditto hyperventilating, I do both cautiously although we used to hyperventilate all the time back in my swim days. (I can't really pack anyway, it doesn't seem to go down. I'm more interested in using moderate packing to slowly stretch my lungs and increase their capacity over time). We also did a lot of hypoxic work when I swam - say 20x50m, in a 25m pool, divided into sets of 4, descending from 4 breaths on the first 50m to one breath on the last. The last one was a killer, if we didn't make the turn before taking that one breath we couldn't make it back without cheating and taking another breath. I do remember though, when we made the turn and took that breath and put our heads down for the wall, the urge to breathe would sometimes miraculously vanish. I don't know what you call this, I doubt it's safe but if felt good at the time! The guys swimming nowadays are just phenomenal though, the way they stay underwater after their turns and fly kick for about 15 metres. This is so difficult to do on the 3rd turn of a 200m butterfly, I'd love to know what Phelps or Le Clos could go for a static / dynamic apnea after a bit of training in the discipline. Their lungs must be absolutely colossal.
There's a freediving club in Richmond I'm looking into, I agree it's best to learn from the experts and not pick up bad habits. Two days ago I did quite a long session, lying on my bed, worked my way up to 5 min, 5 and a half and then 2x6min holds, not absolutely killing myself it didn't feel like but finishing the second one I got very light headed, might have come close to passing out. Then yesterday I didn't feel so great, not sure if this was coincidence or if these breath holds take more out of me than I know. I don't know how it would, I tend to think any form of exercise is good for us and a good breath hold, stretching the lungs, seems to me as good a thing to do as going for a run say, but I'm still learning
There's a freediving club in Richmond I'm looking into, I agree it's best to learn from the experts and not pick up bad habits. Two days ago I did quite a long session, lying on my bed, worked my way up to 5 min, 5 and a half and then 2x6min holds, not absolutely killing myself it didn't feel like but finishing the second one I got very light headed, might have come close to passing out. Then yesterday I didn't feel so great, not sure if this was coincidence or if these breath holds take more out of me than I know. I don't know how it would, I tend to think any form of exercise is good for us and a good breath hold, stretching the lungs, seems to me as good a thing to do as going for a run say, but I'm still learning
Well here's Ryan Lochte doing 50 metres underwater in 20 seconds.. I guess these guys train more for explosive speed, which is not really needed in the freediving world!
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZSUQwfg6ZU]Ryan Lochte 50m Underwater - 20.8 SCY - YouTube[/ame]
Did you hear back from Richmond? I emailed Liv about doing their intro course but never heard back. I decided I might as well go straight into doing an ADIA** course as I would have wanted to do that anyway.
Yea I've seen this clip, it's short course yards, Lochte is phenomenal underwater but even more impressive if you ask me is the time posted by Hill Taylor, 23.1 for 50 metres. The clip is there amongst the ones u sent. I haven't contacted Liz yet, still need to print and fill in those two forms, the medical and the indemnity. I live in Kilburn, the overland rail from here goes straight to Richmond so it's ideal for me.