Holding contractions

hi Guys

Thanks for all the input it is fantastic, im still a bit sore today but I will stop until it dosent hurt anymore. I'am now confused Basco says packing hasn't increased his lung volume but Walrus says it has. I know lung volume isnt all that important in statics but I do depth diving as well and thats why I want to increase my lung size. I don't know what approach to take should I wait until this pain goes away and start doing the packing exercises I was going to do. I really would like to increaese my lung volume and im guessing while im still fairly young would be a good time to do it so that when my body fills out I will have bigger lungs from growing as well as doing some packing or something. As I said before I mainly want to improve the amount I can take on one breath but I also want to increase my lung volume after packing so I can do some Constant diving. Does anyone know how Eric fattah got lungs the size of 10L. Im only a small guy 180cm and 70kg but I like the idea of stretching my lungs for more capacity. If it comes down to having to swim or having to practice packing I would rather do packing but if you guys reccomend swimming I will swim. If Eric Fattah dosen;t see this post I will try and contact him by someone elses email and see what he reckons by the way we have a 9m pool in the back yard. So I hope you guys understand what Im trying to do I think now is the best time of my life to incresese lung size but I just want to know the best method hope Im not confusing you guys.


cheers

ps is my full stops getting better

If I dont remember wrong Eric Fattah had a vital capacity of 7,9 litres or something. Herbert does "only" have 7,4 litres it says on his website.

Walrus, I meant if your lung volume had increased more and more after packing, not just after one stretch. My vital capacity increased after one hour diving with 0,3 litres. But I havent measured the effect over time yet. I'll measure again after the summer and see if all the summer diving has made any difference. Well.. it's not really that important, just take it easy and have fun!

Lung volume

Hi guys,
I have measured (with a spirometer) my Vital Capacity before and after 25 packs, it increase between 1.5-2L in different trials. The exercise, by it self, improves vital capacity (alveolus recruitment), so it's difficult to say if your VC improves from lung stretching or from consistent swimming. I'll wait 6 monts to make a basal spirometry agian to see if lung strethc by it self improves my VC, but I think I can't say, if improves, what was the cause. By the way, Vital Capacity is not the same that Total Lung Capacity
I think, Andrew, that doing aerobic exercise and mild lung stretching will help you in your goals.
Just relax and take your time

thanks guys

This is the plan both of you guys plus walrus have mentioned different things so this is what I have come up with. Wake up in the morning swim for around 1 to 2km come home in the afternoon and do 30sets of my max pack I think this will give the best of both worlds swimming and packing. I still want to email Eric Fattah and see what he thinks but I think this new Idea should help get my lung capacity up. All I need is motivation to train I will train and if I get bored I will tell you guys and you can rev the crap out of me and tell me to train. What do you think about this new training program should I swim more should I pack more. I think the swimming will also improve my overall fitness level. Oh yeah Basco how fast should I swim to get the best effects for lung capacity should i swim say 80% effort. And Frank and Walrus do you think I should do more sets of packing than this. Thanks guys.

cheers

Well, I'm no expert when it comes to swimming, but you should swim so fast that you breathe heavily if you want to get efficient training for your lungs. The best training for your lungs I know of is when I played UV-rugby a couple of years ago. We never had any extra players so we stayed in the water all the time.. breathing extremly heavily. When I came home after the training, my lungs were so exhausted that I had to lay down to be able to breath..

Heart rate

Hi Andrew,
I think is right, try to rest 1 day a week.
Remember to don't push the packing increase very slowly and find your best level (it doesn't have to be tha maximal pack).
A good way to know if your speed when swimming is right, is with a heart monitor, you must stay between 75-80% of your maximal heart rate (220-age), most of the time.

Hi Ivan, you said you are doing 30 sets of Max packing ?

That sounds like a lot. No wonder you are getting sore.
I'm not sure what other people do but I only did 4-8 pack stretches a day, and got huge improvements over only a few months.

Are you stretching as well as packing ?
ie after packing doing side bends etc.

You may be over doing a bit.

Anyone else reading this, How much pack stretching do you do ?

hi guys

Walrus I dont do pack stretching just packing to my max and doing 30sets of that do you think I should pack stretch. Frank i will start this training next tuesday and do it 6 days a week. And Bsco Underwater rugby sounds fun I palyed proper rugby league for a few years that was awsome. You said your lungs were so buggered you had to lay down to breathe that sounds good I hope i can get this from swimming. I will probably swim at around 80% effort for hopefully 2km if I have enough time if I have extra time I will swim more. I swam competitively for around 3 or 4 years from grade 1 to 4 so I can swim all right. Im really looking forward to doing this training program just hope I can keep motivated. And Frank I might do say 2 packs under my max just to keep safe. By the way when I pack this is how it goes I take the full breath put my hands on knees and force more air in, then every pack after that I use the force of my hands on knees to pack a fair bit in each pack. This may be why I can only pack 10 times.

cheers

How?

Hi Andrew,
I didn't understand the way you pack, how do you use your hands in your knees?. Maybe you should review the technique, in the classical article of Eric Fattah about Frenzel-Fattah technique, there is a section about packing you should read it.
I agree with Walrus, is better to do pack stretching.
I made a set of 15 packs with lung stretching.

hi Frank

The way i pack is the same as most except when I put my hands on my knees I can force a lot more air in each pack. Ive tried doing it normaly and I can pack around 15 times. But using the force of my hands I can only do 10packs. Anyway I think i will do pack stretching, mybe something like this pack 5 times then strectch every way. Oh yeah Frank i strated running for the last 2 days not much just 10mins but it was good. On monday I will start proper training wake up swim 2km. 20 sets of pack stretching and a 10 or 20 minute jog.

cheers

Good luck

Good luck.
Go for it.

Thanks Frank

Hi Frank

Thanks for your help Frank