Question How do YOU think I should train from this point onwards?

[Unknowndiver04]

Hi, newbie’s here
I want to be good at STA and dynamic. I’m 20, I’m 174cm and about 50kg, so I’m a fairly small person. I want to restart my training, but free diving instructors are basically out of my reach. I used to train my hypoxic threshold by forcing all the air out of my lungs and holding my breath for 2 minutes while moving around every single day (RV dynamic). It’s extremely demanding and I can’t really stand it anymore, it doesn’t feel effective too. On full lungs and while I’m relaxed, I can comfortably hold my breath for 3 minutes and probably more if I tried, but I stop around this time. What tables should I do and how should I train?

Sorry for the bother and thank you so much!

 

[musubi]

Hi, newbie’s here
I want to be good at STA and dynamic. I’m 20, I’m 174cm and about 50kg, so I’m a fairly small person. I want to restart my training, but free diving instructors are basically out of my reach. I used to train my hypoxic threshold by forcing all the air out of my lungs and holding my breath for 2 minutes while moving around every single day (RV dynamic). It’s extremely demanding and I can’t really stand it anymore, it doesn’t feel effective too. On full lungs and while I’m relaxed, I can comfortably hold my breath for 3 minutes and probably more if I tried, but I stop around this time. What tables should I do and how should I train?

Sorry for the bother and thank you so much!

Hey, welcome to the forum!
At some point I stopped dry land training and just dove. Dove as often as I could. I was training for diving, and diving is what I loved to do.

You don't necessarily need a freediving instructor, although it does help. Find someone willing to dive with you and someone you can be comfortable diving with.

I dove for years, improving my breathhold, techniques, and comfort before actually taking my first freediving course. The course was helpful in safety information, refining my diving techniques, and meeting new people in the area with the same interests.

Good luck!

 

[IvaLi22]

Hi I’m definitely not an instructor, but I restarted after a break in a pretty similar place and what helped me most was stopping the “empty lungs every day until it hurts” approach. I used to do that too and honestly it just made me stressed and tired without much progress.


If you can already hold ~3 min comfortably on full lungs, I’d start with easy CO2 tables 2–3 times a week instead of hard RV training every day. Something simple like 8 rounds of 1:30 breath hold with the rest gradually going down (2:00 → 1:45 → 1:30 etc.) worked much better for me. Then on another day do an O2 table with longer holds and fixed rest.


I also noticed I improved more once I added easy dynamic work in the pool and focused on staying relaxed instead of pushing all the time. Even just 25 m relaxed underwater, long rest, repeat a few times.


Small thing, but having comfortable gear helped me calm down a lot too. I switched to Mad Wave goggles recently because my old ones kept leaking and distracting me, and it’s easier to stay relaxed when you’re not constantly thinking about your equipment.