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How long do you hold your breath

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caterer

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May 22, 2011
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I am astounded that after 25 years of spearfishing, surfing ect. I cant hold my breath longer than a minuet. i especially would like to know from you tuna fisherman how How long do you offshore guys hold your breath.
 
My working dives (spearfishing) are 2min on average, my computer is set to beep @ 2min 45sec. I can do this 10hrs with a 1hr chow,rest and warm up.

Do you smoke ?

Cheers, Don Paul
 
I'm no tuna hunter but hey, every fish is a fish, or not?
Dives between 1'30" to 2' would be just fine, even too much! so you don't need such a big improvement from your current breath hold capaability (and a 2' breath hold is a looooong one when hunting).
I guess that very simply you should work on your breath up technique first. Then you could ask yourself if you waste too much energy and oxygen with unnecessary muscular efforts, sudden accelerations, et ecetera. But again, from 1' to 1"30 shouldn't be a hard improvement to achieve.
 
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I am just starting but my static hold is about 1:45 and my active is about :45 to a minute. However, I am usually only under for 15-30 seconds until I find fish
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Thanks for the replies. That helps a lot. Fished yesterday and by the end of the dive i could only hold for 20 sec. got some work to do
 
Take a freediving course, you'll learn so much.

Did you think of staying hydrated?

The key to breath-holding is relaxation.
Just go to a warm pool, have a buddy and practice static. Your buddy can see where you body is tense. He can also move parts of your body so you can yourself notice these parts are tense. When you manage to relax, the waves will go through your body, and you are just floating like a towel on the water. Now you can do the same while breathing through a snorkel for your preparation with spearfishing. You'll see the more relaxed you start the dive, the less O2 you consume, the less CO2 you produce, the longer you can stay down with greater comfort, less tension, less heart-rate.
Minimising your movement in the water is also key. Behave like a fish, always move SLOW. Now as to breathing, practice this on land and in water, breath from the belly only, very gently, 5 seconds in, pause 2, 5 out, pause 2 ... This should become a natural and fluid like movement. Your mind and body will relax when you breath slow from the belly.
During the dive always move slow, and minimise movement. Also avoid stretching or straining your neck or straining any other parts. As a result you'll keep your chin tucked in when duck diving, improving streamlining and relaxation.
Coming up, swim economically, smaller amplitude kicks, good hydrodynamics, nice rhythm, relaxing your diaphragm and body as much as you can. At the surface take 3 hook breaths and exhale slowly, put snorkel back in and relax for the next dive.
Make sure you got correct weighting for your target depth.
Do not eat heaps of slow digestion heavy foods before. Light stuff, easy to digest stuff a FEW HOURS BEFORE diving really helps. Drink lots and have some bottles on your float so you remain hydrated.
As for practice, dive with you buddy and just have long fun dives focussing on the points I gave you, learning how to relax before, during and after the dive. Do not wear a watch because it's a distraction but have your buddy spot you instead. Focus only on enjoyment and relaxation.

Relax, have fun and eat some fresh fish :)
 
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Kars. NOW THAT IS HELPFUL. THANK YOU. Not only am I tense when I dive I am just tense. Your advice will be very helpful.
 
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Thanks, I'm pleased to help you out.

You can search for 'autogenic relaxation' and see how that works for you.
Alternatively you can enjoy a Tai massage ;)

Also becoming more flexible will help much. In the pool practice back crawl, from slow to high intensity. (low to low-medium intensity when you use it as a warm up for static)

Let us know of your experiences :)
 
Just my personal experience but I find that if I dont train over the winter then when I first start getting back in my comfortable breath hold is a minute, but by the end of the season its getting onto 2:30.
At the end of a 2-3hr session my breath hold will be upto 30s less than at the beginning, as a combination of being tired and cold.
I have done a freediving course and found it really helpful will helping me relax and learning about how and how not to breathe up for a dive.
Just for reference I have lived in Cornwall (the pointy bit at the bottom of england) my whole life and spend a lot of time in the water, spent all my life swimming (been to nationals twice) so im as relaxed as possible in the water, im now 21 and at uni, dont do anywhere as much exercise as I used to but still relaxed in the water which I think helps a lot.
Also a massive help both from experience from swimming and the freediving course is recognising what my body is telling me by how i feel, so then I dont need to know as much exactly how long i can stay down and more on what my body is telling me.
This was compounded when freediving with my local club and I was doing depth progression all day but pushed it on the last dive and mucked up the whole dive, but pushed on did the 37m but then on the return knew that I was pushing it, then panicked and instead of relaxing raced to the surface, got to the surface and promptly blacked out. My mate grabbed me and was awake again in 10 seconds or so, showing both to always do deep dives with a safety diver and also recognising your limit and not pushing it.
Oh my gosh... so my 3-4mins at 6-10m isn't really worth it then?
And t_barcode I would say it depends on what you are hunting, for example when hunting flatfish or at night I will dive for a minute or so, but if hunting bass then I will be at the bottom for at least 2 minutes making noises before anything large starts turning up. Depends completely on what you are hunting and the environment around.
 
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