Question How often do exercises

[Bmodi]

Hi,

I‘ve „found“ freediving and to learn to relaxe via a podcast. I „train“ static because of everything which is necessary to increase one’s PB. But mainly to handle stress and my live in a better way.

My main question is how often I can do breath exercises like an CO2 table? I would love to do it on a daily basis but if one reads about it you can read that you should only do it 3-4 times a week. To also give your body time to „recover“. However even doing a - for me - harder CO2 table where I also get some contractions, I do not have the feeling that this is hard for my body or that I need a lot of time to recover. I am familiar with training methods based on running. I do half marathon‘s as a hobby and my PB is below 1:25h. Therefore I am quite fit.

My question: how often can I do demanding breath holding exercises? How often try to beat my PB?

 

[rollerGR]

It's quite common for good spearos to dive daily or every second day, for 2+ hours at a time. So you can definitely do it frequently especially in static holds where there's no dynamic variables or muscle exertion. I find the most important thing -after relaxing- to be the recovery (surface) time between dives (apneas), which are 2-3x the diving time minimum. You could try doing them daily for 30-60mins with good rest inbetween, 3-4x and see how your body responds. It differs from person to person and even from day to day for the same person.

I think it's better to try this way first before trying more competition training-oriented freediving techniques, which might indeed require some recovery days inbetween especially if following a mixed training regiment.

 

[Bmodi]

Thank you for the reply. Ok - just thought doing even only 1 CO2 table a day is too much…but as I said, doing it can be hard, however after a session I do not feel that I need a day break.

 

[Pavel2]

Hi.
I have the same question as the OP of this thread. The guide at https://freedivingapp.pro/how-to-guide.html says that a CO2 table should be done every other day (at least for the first two weeks). This seems counterintuitive — just one short training session every other day — can that really be effective?


RollerGR wrote: “try doing them daily for 30-60 mins”; which is several times more intensive and seems more like what is typically called a "workout".

So, in the end, who should I believe? And what is the correct way to do dry training with the CO2 tables?

 

[rollerGR]

My suggestion wasn't about a CO2 table but about static holds spread over a long period of time, continuously. As something to do instead of CO2 table exercises, and doesn't work on the body in the same way.

 

[Pavel2]

Ah, thank you. And have you any advice about doing CO2 tables?

 

[rollerGR]

Ah, thank you. And have you any advice about doing CO2 tables?

Purely out of hunch since I have no experience with CO2 tables (all my training is just dynamic apnea while hunting): combining CO2 training and O2 training.

Something like this:

Breathe 0:45 sec - Hold 0:25 sec
Breathe 0:45 sec - Hold 0:45 sec
Breathe 0:45 sec - Hold 1:00 min

rest for 2 minutes (normal breathing recovery)

Breathe 1:30 mins - Hold 1:00 mins
Breathe 1:30 mins - Hold 1:30 mins
Breathe 1:30 mins - Hold 1:45 mins
Breathe 1:30 mins - Hold 2:00 mins

rest for 4 minutes (normal breathing recovery)

Breathe 0:30 sec - Hold 0:30 sec
Breathe 0:30 sec - Hold 0:45 sec
Breathe 0:30 sec - Hold 1:00 mins

rest for 2 or 3 minutes (normal breathing recovery)

static apnea hold (stop as approaching limit, whatever it may be. Do not watch timer until done; focus on staying relaxed)

recovery twice as long as the time you did

repeat static apnea hold

Again, purely out of hunch. I'll try it out tomorrow and see how it feels.

 

[rollerGR]

Tried it now because I was too bored to wait for tomorrow. Was alright. Final static hold apneas are unnecessary I think. Was very comfortable throughout. Did recovery breathing for every single rep, and it looked like this:
breathe -> stop timer and inhale -> start timer -> look at ceiling and look timer at intervals -> stop timer and recovery breathing -> start timer for next rep, breathe. If I did inbetween rest, timer was off.

So the revised table would be:
Breathe 0:45 sec - Hold 0:25 sec
Breathe 0:45 sec - Hold 0:45 sec
Breathe 0:45 sec - Hold 1:00 min

rest for 2 minutes (normal breathing recovery)

Breathe 1:30 mins - Hold 1:00 mins
Breathe 1:30 mins - Hold 1:30 mins
Breathe 1:30 mins - Hold 1:45 mins
Breathe 1:30 mins - Hold 2:00 mins

rest for 4 minutes (normal breathing recovery)

Breathe 0:30 sec - Hold 0:30 sec
Breathe 0:30 sec - Hold 0:45 sec
Breathe 0:30 sec - Hold 1:00 mins

Maybe final set could be pushed to
Breathe 0:30 sec - Hold 0:30 sec
Breathe 0:30 sec - Hold 1:00 mins
Breathe 0:30 sec - Hold 1:30 mins

 

[Pavel2]

Thank you, RollerGr.