How to start Freediving

[azapa]

Dry statics are so uncomfortable that I normally sit up and start moving around at the end (last 10% of hold). I would pace the room but the consequences would be broken furnishings and head. I can equal my in water static PB this way. It is horrible though, for me and those watching.

 

[fabikp]

Apneaddict, I don't know generaly, but for me, it is because of lying flat, my front side of the rib cage (and belly) is too stretched and I cannot relax completely. Pavel

 

[sai]

Dry statics are so uncomfortable that I normally sit up and start moving around at the end (last 10% of hold). I would pace the room but the consequences would be broken furnishings and head. I can equal my in water static PB this way. It is horrible though, for me and those watching.

Sounds like a high risk of blacking out, if you stand up for the last 10%. I just found myself the perfect position and environment for training CO2-tables...playing games in front of the PC. Seems like this is the only place outside of the water I can really relax when getting contractions, not to mention that the distraction from playing is great. I improved over 25% in just a week by doing this. :t

 

[azapa]

Sounds like a high risk of blacking out, if you stand up for the last 10%. I just found myself the perfect position and environment for training CO2-tables...playing games in front of the PC. Seems like this is the only place outside of the water I can really relax when getting contractions, not to mention that the distraction from playing is great. I improved over 25% in just a week by doing this. :t

READ: "the consequences would be broken furnishings and head"

 

[sai]

READ: "the consequences would be broken furnishings and head"

Ah, you sit up. I read you stand up.

 

[sai]

I've been doing tables since about I signed up here (middle of february) and my progress was pretty good I guess. After 1 month I set my personal best to 3 minutes. Today (1 month later) I was going for a new max, but I only managed to repeat the 3 minutes. So there has been no progress since the last time. I did 3-4 CO2 tables per week, where I progressed also pretty good to 90 seconds breathhold with 45 seconds max pause decreasing to 20 seconds on the last hold.
What could I be doing wrong here? Am I awaiting too much? I've heard with costant training you should be hitting 4 minutes at least after 2-3 months. Since I'm pretty eager, I must say that was quiet a downer today. :hungover
I'm getting my first contractions really early and they have a high frequency of about one contraction every 2 seconds. After that 3 minutes it already was hurting a bit in the chest. So I guess I'm not that bad in fighting the urge to breathe.
Any tips for me? :hungover

 

[martin366]

I've been doing tables since about I signed up here (middle of february) and my progress was pretty good I guess. After 1 month I set my personal best to 3 minutes. Today (1 month later) I was going for a new max, but I only managed to repeat the 3 minutes. So there has been no progress since the last time. I did 3-4 CO2 tables per week, where I progressed also pretty good to 90 seconds breathhold with 45 seconds max pause decreasing to 20 seconds on the last hold.
What could I be doing wrong here? Am I awaiting too much? I've heard with costant training you should be hitting 4 minutes at least after 2-3 months. Since I'm pretty eager, I must say that was quiet a downer today. :hungover
I'm getting my first contractions really early and they have a high frequency of about one contraction every 2 seconds. After that 3 minutes it already was hurting a bit in the chest. So I guess I'm not that bad in fighting the urge to breathe.
Any tips for me? :hungover

No wet training ?
I have trained 5 months, mostly wet but lately i have started doing some tables (mostly FRC o2)
First STA ever in water was 2:45
Few week back i managed 5:27

How does your co2 table look like ?

 

[sai]

Haven't done any "static only" wet training yet. Only static combined with dynamic. My water time is only 2 hours per week. :hungover
You think my times should get better in water? What's your best dry time?

My CO2 table has 90 seconds hold time with initial pause of 45 secs, decreasing to 20 seconds in 8 rounds

 

[martin366]

Haven't done any "static only" wet training yet. Only static combined with dynamic. My water time is only 2 hours per week. :hungover
You think my times should get better in water? What's your best dry time?

My CO2 table has 90 seconds hold time with initial pause of 45 secs, decreasing to 20 seconds in 8 rounds

Sry, i forget to mention that i also do dynamics too
Week ago, i tried dry max, it was little bit over 4min, i feel more comfortable in water
Best dry FRC (@ end of frc table) is 3:20

 

[sai]

Sry, i forget to mention that i also do dynamics too
Week ago, i tried dry max, it was little bit over 4min, i feel more comfortable in water
Best dry FRC (@ end of frc table) is 3:20

Hey, that gives ma bit of hope at least, maybe my times will also be better in water.
We'll see what the next wet training brings. Maybe we're doing static on sunday.

 

[Kars]

Focus more on quality and flexibility.

It's not about just doing a number of tables, and get x result. The tables are a vehicle giving your the challenge, but it is your mind that does the work, the learning.
Make that journey through the body, recognising all the muscles, relaxing all of them, including your heart muscle.

I suggest you let the CO2 table rest go down to 15, even 10 seconds, and do a few extra 15 or 10 second pause dives extra. Enjoy the rhythm, rerelax everything, sleep over, have trust you can do 1 more, always
Then the next time try for the more challeging 1'45" or even 2' CO2 schedule. The point is you learn to keep relaxed independent of the amount of CO2. So when you surface, stay relaxed and focussed, don't pant or use much energy to recover, just keep the eyes closed and time your breathing. When you dive under again, you're back to sleep. When the contraction start you welcome them and move along with them or just let them tense after which you command the area to relax again. Your body may be responding but you are actually ok and fine!
Take notes, try different things, try to observe what's happening and seek ways to relax and comfort yourself.

Doing a nice light Yoga or stretch session before a static can help a lot.

Enjoy,

Kars

 

[sai]

Focus more on quality and flexibility.

It's not about just doing a number of tables, and get x result. The tables are a vehicle giving your the challenge, but it is your mind that does the work, the learning.
Make that journey through the body, recognising all the muscles, relaxing all of them, including your heart muscle.

I suggest you let the CO2 table rest go down to 15, even 10 seconds, and do a few extra 15 or 10 second pause dives extra. Enjoy the rhythm, rerelax everything, sleep over, have trust you can do 1 more, always
Then the next time try for the more challeging 1'45" or even 2' CO2 schedule. The point is you learn to keep relaxed independent of the amount of CO2. So when you surface, stay relaxed and focussed, don't pant or use much energy to recover, just keep the eyes closed and time your breathing. When you dive under again, you're back to sleep. When the contraction start you welcome them and move along with them or just let them tense after which you command the area to relax again. Your body may be responding but you are actually ok and fine!
Take notes, try different things, try to observe what's happening and seek ways to relax and comfort yourself.

Doing a nice light Yoga or stretch session before a static can help a lot.

Enjoy,

Kars

When I do my warmup holds, I get the contractions as early as 30-40 seconds. I've never heard or read of anyone having them that early. And the contractions sure are very frequent. There's a muscle (or muscles) contracting every 2 or 3 seconds, isn't that burning a lot O2? Imagine like holding your breath while flexing your biceps every 2 seconds. :hungover
Are there any strecthing exercices that could help to delay the contractions?

 

[Azrael3000]

I'm a beginner myself as well so I can only offer my limited knowledge.
What do you mean with warmup holds? From what I read here in these forums you should not do that. If you do a max, do it right away.
I also had my contractions starting after 1:15 and now I moved that to 2:00. As Kars already mentioned it's important to get to know your body and relax. What I found especially helpful is doing empty or FRC holds as there relaxation is even more important.

 

[sai]

I'm a beginner myself as well so I can only offer my limited knowledge.
What do you mean with warmup holds? From what I read here in these forums you should not do that. If you do a max, do it right away.
I also had my contractions starting after 1:15 and now I moved that to 2:00. As Kars already mentioned it's important to get to know your body and relax. What I found especially helpful is doing empty or FRC holds as there relaxation is even more important.

If I don't do any warmups (1:00 > 1:30 > 2:00) I bail out at about 60-70% of my actual max. As I said in the post before, my contractions start at 30-40 seconds on the first hold and I've not been able so far to fight them longer than 1 minute and that's already about 35-45 contractions. :hungover

 

[Kars]

Ok, now I seriously think you may be a rather tense person, face a lot of stress, and actually have a lot of tense muscles all over.

Try the following, have your buddy dragged through the water on the surface, gentle pulling you by the head. You just relax and see if you can let yourself flow through the water like a wet towel. Because of you friend's gentle turns you'll notice the tension and resistance in your joints and muscles.

Another way is to have you buddy, during your static move different body parts, you'll instantly know if your arm, neck etc is truly relaxed.
To relax these parts you can deliberately tense them, notice how that feels, and then let go the tension, repeat this to learn. Don't forget the facial muscles, the tong etc.

Another thing you can try is using a sauna to warm up, massage, stretching etc.

Another way is mentally talk to your body and suggest it to relax, become long, become loose, deeper, and ever deeper. Self hypnosis in other words.

Sometimes it's good to do some/ a little running, especially after stressful moments/times, to get that stress out of your body. Then eat some fruit, take a nap and then go to the pool and relax.

Contractions at 35 seconds is something beginners face. But with some good instruction, coaching, preparation, mind and bodycontrol this is often changed very quickly. So I really recommend getting into the water with an experienced buddy and or instructor.

In general I would recommend now to to focus on learning how to relax, so your surface time is until you feel ready/fine again, and your holds are only until your 3rd contraction. The game is to learn to relax better. Times don't matter, relaxing and learning does.

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

 

[azapa]

Don't be worried by contractions or early ones, not in pool and static anyway. Accept and receive them, try to relax again after them. Don't be disappointed when they come, welcome them like old buddies. Contractions help to unlock valuable reserves of freediving capacity, they are your friends!

 

[sai]

Thanks for your post Kars. I think you really hit the spot here. The slightest distraction under water upsets me or even leads me to cancel my dives. I'll have to try that dragging exercise out and focus on staying relaxed.
I'm doing 3-4 times relaxed running and 2 times INTENSE weight workout in the gym. Could that also have a negative effect on apnea times since my body is a lot in recovery mode.

 

[guybly]

Hello Sai, I had that problem breaking the 2'45" mark. in my case, I was tensed up in muscles I didnt even know I could control( neck muscles and lower back). I was only able to go to 3'30" after learning to relax.

hitting the gym, stretching and yoga really help out.

Kars gave some great advice. sometimes we are so used to living with a tensed up muscle that we dont even know it and need somebody to point it out for us.

Cheers,
Guy

 

[Kars]

Ok, another quick tip, for right after you've finished your strength exercise, stretch your muscles. Hydrate eat and sleep. This way you prevent them from becoming shorter.

Also practice mindcontrol, learn to in a relaxed way to focus on 1 thing. You can do that nearly anywhere. Let us know how you go.

Pulling through the water by the arm, feet etc is also very nice. Enjoy being creative.

 

[sai]

Are there any special stretch exercises for the diaphragm?