Improve breath hold

[Rene]

I am 16 years old and my longest breath hold is 3:33. I got that time when I was 15, but since then I haven't been able to beat it. Is there any techniques I can use to help improve my time. I want at least a 4:00. Thanks

 

[Apneaddict]

Total relaxation and shutting down any thoughts that enter your brain.

Quietness.

To make the biggest gains, try working to improve your "CO2 tolerance". This will help you remain calm and relaxed as the discomfort builds. Do a search for CO2 tables.

I assume you're doing this in your bed / on land and not in water. Wet holds need to be done with a trained safety.

Check back and report your progress!

 

[MarcinB]

Rene, please describe in details the way you do the holds. What warm up and breath up do you use? When do contractions start? How many hours after a meal you do the max attepmpt?

 

[The Free Spearo]

I'm 16 and knew to freediving and only have a 2:20 record (static out of water) and an average of 1:30 moving around under water and in the water static average about 1:50. This is very poor for my age and the amount of time I put into it, I'll be sure to look at those Co2 tables and try and build my tolerance as well! Does it significantly improve your breath hold?

 

[Rene]

Rene, please describe in details the way you do the holds. What warm up and breath up do you use? When do contractions start? How many hours after a meal you do the max attepmpt?

first i do deep breathing for 1:15, followed by a 1:30 hold. Next i do deep breathing for 1:30 and do a 2:30 hold finally, i do 1:45 of deep brrathing and go for my max. contractions dont come in til around 2:45

 

[Rene]

first i do deep breathing for 1:15, followed by a 1:30 hold. Next i do deep breathing for 1:30 and do a 2:30 hold finally, i do 1:45 of deep brrathing and go for my max. contractions dont come in til around 2:45

theres no specific time i wait after max for eatibg

 

[mrjomac]

Hi Rene,
If your contractions start late and you top out pretty soon after they start it sounds like you're hyperventilating.
For me the most important thing was and still is to be comfortable with contractions - Contractions are my friend -

If you're deep breathing for 1:30 say before your hold with big inhales and purging exhales, try this:
2 mins of normal volume breathing, say 3/4 heart beats inhale and 6/8 out, NO purging (forced exhale), no big deep inhales, take one deep breath before hold (no forced exhale before deep breath) and see when your contractions start.
Hook breathe after hold

Contractions should start about half way through your hold, mine start about 1:30 and I stop at around 3:30. I'm not that interested in max times at the mo, just getting to know my body, finding out what works, what feels right, and should be safe to dive with.

This is a good base to work on (no or very little overbreathing) because now you have an alarm bell that tells you when it's time to come up half way through the dive.

When you've got that base of contractions and are comfy with them for about half the hold time, then start changing things such as using 3 big slow inhales and slow whistling exhales (still without purging - not easy) before hold keeping he 3 in 6 out relaxing recovery.
When you're comfy with that try adding a purge before last inhale.

From getting friendly with contractions (which was and still is the most important thing) to adding a purge before hold took me about 3/4 months so take your time. Everyone is different to see what works for you, get to know your body and have fun.

I do a Co2 table with a hold of 1.30 (half max PB time) and decreasing recovery times from 1:30 to about 20 seconds between holds, and an O2 table with 2 mins recovery time between every hold and increasing hold times from 1:30 to 3 mins and more.

There's some great info here on how to set them up, then tweak them to suit your own thing http://freedivingexplained.blogspot.com.es/2008/03/freediving-training-static-tables.html

Don't do static tables every day, Apnea stretching you can do every day.

Find a safe way to breath and dive dive dive.

 

[wtu2000]

first i do deep breathing for 1:15, followed by a 1:30 hold. Next i do deep breathing for 1:30 and do a 2:30 hold finally, i do 1:45 of deep brrathing and go for my max. contractions dont come in til around 2:45

A delay in contraction... I'm not too sure.. but that sounds like a hyperventilation to me... Must be extremely careful when you are doing what you do in the water!!

 

[MarcinB]

The time from the last meal makes a huge difference in performance. If I eat a big meal I need to wait at least six hours before doing breath holds. Otherwise contractions start much earlier. In your case contractions start quite late considering your max breath hold time. Most likely because you are hyperventilating extensively. It delays contractions, however, when they finally start they quickly become very strong and the urge to breath may be very hard to withstand. Especially if your CO2 tolerance is poor. You give up after only ~50s of contractions, that's very early. I think hyperventilation may be the cause.

Try not to ventilate that much. Do three warm up breath holds with 2-minute rest between them. Breath normally and focus on relaxation, do just one big breath before hold. Before the max attempt do a 3-minute rest, again breath normally, try to relax every muscle, one after another. Do two or three deep breaths and hold. You may also try not to fill your lungs completely but to let's say 90%, it may help you to relax better. Let me know if it helped. You should be able to do a 4-minute hold without any specific training. However, CO2 tolerance is the first thing to work on.