leaky glottis?

[haughki]

Hi All,

I've been working on dry static breath hold tables for about two months now, doing two tables a week, one O2 and one CO2. These tables are a series of 8 breath holds. The O2 tables keep a constant breathe up while increasing the breath hold time. The CO2 are the opposite. The tables are from Performance Freediving.

After a few weeks of starting the tables, I started to notice my glottis was leaking more during the breath hold. Usually it's a small leak, sometimes it starts to get bigger. It makes a buzzing noise which I find it quite distracting--makes it hard to relax. And, sometimes it seems like I'm losing quite a bit of air over the course of, say, a 5 min hold. It also seems to get worse over the course of the table. And, of course, any packing makes it that much worse.

I try to focus on keeping my glottis tight shut, but that doesn't seem to have much of an effect.

At first, I thought it would probably get better as I continued with the training, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas what to do about it? Other thoughts?

Thanks,
Hawkeye Parker
San Francisco, CA

 

[JennyWren]

I get that too, usually about a third of the way through a hold (between 1:00 and 1:30) I get 'tired' and air starts to escape. One thing I've found which helps is to, when I feel that I'm about to start leaking, switch the end of my air column to my mouth. What I mean is keeping my mouth closed, relax my epiglottis for a bit and hold the air in using my mouth muscles. Then, once I've had a break I switch back to holding the air in with my throat. This might help for you too? The only bad side is that I have to use a bit of effort to switch back and forth which can disrupt my relaxation. I don't seem to have this same problem in water, due to the lessened inner pressure.

 

[Bill]

If air is leaking out your nose, a nose clip will fix it. If it is out your mouth you can use what Eric calls a tongue block. Inhale and start a slow exhale out of your mouth. You can stop and start the flow of air by raising your tongue to the roof of your mouth and lowering it. Make sure to keep your mouth open to prevent the lips from doing the job. The tongue is very strong and has great leverage. After a while you'll be able to hold the pressure back with relative ease.

 

[haughki]

Many thanks for the reply!

I get that too, usually about a third of the way through a hold (between 1:00 and 1:30) I get 'tired' and air starts to escape.

Thanks: nice to know it's not just me

One thing I've found which helps is to, when I feel that I'm about to start leaking, switch the end of my air column to my mouth. What I mean is keeping my mouth closed, relax my epiglottis for a bit and hold the air in using my mouth muscles. Then, once I've had a break I switch back to holding the air in with my throat. This might help for you too? The only bad side is that I have to use a bit of effort to switch back and forth which can disrupt my relaxation.

I started doing similar sorts of things. I too find it disrupts my relaxation and generally makes the entire breath-hold more strenuous. It's also hard to get it coordinated right so that I'm sure that a) I'm not losing any air or b) I'm not inadvertantly getting some new, clean air. I.e., when I move back to holding with just the glottis, I try to "re-pack" any air in my throat, but I'm sure I get a tiny amount of good air in there too.

I don't seem to have this same problem in water, due to the lessened inner pressure.

Same here, thank goodness...

 

[haughki]

If air is leaking out your nose, a nose clip will fix it. If it is out your mouth you can use what Eric calls a tongue block. Inhale and start a slow exhale out of your mouth. You can stop and start the flow of air by raising your tongue to the roof of your mouth and lowering it. Make sure to keep your mouth open to prevent the lips from doing the job. The tongue is very strong and has great leverage. After a while you'll be able to hold the pressure back with relative ease.

Thanks for the reply, Bill. Nope, not out of nose, out of throat. The tongue block is a great suggestion; I've started doing it kindof naturally already. I also did try using a nose clip, just to take that out of the equation, but it seemed to just complicate things, somehow. It sure is a funny little world of muscles in there....

I also recently ordered some "Entertainer's Secret," which is a glycerine spray singers use to help lubricate the vocal chords. I'm thinking it could help to shore up the seal at my glottis. Who knows. I'll post back with any results.