Lung Squeeze Prevention

[Ziphius cavirostris]

I recently started diving in June so I'm fairly new to freediving. A couple of days ago I attempted to dive to ~37 m after successfully diving to ~34 m. I was not able to get to ~37 m and had to abort the dive around ~30 m. On the surface I noticed that I had gotten squeeze after checking my spit. I've realized that I'm diving deeper than my body can handle. What are some felxibility exercises that I can do to help prevent another squeeze in the future? Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[FraDive]

Lung squeeze is a very complicated matter and there's a lot to say.
The most important advises are:
Warm up with several shallow dives before deep dives
It may also be caused by forcing the equalization so try to fix that
Also it could be too much air packing

Francesco

 

[Ziphius cavirostris]

Lung squeeze is a very complicated matter and there's a lot to say.
The most important advises are:
Warm up with several shallow dives before deep dives
It may also be caused by forcing the equalization so try to fix that
Also it could be too much air packing

Francesco

I was using the mouthfill technique but lost some air back into my lungs near the bottom so I forced a valsavla equilization at 30+ m. That probably caused the squeeze. I never pack before I dive.

 

[Alina]

Were you checked by a doctor? It could be a trachea squeeze.

 

[Ziphius cavirostris]

Were you checked by a doctor? It could be a trachea squeeze.

I didn't get checked out by a doctor but I could feel it in my lungs after the dive.

 

[Nathan Vinski]

There are 2 basic things that can be said when looking at your specific situation and I don't think they're related to flexibility.

The first and what I would suspect to be the primary cause of your squeeze would be the forced valsalva. In my opinion if you are doing frenzel equalization properly and in a relaxed way you should be able to make it up to 40m at least. But in any case if you are using normal frenzel or Mouth fill techniques a good habit to get into is that if you loose the fill or are having trouble equalizing normally you should immediately stop your dive. Forced movements with your diaphragm are the primary cause of most squeezes and its always better to stop a dive thats going badly, reset, and try again. As you experienced, forced EQ can result in a squeeze leaving off diving for quite some time waiting to heal.. but if you just turn and reset giving yourself a chance to do it properly you will remain healthy and able to continue diving.

The second being that if you've only been diving for 3 months it's possible that you're body isn't adapted to freediving in a way that will allow you to dive that deep yet. Depending on how much you have been diving your dive response may not be strong enough yet to go much deeper than your residual volume and in time as it gets stronger you will have greater blood shifts allowing for greater and safer lung compression.

Hope that helps.

 

[Ziphius cavirostris]

There are 2 basic things that can be said when looking at your specific situation and I don't think they're related to flexibility.

The first and what I would suspect to be the primary cause of your squeeze would be the forced valsalva. In my opinion if you are doing frenzel equalization properly and in a relaxed way you should be able to make it up to 40m at least. But in any case if you are using normal frenzel or Mouth fill techniques a good habit to get into is that if you loose the fill or are having trouble equalizing normally you should immediately stop your dive. Forced movements with your diaphragm are the primary cause of most squeezes and its always better to stop a dive thats going badly, reset, and try again. As you experienced, forced EQ can result in a squeeze leaving off diving for quite some time waiting to heal.. but if you just turn and reset giving yourself a chance to do it properly you will remain healthy and able to continue diving.

The second being that if you've only been diving for 3 months it's possible that you're body isn't adapted to freediving in a way that will allow you to dive that deep yet. Depending on how much you have been diving your dive response may not be strong enough yet to go much deeper than your residual volume and in time as it gets stronger you will have greater blood shifts allowing for greater and safer lung compression.

Hope that helps.

Your explanation is helpful, thank you. I've been diving 1-2 times a week and am comfortable at 22-28 m. I feel like my body isn't ready to go to depths beyond 28 m but I'm eager to go deeper. However, I've learned my lesson and will be more cautious from here on out. That being said, how can I improve my dive response and blood shift? Should I try RV dives?

 

[Nathan Vinski]

Your explanation is helpful, thank you. I've been diving 1-2 times a week and am comfortable at 22-28 m. I feel like my body isn't ready to go to depths beyond 28 m but I'm eager to go deeper. However, I've learned my lesson and will be more cautious from here on out. That being said, how can I improve my dive response and blood shift? Should I try RV dives?

At your stage, 3 months with 1-2 times per week of diving, I wouldn't even look at RV or even FRC diving at this point. That would put you in a position to squeeze more than it would help your dive response. The amount of diving you are doing would be enough to strengthen the dive response and allow for adaptation to the depths you are achieving.

You said you were comfortable around 22-28m and that your PB was 34. What it seems like is that in some part of the equalization process you are, without realizing, using you diaphragm and as you approach your RV at around 30(ish)m thats when it starts to get uncomfortable because you are working harder and harder to get air out of your lungs.

The best thing that you could do would be to take a small step back in depth, hang the line at around 25m and just work on repeating that depth multiple times over a session. While doing that you should bring awareness to your breathing muscles and try and feel exactly where the equalizations are coming from; Mouth, Chest, belly.. Once you master 25m and can do each dive with perfect equalization using Frenzel, or Mouthfill, then you can use those skills to move the line deeper and work the same things at 30m, 35m and so on..

Its hard to do when you want to go deeper, but sometimes a small step back to an easier depth where you can practice skills will help you progress faster and deeper in the long run. If you master the skill of a perfectly relaxed frenzel, you could quite easily make it down to 40-50m without any real problems.

 

[Ziphius cavirostris]

At your stage, 3 months with 1-2 times per week of diving, I wouldn't even look at RV or even FRC diving at this point. That would put you in a position to squeeze more than it would help your dive response. The amount of diving you are doing would be enough to strengthen the dive response and allow for adaptation to the depths you are achieving.

You said you were comfortable around 22-28m and that your PB was 34. What it seems like is that in some part of the equalization process you are, without realizing, using you diaphragm and as you approach your RV at around 30(ish)m thats when it starts to get uncomfortable because you are working harder and harder to get air out of your lungs.

The best thing that you could do would be to take a small step back in depth, hang the line at around 25m and just work on repeating that depth multiple times over a session. While doing that you should bring awareness to your breathing muscles and try and feel exactly where the equalizations are coming from; Mouth, Chest, belly.. Once you master 25m and can do each dive with perfect equalization using Frenzel, or Mouthfill, then you can use those skills to move the line deeper and work the same things at 30m, 35m and so on..

Its hard to do when you want to go deeper, but sometimes a small step back to an easier depth where you can practice skills will help you progress faster and deeper in the long run. If you master the skill of a perfectly relaxed frenzel, you could quite easily make it down to 40-50m without any real problems.

 

[Ziphius cavirostris]

Okay, that sounds like good advice. I will work on perfecting my EQ techniques without exceeding 25 m. Thank you Nathan, you've been very helpful.

 

[cdavis]

Nathans advice is right on target.

There are excercises that will improve your chest flexibility and should increase your equalization depth limit. I've found great success with a combination of empty diaphragm stretches and intercostal stretches, improves my equalization limit by around 20 ft. Intercostals are simple, sitting or standing, arms over head, full breath, bend from side to side, feel the stretch in the ribs. Sitting, grab your head with one hand, the other elbow on the floor,stretch, feel it in your ribs and the muscles connecting to your pelvis. There are other excercises, but thats what I use.

Be careful with the empties, you can squeeze yourself right on the conch.