lung squeeze

[MattHolt]

Another possible contributing factor I forgot to mention earlier is the stress placed on the chest and thorax by the use of mono fin. I have previously used a very hard monofin for diving although I am much more comfortable in stereo fins. I believe the effect of the first few kicks with a mono at depth on the whole torso can cause damage, especially if adopting a streamlined position with the arms above the head and combined with other factors mentioned above.

 

[DeepThought]

Temperature affects stretching, therefore there is a chance it affects lung squeezes as well.
Eventhough most of the body will remain in the same temprature, I can imagine the intercostals getting stiffer 'coz of it.
Martin's said in Cyprus that being too cold hurt his diaphram flexibility for the 103m dive...

Another thing is blood vessel flexibility, I don't know how much blood actually goes into the pulmonary blood vessels, but when they fail to contain it, you get lung squeeze. My guess is that it's one of the most important factors, since every heartbeat you will have a temporary increase of blood pressure in them. And if they are stretched to the max, then....

 

[laminar]

Thanks Alun....I'm on vacation, right? :duh

Pete

 

[naiad]

I find that diving with empty lungs, even in a less than 4m pool, has a seriously bad effect on my static times for at least the rest of that day, and possibly the next day. I don't do it any more because of this, and also because the sudden change of pressure doesn't feel right. This is something which I have noticed many times, so I don't think it could be happening by chance.

Could this be something to do with mild lung squeeze?

Lucia

 

[DeepThought]

Try to descend much slower, maybe it'll feel better.
It is most likely to be some plasma in your lungs that might affect your performence and feeling than real squeze (blood).

Do you hear any weezing in your breathing afterwards?

 

[naiad]

My breathing seems normal afterwards, so maybe it isn't too bad.

It will be a long time before I do any empty lung training again, if I ever do, because I have been put off it for several reasons. If I do, I'll try a slower descent.

Lucia

 

[andystelter]

thanx a lot for all this answers by the way.
many people just tell to stay out of the water after a lung squeeze. i would love to follow this advise but to adicted to freediving. as alan says to turn around when equalizing gets harder sounds good for me. when i pushed myself to 50m i was fighting.
the last days i did a lot of empty lung training to 9meters without having any problems. even better. empty lungs gets easier and easier everytime i try.
do you think i do anything wrong if i train emty lungs as an idiot for hours just to make my lungs more flexible??

 

[ramstam]

I think it's odd that people like me(and others it seems) get squeezed in >12 feet of water when I've seen great divers goto
60 feet on a negative for 3+min during their warmup.

 

[ramstam]

I think it's odd that people like me(and others it seems) get squeezed in >12 feet of water when I've seen great divers goto
60 feet on a negative for 3+min during their warmup.

 

[naiad]

It could be because the sudden change of pressure over a very short time is too much for some people. Another problem could be having contractions at negative pressure - this could easily happen while doing empty lung statics in the pool. Many people find empty lung training very good, but it definitely doesn't seem to work for me.

Part of the problem could be that I already have the raspy/gurgling sound after a forced exhale. This is because about 3 years ago I had an operation on my sinuses (not caused by diving), and since then I have had many problems. Fortunately I have almost completely recovered, but if I remain still for a long time, or breathe cold air, my breathing gets noisy. This doesn't affect my times/distances at all, but I hope it will go away.

Lucia

 

[Gerald]

Originally posted by andystelter
i spit blood my first time when i did 37 meters( pb was 32 before)
the next time i was spitting blood was when i did 50 meters (pb was 45 before).
...
thanks alot for answering andy

@andy: nice to hear from You, I was there next to You when You did Your pb of -37m at the Blue Hole.
Congratulations to Your new personal bests! I can't believe how quickly you advanced to -50m. Please write me a pm (or email me) about the details!

May be the physiology of Your lungs couldn't keep up with Your rapid progress. To illustrate: the CPU was stronger than the periphery .

Just stay for a while at Your level and try to get more comfortable at it. Consider also: negative dives with complete empty lungs are much more dangerous than negative dives with a surface vital capacity of - let's say: 25%.

A complete negative dive to -5m (increase of 50% of total pressure) is just as radical as a dive from -30m to -50m, giving a leverage factor of 4. At least in the beginning keep some air left in Your lungs for Your neg dives.

By the way, here is my contribution about our training-camp 2004 at the Blue hole (Andy is in one of my pics):

Training-Camp Dahab 2004

Photographic report page 1

Photographic report page 2

Have safe and pleasant dives,

Gerald

 

[ramstam]

I have started getting snorkel sqeeze from air in my snorkel,
and after a few times now I use the extra air to get a mouth fill
for clearing my ears and de-sucking my mask. Off topic a little,
but I'm hoping not to get a ticket.