• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

"Muscle humming" inside my head? :)

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

neekoh

Active Member
Aug 30, 2005
6
0
36
48
Hi,
Lately I've been reading again about equalization and BTV and people who are "born with the gift" of opening their eustachian tubes. I'm one of those who have given it a shot with the persistence to practice for an hour a few times, then call it quits because it just wouldn't happen. :) Now I'm again feeling motivated as ever trying again. I can usually do a comfortable frenzel against my mask without hands, but it depends on the day, sometimes I just spill out a few bubbles trying, then quickly grab my nose and equalize (and usually have to stop descending for a second). It's ok as I'm not competing, but I hate the unconsistency and the effect of having to resort to plan b, usually ruining whatever I'm doing.

To the topic. I can contract some muscles inside my head, resulting in a deep loud humming in my ears. Have been able to since as long as I can remember. The squeeze itself feels weird, like squeezing the muscles in your pelvic diaphragm (had to look it up, hope it makes sense, close to "holding your pee in" ;)), it's hard to keep the contraction going on for very long. When I do it repeatedly in short "snaps", or manage to do it for a longer period, I usually end up feeling my tubes having negative pressure, like reverse equalizing. Only a couple of times, with some jaw-wiggle and a tongue press has it resulted in a slight popping sound. If someone knows what I'm doing, I would love to hear an explanation and perhaps any idea if it could lead to mastering btv. :)
My guess is that I'm actually contracting muscles around the eustachian tubes somewhere, but instead of being able to open them voluntarily, I manage to lessen the volume in the tubes momentarily and in fact sometimes push some air out, resulting in negative pressure when I stop. That's how it feels, but I haven't found a way to really tell. In a swimming pool I've tried to descend to about 1-2m without equalizing, just when my ears start to hurt, then doing the hum trick and the pain goes away for the duration of doing it. Without getting more air into the tubes the pressure will only rise by making the volume smaller. (Or then the pain recedes because of something else.) That in itself would otherwise be cool to find a few more meters when going deeper, but the problem is that I have to "let go" at some point and the pain comes back.
The humming sounds like what you hear if you put your ear tight against your bicep and flex the bicep, only a lot louder. (Ok, not that easy to realize necessarily). To the surface nothing can be seen happening except for mey eyes seem to want to close a bit, and it can't be heard either.

Any ideas, please share. :wave
 
Last edited:
Neekoh,

That 'humming' sound may well be the sound of the muscles 'pulling' the tubes open. Try to verify if your tube is actually open: While this 'hum' is going on, make a real noise in your throat. If your tubes are open the sound will feel very loud, like you're in a cave with lots of echo in your head everywhere (well maybe not that much...).

Try to make this 'hum' effect while you're doing the frenzel (pinch your nose, get a mouthful of air, close the wind pipe, relax soft palette to neutral position, use tongue to push air back and up) and see if this aids in your Frenzel. If you're clearing your tubes then this can help cross you over from frenzel to BTV. Remember you have to get some air in order to fill the tube volume. 'Pulling' the tube open is only half of it. The rest of the BTV is pretty much the Frenzel maneuver.

Practice a lot. Practice, practice, practice.

Best,

Peter S.
 
Thanks, Longfins!
The 'hum' makes a difference in everything I hear, but it's not the same sound than when the tubes are open. After I keep pushing air in with a long frenzel or after a good work-out, the tubes sometimes are left open for a moment, and I know it's not the same.
Whilst doing the hum, frenzel still requires the same effort and yields the familiar pop, that's why I feel it's unfortunately not opening the tubes.
I'll keep practising and try to feel the inside of my head better! :D Thanks.
 
I can make the humming sound you're talking about. Always been able to, since I was young. I've often wondered whats actually happening in my head when I do it. Although I've not been able to utilise it to equalise, it feels as though I should...
 
eckaflx said:
Although I've not been able to utilise it to equalise, it feels as though I should...
Exactly, mate! It just feels to me, the more I practice, that it has no real use for that (or any) purpose. :hmm I also used to wonder if I'm just imagining it.
 
Hey this is interesting,
I can make that humming noise too. Have been able to do it since I was young (still am at 17!). I can do it by using a exhale or almost burping motion or when yawning and it feels like I am using a muscle in my head. I can sort of voluntarily control it and make the hum pulsate but still unsure what it does. It feels like the bicep against the ear hum so I think it is the same thing. I have tried using it a few times but can't figure out what I can use it for. It does feel like it should have a use but I have tried numerous times trying to figure it out.

Well it is good to know that I am not the only one and others are trying to use it. Let me know if you find a use for it or an explanation as to what it is and does.

Catchya, Lachlan
 
Same thing here, slight humming sound, but I can usually hold my tubes open dry. (I know because when I inhale or exhale I can feel the positive and negative pressure change on my eardrums). I just have not been able to do it wet yet.

If I make the humming sound, hold my nose, then inhale through my nose I can suck air out of my ears creating a strong negative pressure on my eardrums.

The humming feels the same as when you yawn but you don't inhale or let your mouth open.

Till Later...

~Picksmith
 
The humming sound is directly related to BTV. I am one of the guys who are born with btv and that is how I do it. When I do the humming sound in water (ie opening the eustachian tubes) I equalize.
 
OceanMan said:
The humming sound is directly related to BTV. I am one of the guys who are born with btv and that is how I do it. When I do the humming sound in water (ie opening the eustachian tubes) I equalize.
That's what I wanted to hear and didn't want to hear. :D It's great it has a relation to BTV, but I really haven't been able to use it for any effect. Must continue practicing - good motivation build-up.
 
ive been able to do it for a long time now and can automatically make the humming noise
 
With me, the humming result in a yawn of sorts at the end of which I have to inhale.
I can however open the eustachian tubes by aiming to get the hum, but bailing out before the onset of a yawn.
It seems that when wet, as long as there is a good enough seal on my mask, I can keep the tubes open without too much thinking of it, but it took me a long time to achieve this. I have to have constant pressure into the tubes to keep them open and mouthfill works well for me on this.
It only worked once I stoped trying, if you could believe that.
Not sure if it counts as proper BTV by pusshing air against the mask. I think it does.
Most of the time however there is a lot of 'spillage' as my funy shaped face cause leackage somewhere on the mask seal.
I am still desperately searching for that' lowish volume mask which dont press against my sinuses above the brow (neanderthal skull for sure) while making a decent seal.
 
I have been searching for this for awhile. i have only been able to do this since i was around 13 and i am 18 now. i am able to make the humming sound and can do it willingly for any length of time. i used to only be able to do it for short lengths of time, but now there is no limit. i tried it while diving and i just couldn't do it. i play a lot of music and i sometimes use it to keep time. the one thing i haven't seen in any of these posts is that the ability to control the tone of the sound. its still a low sound but i seem to be able to shift the pressure to make diffrent sounds? im not sure what any of these things are but its nice to see others can do this too.
 
I just realized now, that i wasn't able to do this until the first time i ever went diving...is this a coincidence? because it kind of feels weird that the only place i can find others that can do this are on a diving site...
 
I just realized now, that i wasn't able to do this until the first time i ever went diving...is this a coincidence? because it kind of feels weird that the only place i can find others that can do this are on a diving site...
it is only freedivers who are open enough to talk about the noizes in their heads. It thing that you might seem a bit strange if you talk about the noise in your head, the exception maybe being a musisions blog
 
Hey, im new here and just registered so i could ask about this. I can do the same thing since as early as i can remember and dont know what it is. I just decided to search online and this is the only thing i found googling about this. I am not a diver, i am musician and sound engeneer. I dont know what am i doing when contracting and humzzzz. Its exactly as you described. What is it? Whats happening? I do this all my life for fun or when i strech in the morning but never could ask anyone about it because noone understood what am i talking about :) i can even make a smooth gradient from soft to heavy like playing an instrument. I home the thread isnt dead yet :))
 
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT