My sta practice (help?)

[K.Johansson]

Latley during STA practice (and apnea overall, but especially sta) ive had a really hard time keeping my breath for half of my personal best. My PB is at 3.45 sec, wheras i got my contractions around ~2 mins. Last months, ive barley made it to 2 mins, getting my contractions as early as 30-40 sec but ive been pushing myself to atleast double the time (eg i get contractins at 40sec i push myself another 40sec).

When im doing negative dives 95-99pct exhale i can do 1 minute without any problems, and since i am really new to freediving and never had anyone to ask questions besides google and youtube it kinda feels very hard to motivate myself to actually practice STA.

i am doing co2 table, doing my "i cant breath until i have taken my morning piss" or "my breakfast needs to be done before i can breath"/apnea walks, diving 3 days a week, cardio etc wich works good.
ive been training marsial arts/icehockey/running/skiing etc for all my life and i know that you have low performance "moods" time to time, but ive always had people around me or wheras its really safe to push yourself until you puke, whipe your mouth and continue, this on the other hand feels like its not recommended to push yourself to LMC or BO.

Are there any "tips" or is it just to "hang in there" until the "low tide" is over and progress will happend?

Thanks for your time, and sorry for the bad english.

EDIT: yes, i am aware there might be 300 other posts about this and the general tips are there, but i rather "speak out" and have someone think "not another shit post like this" then doing everything wrong and ending up hurting myself or one of my friends that are diving with me.

 

[Rik]

Dear Johansson,

It's sounds you have a bad case of "Static Apnea Burn-out".

Doing maximal static apnea's, irrelevant of which kind of table, will burn quite easy all of your "willpower" in a short time. It is counterproductive, and it has no place in regular training.

If you start with freediving, you should focus on relaxation techniques. Increasing your performance should be caused by increasing relaxation and improving your diving technique.

When using tables, you should restrict your maximal dive time to an maximal of 50% of your personal best. During your table, your goal should be to make the performance easier during every dive.

As you explained, even 50% is too hard, which is a typical symptom of overtraining.

Your body needs time to adapt and heal from the exercises you do. Take a rest from straining yourself in apnea, and expect that it will take at least 6 months before you should try the tables again. Only do "easy" stuff in the time between. Focus on breathing and relaxation exercises alone. Introduce non-time dependent games in your training like underwater tangrams and puzzles.

After six months, it might occur that you won't recover to your previous level of performance. Overtraining can do serious damage to your longtherm performances, and this is a topic any instructor should explain during their courses.

 

[K.Johansson]

Thanks a lot for your reply, I will take your recommendation and take it easy for awhile.
Skipping sta practice entirely for some months and do floating relaxation instead.

 

[sgnips]

you can also try to make some statics to your "relax time"
i mean: when you hold your breath, you feel good for a while, you then have to come out from you breathhold just when that good feeling is vanishing

do this for a few sessions, forget tables, just take it easy and enjoy, you'l get back in shape for sure (but forget to do it in a week)

you say you're a beginner: leave exhale statics aapart for now, just use it for having a bit of fun at the end of your sessions and be careful with them (absolutely need a buddy)

 

[Bill]

K.J.
I've seen many athletes in different sports who, with or without their coaches, tried all sorts of remedies. Near as I can tell, nothing will change until you get more comfortable. I think that 'pushing' is a bad idea. My favorite remedy for static would be 10-15 minutes to relax and let your mind wander. Then, 2 minutes of diaphragm breathing and a 30 second hold. Increase the holds for 2/1 2/1:30 2/2. Then increase and match for 2:30/2:30 3/3. When the hold feels too long stop, back up and make the session a pyramid. That brought me back to 90% easily.

 

[K.Johansson]

Thanks a lot for your responses guys, I really much appreciate it and I will definitely try them, you guys gave me a big boost in morale by your tips.

Thank you again and be safe.

 

[Bleeth]

Have a similar problem. My PB is around 5 min (don't remember exactly cause it was quite a few years ago (6-7)), was doing 3:30 easy without any preparation (i remember doing 3:00 standing in a bar drunk as a skunk just for fun). Before about a month and a half i started doing tables again and i pushed myself to 3 min with contractions starting at about 1:30-1:40, after a month and a half of doing tables about 5 times a week this morning i got 1st contraction at about 1 min, and almost killed myself to get to 2:30. So it's not just that i haven't experienced any improvement, it seems i'm getting worse by the day. Am i (to quote Danny Glover) just too old for this shit (with 33 on my back) ? I would be ecstatic to get to 4:00 with 1st contraction at about 2min,but it seems that tables won't get me anywhere.

 

[Rik]

Doing tables five times a week is a lot to start with. After a brake of several years, you have to understand that the whole performance has diminished significantly. Also, your breathing technique might have become less optimal, and depending on your lifestyle, other factors as condition and overall health might also impede progress.

So, perhaps you could start your renewed free diving practice with an instructor or freedive club. They can help you to get to your former level. If that isn't an option, I should advice to start with training maximal two times a week in combination with other physical training. Training should be "fun". Doing perfect dives with 20 - 40% of effort is better then doing an 90% dive wish isn't satisfying at all.

Keep in mind that it could take at least one year before your would get close to your own personal record and try to enjoy that year as much as possible instead of making it one year of frustration.

 

[sgnips]

a few, but nonetheless important things to do:

make some statics to your "relax time"
i mean: when you hold your breath, you feel good for a while, you then have to come out from you breathhold just when that good feeling is vanishing

do this for a few sessions, forget tables, just take it easy and enjoy, you'l get back in shape for sure (but forget to do it in a week)

Training should be "fun".

 

[Simos]

Overtraining can do serious damage to your longtherm performances, and this is a topic any instructor should explain during their courses.

Never heard this before Rik - what is the reason? I'm not doubting it, just trying to understand it...

 

[Rik]

Well, it has been an observation of mine in the early years of freediving in the Netherlands. We had several freedivers who trained a lot in static apnea in the "wrong" way. Trying to beat their previous best in almost every training.

A lot of those divers grew tired and experienced an decrease in their performance. In reaction to that, they even started to train more, which returned out in an even worse performance. Some recovered, but other didn't recover at all and quited the sport.

The difficult part of static apnea is that it can cost a lot of concentration and will power to achieve performances, especially when they are forced. This will power needs to replenish itself, just like you need to rest and recover for any other difficult task at hand. If you however don't take that rest, it seems that your capacity to gather that will power and concentration becomes diminished. A bit like an burn-out.

Therefore, based on my observations, I coined the term "Static Apnea Burn Out".

 

[sgnips]

Well, it has been an observation of mine in the early years of freediving in the Netherlands. We had several freedivers who trained a lot in static apnea in the "wrong" way. Trying to beat their previous best in almost every training.

A lot of those divers grew tired and experienced an decrease in their performance. In reaction to that, they even started to train more, which returned out in an even worse performance. Some recovered, but other didn't recover at all and quited the sport.

The difficult part of static apnea is that it can cost a lot of concentration and will power to achieve performances, especially when they are forced. This will power needs to replenish itself, just like you need to rest and recover for any other difficult task at hand. If you however don't take that rest, it seems that your capacity to gather that will power and concentration becomes diminished. A bit like an burn-out.

Therefore, based on my observations, I coined the term "Static Apnea Burn Out".

i am at the begin of a new 3-month period of training, focusing on STA and the major task by now is collecting and recognising all those nice sensations this discipline can give
no max attempts, no forced dives, no hard times, just relaxed holds and self study
hard training, tables, etc are waiting in the second part of the trining
max attempts only in the last weeks before competing

 

[Simos]

Makes sense thanks Rik - I thought you meant for a physical reason initially so I was curious. But the mental side of things is just as important, if not more, in static...