Negative Lung pressure/inhale

[Fondueset]

I've noticed for awhile I seem to get disproportionate relief 'breathing' from my mask so I started experimenting with this by 'inhaling' with nose and mouth closed during dry statics. (obviously no packing) This technique seems to substantially reduce discomfort and strain.

I'd appreciate any comments - is this method dangerous?

 

[cdavis]

Don't think its dangerous. I notice the same thing.

There has been some discussion on this subject. As near as I can remember, breathing against closed airways, as well as other types of exertion, cuts down the urge to breath. There may also be some small benefit of cycling air between alveoli and adjacent air passages.

Connor

 

[Fondueset]

Thanks connor - what I'm wondering is if it fools you or acctually helps.
On another note - I've been making a point of using my monofin all the time lately - doing a lot of shallow diving along breakwalls etc. - getting close to schools of fish. It's starting to work nicely for me!

 

[wes]

From my experience of many varying trials in static doing tables and dynamic doing repetitive sets (continuous 2x25m on 90 sec intervals) doing what I call "mouth breathing" provides direct psychological and physiological benefits thru delayed and reduced contractions and more efficient use of air in lungs due to better mixing. When I mouth breath I exhale all the air into my mouth and puff out my cheeks, then when the urge to breathe comes I inhale this air back into my lungs then on the exhale, exhale it back into my cheeks. While doing this I visualize doing full "real" inhales and exhales. Also on static and dynamics I delay mouthbreathing untill just befor the start of normal contractions as this allows the dive response to kick in really well first. Mouth breathing from the start of a static hold would delay the dive response so be detrimental in that respect.

Cheers wes

 

[cdavis]

Interesting technique, Wes. I'll try it next week in the pool. Just for my curiosity, how many of those 90 second dynamic sets do you do?

Connor

 

[wes]

Cdavis,

The most I have done is 60 minute continuous so 40 sets of 2x25m. I could have kept going, I just set 60 minutes as arbitrary goal to see if I could do it. I usually do only 30 to 40min like this then switch to 1x25m sprints for maybe 10 minutes which I think are better for building muscles. I find it very very revealing to do repetitions like this and try tweaks to my technique. I have found for example that if I start "cold" with no warmups then the first lap is very easy, the second is tougher, the third is hardest (urge to breathe) then they get easier after that. Usually after 10 sets they have settled down to a stable experience. Then if I want to test some new technique I will switch to that new technique for 5 or 10 sets and see if the difficulty has changed. I judge the difficulty on how early the contractions come and how difficult is the breathe up/recovery in between. I typically will do only 30-40 minutes at a pool session, usually ending with sprints 1x25m as I think the sprints build muscle better than the slower 2x25 sets. I do this both with monofin and nofins, though with nofins I will do 2x25m on 2:00 intervals as I cannot do 2x25 nofins continuous at 90 sec yet, now I can do only 6 sets or so then start to "lose ground". I think this way of training is very very good for technique and not so good for max attempts. I now try and mix in some training days where I do only 4 max attempts and nothing else, copying sebastion murat in what he posts. Cheers Wes

 

[waxlips]

i do that kind of breathing sometimes to make myself feel like i am breathing while holding my breath.

 

[Fondueset]

I've been doing FRC laps too. I stopped doing 50s (was doing 40 inside an hour) because I was getting too acidic. Now I like to start with 30 frc 25s. These are easy so I play with shorter breathe-ups and concentrate on Glide. The big problem there is I get cold. Our pool is running cool due to chemistry issues. Still, I'll typically do 30 or so monofin lengths FRC and work on hydrodynamics. I have 25 down solid in two strokes - I'm within 1.5m of doing it in one in one direction (pool currents - no speedsuit). Then I like to do no fins - also FRC. Usually I'll do a few with legs only - it's amazing how easy those are - then add the arm stroke. (after 10 leg-only 25s I dropped almost an entire stroke cycle when I added arms!) I'm doing FRC only to get neutral so I can glide. I have no buddy so I do not try for PBs or anything more than the occasional 75.
The FRC stuff is a little more time consuming - I allow longer breathe-ups (25-40 seconds) and concentrate on relaxation and technique. If I have time I'll do 50 or 60 25s this way - if it's my lunch hour just 30-40. Then I finish up with 10 hard monofin sprints with breatheups 18 seconds or less - just so I'm not freezing when I get out. Since the experience with just doing 50s every day I focus on keeping the workout non-toxic - and a balance between apnea and cardio - relaxation and hard-effort. After the slow/neutral laps the sprints feel incredibly smooth.

Not strict FRC I know - frankly I'm just interested in having fun It's big fun to perfect technique while minimizing effort.