Never been free diving... Lung exercises.

[TheBrando]

Okay, so I have never been free diving but reading all this neat stuff has me very interested. I will be going to Maui in May and want to do some free diving when I am there. But I want to go prepared. So how do I increase my lung capacity? (Right now I can hold my breathe above water for around 1:00 [pretty pathetic,right?]) And I don't have access to a pool, but I do have a hot tub, so will using that to try and increase my lunge capacity for when I go in the oceans of Maui? Also what kinds of lung exercises could I do without a pool that would help for when I do go into the water?
I am excited to get started with this!
Thanks for your help!

 

[Simos]

Hi - best thing you can do or should do rather is find a course to do. Failing that, find an experienced buddy. Breathholding on your own in the water is not safe - there are plenty of people that drowned after blacking out, even in their bath or hot tub so please don't do that. Hot tub is actually even worse because of the temperature...

Also just bear in mind that you don't need to increase your lung capacity. Freediving is foremost about relaxation, so you need to learn how to relax your body and mind...
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[podge]

Freediving in a Hot Tub sounds pretty good to me.
Now where’s Madam Sands when you need her.rofl:chatup:inloverofl

 

[island_sands]

Now here's hot topic!

I can think of a few good reasons to able to hold your breath in a hot tub rofl
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[podge]

Now here's hot topic!

I can think of a few good reasons to able to hold your breath in a hot tub rofl
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And you’d have to leave that monofin at home, be ok with bi-fins though…:troflrofl

 

[fnacinovich]

Hello Brando,

I quote what Simos suggested you already.

if you want to freedive safely, please attend a good course. Fortunately there are many schools out there. Freediving is a magnificent experience, but can be rather dangerous if you try to learn it without a knowledgeable teacher.

You will find elite freedivers writing on this forum and this actually a bless for us all, but you should take a step by step approach, starting from the basics.

So please please please, don't start trying complicated and dangerous maneuvers, don't be bothered about depth, time, lung capacity and stuff like that, not at the beginning.

Learn to relax, listen to your body, to your sensations. Learn to properly equalize your ears and above all learn about the dangers.

Rergards

Francesco

 

[Simos]

Maybe Podge or Island_Sands can offer the Aida Hot Tub 5 star experience... ahem I meant course ;-)
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[ReefTroll]

I am NOT going on Podge's course!!!
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[podge]

Maybe Podge or Island_Sands can offer the Aida Hot Tub 5 star experience... ahem I meant course ;-)
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Mate you wouldn’t need a wetsuit of a set of weights, might need a snorkel though.roflrofl

I am NOT going on Podge's course!!!
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Reefy you’d love a Podge course, just as long as you can hold yer breath long enough to down a pint you’ve passed.:friday

 

[TheBrando]

I have to admit this whole conversation has been very entertaining. But can someone give me some real advice?

 

[JennyWren]

Take a look through what Simos and fnacinovich posted, and let us know if you have more specific questions.

 

[cdavis]

You got some, very good too, but sometimes its hard for a beginner to see. To keep it simple:

1. Do not practice apnea in your hot tub unless you have somebody directly watching you, much better not at all.

2. Just hold your breath(dry), nothing fancy about it. Play with different breathups to see how they feel. Simply the practice will help a lot when you get to the water.

3. Learn how to do co2 tables(dry). Lots of info here on those and very helpful for someone who is a beginner and can't get to the water. While you are doing them, practice relaxing to the max.

4. Do lots of reading and ask a bunch of questions about gear, buy good (not necessarily expensive) gear and try to play with it before Maui. Just a few pool sessions will give you a huge head start. Particularly for the fins, it takes a while to get used to them. At first it feels like the tail is waging the dog. It doesn't take much practice to get over that.

If you can't get to a pool regularly and can't find an experienced person to train with, that is about the most simple stuff you can do.

Good luck and enjoy Maui!

 

[Simos]

Yes sorry, the advice did go a bit downhill but as Connor said, there was some serious advice there which would be perfect (in my opinion at least) for a beginner and Connor made some excellent additions too..

I would add to this that if you are just starting, really try not to worry or obsess at all about time and depth. Just learn to be comfortable in and under the water and relaxed. If all you can do is 1 min (which I can guarantee you if you did a course you'd probably realise that in a day you'd be able to do double that at least), then that's 1 min of enjoyment

The beauty about freediving is that you can just keep diving - it's better to enjoy yourself in Maui and snorkel and do many short dives whenever there is something you want to see closer rather than try to do deep, longer dives that you will probably not enjoy much at this stage and will not be safe either.

When I was at the Maldives a couple of years ago, I mostly snorkelled (although I could freedive) as I didn't really have a buddy and just did shallow dives whenever I wanted to take a photo etc. While it would have been fun to have a buddy and go a bit deeper, I have to admit that I had a brilliant time even just snorkelling - most things to see are within the first 5m-6m anyway so you really don't need to go deep to have a great time.

Maybe just go on the snorkelling outings so that you have some people with you to watch you and just try duck diving down to 3m-5m and equalising and then coming straight up. If you can become really comfortable doing that then it's a big first step.

Resist the temptation to go deeper or hold your breath for longer, stay well hydrated and breath at the surface normally for 2-3mins between dives...

Have fun and dive safely.

 

[ReefTroll]

Reefy you’d love a Podge course, just as long as you can hold yer breath long enough to down a pint you’ve passed.:friday

Ha ha well that sounds far safer!! And a damned good plan.
Hey do you think if I put bread BACK on the shelf over here, they'll send me to England?
Because it works that way in the reverse, if YOU lot steal bread they send you here...

 

[apneaboy]

If you start practising advanced techniques without direct guidance you can hurt yourself, increasing the size of the lungs is one of those things that is thought to help you straight away but in actual fact there is much more to it.

Go to amazon and buy the underwater on a single breath book by umberto, read how to do dry holds and there is some good insight into the sport there.

Patience is everything in Freediving, seeking an instructor and a course was the bit of information to pick out of the conversations, along with the community spirit
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[Kars]

I'm just waiting for the foto's and or video of you you and Sara in the hot bathtub. Or maybe not, because I could get jealous.



There are on Deeperblue some really nice threads started about beginning:
http://forums.deeperblue.com/beginner-freediving/90238-freediving-beginner-questions.html
I'm sure you'll find some great things to start with there.

Also Simos, Connor gave some really nice advice.

Freediving is about relaxation, relaxation under water.
And when everything falls into place and you let go, you may fall into flow

 

[ReefTroll]

That is a brilliant video Kars, thanks for sharing it.

 

[fnacinovich]

Nice video Kars, that's the spirit!

Thanks for sharing!

Francesco

 

[clavin2828]

I practiced dry statics but once i actually got into a pool my time dropped significantly but after a couple days of getting used to holding it underwater my time surpassed that of my dry statics.

 

[Kars]

Same here Clavin, I much prefer the in water breath-holds, much more comfortable.

Thanks for the cheers and rep. people!
Remember the search is ongoing. So your input is very much welcome!