No contractions, should I be concerned?

[Simos]

Simon just to clarify - in my case at least I would not get contractions if I did some holds/prep beforehand. Typically I would start with shorter holds and build up in duration. Maybe the way I was breathing between holds resulted in HV but the odd thing is that I never had massive breaks between holds (around 1-1:30) so I would expect CO2 to stay at reasonable levels.

If I just do a hold with no warmup whatsoever I will either get contractions or give up before they come lol

 

[azapa]

sounds like your breathe ups are cloaked HV Statics are hard no warm up, but at least with dynamic swims you can count your strokes or observe the distance you pass, ignoring them.

Try a true no warm-up dynamic: arrive at the pool, don't even get wet, sit at the edge for 3 mins (don't do any consuous breathing, just sit there.) and hop in and start swimming. Imagine all the best freedivers in the world are watching you (stress is good) and just keep swimming. Have great safety and be prepared to zoom past your old PB without your head getting messed up. Report back on that one. (hey, this "report back" stuff is fun!)

Full disclosure: the above really works for me, all my PB's are set that way.

 

[Simos]

sounds like your breathe ups are cloaked HV

Yes that's the conclusion I came to too.

My other theory was that building CO2 up slowly by progressive holds somehow makes it easier to tolerate higher and higher levels of CO2. Try it and report back to me lol

 

[Siku]

Azapa: HV or not my breathe up hasn't changed in the last year but my contractions have. As soon as I started having them I recognised them, couldn't miss em! (That was about 6 months into training). Perhaps until then my body hadn't learned to make contractions kick in soon enough for my CO2 tolerance to allow me to get to them. Nevertheless my PB was set with no contractions and some struggle. These days contractions start before I struggle.

I think training affects the bodies physiological reactions and that my body is adapting.

For the record my breathe up for dry tables is sit quietly and relax for approx 30 second, full exhale, full inhale.

 

[Veer]

Just read most of this thread and I'm wondering; shouldn't one be able to do much longer holds without contractions? I've read some people count them in sets of 5, 10, or even more. That means some experience lots and lots of them and each one must cost O2, since a lot of muscles are contracting each time.
So why bother setting them off on purpose by swallowing or other tricks....?

 

[Kars]

Ok, when you're late in the breath-hold, the blood is in the core, lungs, heart brain. Even the belly muscles get less blood. So the contractions do NOT cost very much O2. Your contraction muscles actually acid up, demonstrating the O2 supply is not sufficient.

By contractions the air in the lungs (and blood?) get's mixed up, helping to do some more gasexchange and bloodflow.

Please can someone correct me if I'm wrong?

 

[Phil C]

Hi Azapa,

My own experience would suggest that contractions are not necessarily linked to Hypercapnia in everyone, all the time. On an inhale dive I'm like the majority, contractions come like clockwork once the CO2 starts to build. I rarely have aa dive without them. However on an exhale dive, at anything more than a passive exhale - No contractions. On an exhale I can hold to Hypercapnic tremors but still not even the suggestion of tension in diaphragm.

Clearly this is a complex response, not just related to CO2 levels.

Phil C
Auckland Freediving Club

 

[Killa]

Well I didn't think I have contractions either, but lately I've been thinking that I do have them. But not in an unpleasant way - I just feel the urge to swallow every ten seconds or so.

And I don't hyperventilate. What I do is (pool/walking/static on bed) I breathe normaly trying not to think about it (you know how you start breathing manually the second you think of breathing ), then 10-12 seconds before I want to start the apnea I do 1 deep inhale and one deep inhale followed by my final inhale and then dive.

What I try to achieve with this (1 in 1 out 1 in) is to get fresh air into my lungs without influencing my CO2 blood level.

 

[Azrael3000]

On the topic of diaphragm control: