Stair Apnea

[penguinator]

I read on a webpage (Maybe apneamania?) about a particular type of training which intrigued me..

It involved standing up the top of a stairwell with multiple stories (like an apartment block fire-escape), doing your normal breathup, holding, then walking down a couple of stories. Upon reaching your target (still holding) you then 'ascend' back up to the 'surface'.

It is meant to be a 'dry' alternate to training for depth.

I am quite interested to see how many people here have actually tried this, and better yet - see how many people actually have it as a regular training tool.

 

[naiad]

That does not sound like a safe way of training to me. There is a risk of blacking out and falling over backwards down the stairs, with the potential for serious or fatal injury.

I started a thread about dry apnea safety.
http://forums.deeperblue.net/safety/69746-dry-apnea-safety.html

 

[BennyB]

Take the lift dude - it's easier

 

[Lammy]

It's a lot harder than in the water..

I do this occasionally in an office block up and down only 4 floors - can get down but certainly not up after. Going up is very very hard work even from the bottom.

Benny, in the lift don't you just crack a fart and snigger inside as you hold your breath on the way up/down.....

 

[BennyB]

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF FREEDIVING 101: Lesson 12, the elevator fart....

 

[garywhiteeye]

I passed out on some stairs once, broke my jaw in three places, lost a tooth and a hell of alot of dignity and spent a month wired shut eating food through a straw!!

Stairs were sent by the devil. save yourselves and move to a bungalow.

Respect the stair, its a fearsome opponent.

 

[freespirit]

Well, the main concept of this trainning method is good and should work wonders, in theory...but... even just walking apnea (at home, supermarket, etc), it tremendously dangerous, as you can black out, and, you never know how you gonna fall, even if you`re not alone, it can be fatal, and when i mean fatal, i`m not just talking about dying or something, but you can break you jaw, loose an eye, break your neck, even damage your trachea for example if you just fall over something you shouldn`t without guarding against the fall (cause you`re already falling uncounscious, remember...?) I think that`s fatal enough...

Why don`t you try to do some lying wheightinglifting, like resting on the floor with those ankle weights on your..ankles (lol) and wrists and do some repetitions kind of exercises for your back, this done over a thick smooth rubber mat shouldn`t represent no danger at all, and.. it`s f.... hard enough to do too, you just try it.
Besides that it trains you on the streamlined hidrodynamic position you will need for the real thing...

The much more different exercises we find to train the better, and it is really good exercise itself just to transpond other sports or activities to our own one, but we don`t really need to escape so much from our main goal just for method, or it will turn a bad and unoriented exercise, (and then waste of time, overtrainning, dangerous and, with no real gain or advantage...)

If you swim monofin, train hard monofin, if you spear , train hard stereofin, if you swim/dive as much streamlined as you can/should...why not to dry train for that, putting dynamic and static together in one...

 

[penguinator]

Well maybe if people wanted to keep their dignity as well as stay safe, maybe practice stair apnea with a helmet and half a dozen pillows strapped onto you? Or one of those party sumo outfits?

 

[DeepThought]

Done it in the past, never too regular though, but no breathup. Hypercapnia and lactic acid are safer than hypoxia while in the stairs. First time I tried it I kept going down and up for 40+ mins. My legs felt it for weeks afterwards...
Oh, and I go up 2 stairs each step, not sure if it's more or less demanding, I'm just used to climb stairs this way.

Scary story about the Jaw garywhiteeye, makes me think twice about trying it again. :blackeye