Twitching Before Contractions?

[bolts]

Hey all,

Just a question for all here. During a recent static session in the pool, my safety spotter and I both noticed that I was occasionally visibly twitching throughout the static. Apparently, this was so noticeable, that my spotter thought this was contractions, but it wasn't, it was occuring as early as 30s into the static. Basically my legs, arms, and back would just independantly twitch once in a while.

I made sure to tell him that sometimes when I go to bed, I typically catch my whole body having a "twitch" not long before I fall asleep. I always attributed this to my muscles relaxing. Since I was totally relaxed in the water, I wonder if this may be the cause??

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them, or may have an explanation to this?? It's just...strange. Just curious...

Cheers!

 

[Skywalker]

Yap I encouter a compareable situation. I had only few statics without thos twitchings. I thought off it as a sign of not being fully relaxed but I am not sure about that. Usualy it tends to go away the longer the static lasts.
I don't know for sure but I don't think that any of my safety buds missinterpreted them for contractions.

Yours

Sky

 

[bolts]

I should clarify a bit.... I don't think my spotter misinterpreted the twitching as contractions, I think he thought that they were "similar" to contractions in nature, but wasn't sure what was going on.

 

[Paul Kotik]

This thread worries me.

I'm beginning to get the feeling that other people don't twitch all the time, as I do. What does doing static apnea have to do with it ?

 

[bolts]

Originally posted by Paul Kotik
This thread worries me.

I'm beginning to get the feeling that other people don't twitch all the time, as I do. What does doing static apnea have to do with it ?

My point is that the only time I notice myself "twitching" is when my muscles achieve a state of near total relaxation (or at least in the transition to that state). Such is the case when I'm trying to do static apnea in the pool just floating there, or when I'm drifting off to sleep.

However when I notice myself twitching in my sleep, the "twitching" is very strong and sudden, like an electric shock going through my body. The "twitching" during my static was much much less violent.

Just trying to see if I'm the only one here with that phenomena. :head

 

[Paul Kotik]

We are both of the Fellowship of the Twitch.


Now it can be revealed : I am the Wicked Twitch of the East.

 

[donmoore]

I usually have one or two strong twitches about 1:20 into my static. I lose a little air from the lungs back up into the mouth and then have to push it back down. Then I am pretty comfortable for the next 1:30. One interesting thing I have noticed is that even though the twitching is violent, my hr doesn’t increase. If I did that much movement doing something else, it would.

If I am cold I will twitch and shiver the whole time and then I quit early. The only time I have tried to push it when I was cold, I passed out.:waterwork
don

 

[naiad]

Originally posted by donmoore
If I am cold I will twitch and shiver the whole time and then I quit early. The only time I have tried to push it when I was cold, I passed out.:waterwork

Me too!!! I shiver violently if I am even slightly cold, and this takes a lot off my static time. I have also tried to push it while feeling cold, and I passed out long before reaching the normal limit.

I have ordered a warm suit...

Lucia

 

[efattah]

Twitching during apnea is an effect described extensively in yoga literature. The yogis say it is 'energy' in the nervous system which is flowing differently due to the absence of breathing. It is also a symptom that you are 'making progress' in your path!

 

[tylerz]

I also get the odd twitch throughout my body sometimes while doing a wet static.

Doing a dry static back in March 2004, my vision began violently shaking back and forth at about 2 times per second. This was not long into the static and persisted for around 1:30. The following is what I wrote in an email about it:

I decided to try another. This one did not have the extreme heaviness but still had an extremely late contraction at 4:24 and then resisting contractions felt the same as the previous but short intervals of 10-15 sec resisting. It felt good and I anticipated a good performance still. At roughly 5-5:30 my vision starts shaking. I think "oh just a twitch", and then it builds up where my complete vision is vibrating left and right. A few seconds later it is moving so much that objects 10 feet away appear to be moving more than a foot over and back, continuously. I know I have plenty of oxygen left and do not understand what is happening. I continue for another minute of contractions, through this experience which is hard enough to put up with just due to the dizziness. Just imagine doing a static while somebody is shaking your head back and forth intensely. It subsides slightly where it is more of a quivering (objects shifting 5inches at 10feet away), so I continue for another while. I look at the watch at 6:45 or so and decide this is not worth it. I stop. Felt fine. SaO2 54%.

 

[tylerz]

Regarding my previous post:

This scared the living daylights out of me! And I have not pursued statics with the same vigor since. At the time I was performing about 5 statics per week, and speculated that maybe I had worn something out in my body. Even though I was eating very well, I was not paying attention to whether I was taking much anti-oxidants. Most likely some vitamin C, possibly a teaspoon a day.

The other possibility, is that I was on the edge of a breakthrough. I had steadily increased my static time on my average, by 30 secs in 2 weeks at that point.

 

[bolts]

Originally posted by tylerz
Regarding my previous post:
The other possibility, is that I was on the edge of a breakthrough. I had steadily increased my static time on my average, by 30 secs in 2 weeks at that point.

Ahhhh...see, when I had my "static twitching" thoughout my static, it was when I set my PB, about a minute clear of my previous best. Hmmmm.....interesting.

Still doesn't explain why my body goes nuts when I try to go to sleep... :duh

 

[Jason Billows]

Hey Bolts.

I don't think your static twitches are the same as the ones you experience when you're going to sleep. When I was spotting you they were very small twitches and what you describe when falling asleep seems to be much more violent.

I also noticed that you had twitches on your warm ups as well as on your PB static, so I don't know if I buy into the "breakthrough" theory.

Personally, I think it's an issue of relaxation. Maybe you're holding tension/energy in your muscles and your body releases it with twitches rather than gradual relaxation.

I've experienced twitches from time to time and it has always been when I'm stressed or tight following a previous day's workout.

Next time we go to train (hopefully next week) you should try a longer stretching session beforehand and see if that makes any difference. You mentioned that you work behind a desk now and most your twitches came from you back. I'd think that some good back streches may help quite a bit as that's the area of your body that suffers most from sitting for extended periods.

I would also think that regardless of whether the twitches are intentional or not, they're using energy to do so and buringin O2. So, if you can sort it out and stop the twitches you'd probably have a more relaxing and better static.

Jason

 

[bolts]

Good points all, Jason. You're likely correct, that it's an issue of relaxing and stretching stressed muscles. There certainly is no comparison in the intensity of the static twitches and the ones I get falling asleep....like I said, the ones where I fall asleep feel like an electric shock and are pretty infrequent. Guh. :duh

I remember you saying that it was mainly my back muscles twitching, which I thought was strange since it felt like it was all in my arms and legs. But I guess that would make sense, considering where my arms and legs are connected to...

Ah, the fun of being a newbie. I guess we're all still learning in some form, even if we aren't newbies...that's what makes this forum so great. You can toss out questions about body twitching and get great feedback.

 

[Veronika]

bolts,

Still doesn't explain why my body goes nuts when I try to go to sleep...

This is a normal neurophysiological occurrence that has to do with the mechanisms of falling asleep. Unfortunately I forgot the exact explanation (it was in one of the worst books I ever had to read for uni so I sold that thing as soon as I had passed the test :t ).
Will try to find out a little bit more in the next few days.

Regarding the twitching during statics it could also be some minor "confusion" of the body. Floating face down in a state of near-zero gravity probably isn't something we have been prepared for by evolution . So I guess it might be that the body sort of gets information via the proprioreception that it can't interpret clearly and reacts with reflexes that normally are associated with correcting the body position. The proprioceptive activities in the human body are individual to a certain extent regarding their magnitude. So that could also be an explanation why some people experience that twitching and others don't.
(Just a vague thought, though)

Veronika

 

[Skywalker]

Originally posted by donmoore
I usually have one or two strong twitches about 1:20 into my static. I lose a little air from the lungs back up into the mouth and then have to push it back down. Then I am pretty comfortable for the next 1:30. One interesting thing I have noticed is that even though the twitching is violent, my hr doesn’t increase. If I did that much movement doing something else, it would.

If I am cold I will twitch and shiver the whole time and then I quit early. The only time I have tried to push it when I was cold, I passed out.:waterwork
don

Wow that must be serious twitches then. All the twitches I experienced were never that forcefully that they could have caused me loosing air.

I will also go for some extra strectching next week hopefully monday and have a look if it improves.

Yours

Sky

 

[JasonWelbourne]

I have hyperventilated before to the effect of experiencing the same vibrating vision effect talked about by Tyler. I also experienced intense Vertigo at the same time. I have aso twice previously experienced this same collection of events upon waking up from sleeping. On those occasions, it has been so strong that I was totally unable to get up and move so as to investigate what was wrong with me.

 

[DeepThought]

Interesting theory Veronika (proprioreception, it's been a while since I read this word anywhere. ).
Another thing that might be a simple explenation - hyperventilation (yeah, sometimes it's the answer to everything...).
By some stuff I read, it can cause muscle twitches.
Maybe you could try doing a static with those twitches, and then stop (once you figured you're having them and probably will have the in the next static) and do a really shallow breahup (maybe even with a few small holds in it) and go for another long static. See if CO2 has anything to do with that?

Edit: oops, Jason already shouted the nasty h-word before me.

 

[Adrian]

For Paul:

I never saw a twitcher twitch,
I never hope to see one.
I'd rather tell you anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!

Or was it purple cows?

Anyhows, I have also "twitched" strongly sometimes when falling asleep. For me it is a release of stress, as the body relaxes it normalizes and does what it has to do. Happens rarely though.

Adrian

 

[jome]

I sometimes get minor twitches, but I'd say it's when I hyperventilate lots.

I used to get noticable muscle twitches under serious stress a couple years back, but curiously, this seems to have gone away since starting freediving. Of course it didn't help that in those days I could drink 5-7 cups of coffee per working day