• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

velum equalizing

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

kirehe

New Member
Apr 28, 2002
86
4
0
I read that you can equalize your ears without using your hand by doing the velum technique ("pushing the back of your tongue against your soft palate (velum)").

I have read about this technique, but I have to use my hand to cover my nose when I do it. Am I doing something wrong, or can you do this without using any hands?
 
Well sorta, so far...

I've been able to use that technique with no hands for slow descents while SCUBA diving quite successfuly. I have yet to get good enough to make it work well enough for faster descents though. I think part of the trick is to start right away and work it constantly. For me at least, any pause will result in enough of a pressure build up that it will not work by itself.
 
no hands equalizing

I found this text on internet a while ago
i downloaded it but lost the URL
the text contains exercises for no hand equalizing
sorry , it's in french, perhaps someone can translate it

Voici donc une suite d'exercices d'entrainement à la BTV (Béance Tubaire Volontaire). C'est la méthode la plus douce pour "passer les oreilles".
Origine du document : Médecine du sport, Bd st Marcel, Paris.
Instructions générales
· Défaire les colliers et tout ce qui serre le cou.
· Redresser la tête plutôt que la baisser.
· Tenir l'os hyoïde d'une main sans serrer trop fort et se mettre devant une glace afin de voir la pomme d'Adam, ou tenir un miroir dans l'autre main (NDLR : L'os hyoïde, c'est le petit os qui tient la pomme d'Adam).
· Les exercices sont à faire de préférence le matin au réveil, à jeun ; observer un repos de 5 secondes entre les exercices.
· La durée de cette gymnastique est de 1 mois, divisée en 4 périodes d'une semaine.
Exercices de la première semaine
Faire pendant une semaine, tous les matins à jeun, ces exercices trois fois, lentement, en observant entre chaque exercice un repos de 5 secondes.
A. Exercices avec la langue
1. Bouche grande ouverte, tirer la langue en avant de façon à toucher, avec la pointe de la langue, votre menton. Puis, toujours bouche grande ouverte, ramener la langue loin en arrière en laissant la pointe de la langue sur le plancher de la bouche. Pousser en arrière et en bas la base de la langue. Contrôler l'abaissement de l'os hyoïde qui doit alors être maximum, ainsi que la pomme d'Adam vue dans le miroir.
2. Bouche grande ouverte, mettre l'extrémité de la langue derrière les incisives supérieures et, avec la pointe de la langue, racler le palais vers l'arrière en essayant de toucher la luette.
3. Bouche grande ouverte, l'extrémité de la langue étant appliquée contre les incisives inférieures, sortir au maximum la langue de la bouche, la pointe de la langue restant toujours appliquées contre les incisives inférieures.
B. Exercices avec le voile du palais
Bouche grande ouverte, langue au repos dans la bouche, pratiquer un mouvement de déglutition s'arrêtant au stade de contraction du voile. Contrôler l'abaissement de l'os hyoïde. Cet exercice, le plus important, est réussi lorsque le début de déglutition provoque une nausée.
C. Exercices combinés avec des mouvements de la langue et du voile du palais
Bouche grande ouverte, la pointe de la langue appliquée contre les incisives inférieures, l'arrière de la langue étant poussé en bas et en arrière, pratiquer un mouvement de déglutition incomplet, s'arrêtant au stade de contraction du voile. Contrôle de l'efficacité de cet exercice. L'os hyoïde, abaissé par la poussée au bas et en arrière de la base de la langue doit être encore plus abaissé par le mouvement de déglutition incomplet arrêté au stade de contraction du voile.
Exercices de la deuxième semaine
Aux exercices A, B, et C, ajouter :
D. Exercices mandibulo - linguo - véliques
Bouche demi - fermée, mâchoire inférieure projetée en avant, l'extrémité de la langue reposant contre les incisives inférieures, la langue sortie au maximum hors de la bouche, faire un mouvement de déglutition incomplet arrêté au stade de la contraction du voile.
E. Exercices bouche fermée
Bouche fermée, pratiquer les exercices B, C, et D en insistant tout particulièrement sur l'exercice B.
Exercices de la troisième semaine
Pratiquer tous les exercices, mais sur un rythme rapide en insistant particulièrement sur l'exercice B, bouche fermée.
Exercices de la quatrième semaine
Faire les mêmes exercices, mais bouche fermée pour A, B, C et D en augmentant le nombre d'exercices du groupe E, soit bouche fermée :
· 5 fois les exercices C, D et E
· 10 fois l'exercice B.
Contrôle de l'efficacité
Pratiquer 2 fois par semaine la manoeuvre de Valsalva (Souffler fortement bouche fermée et nez pincé). Puis effectuer l'exercice B, bouche fermée, et apprécier le nombre de contractions du voile nécessaire pour faire disparaître l'impression de plénitude de l'oreille.



:duh :duh :duh :duh :duh
 
here is my rough, very consice translations.

here is how to do the BTV (thats what the no hands thing is called)

-loosen all tight things aroud your neck
-keep your head up
-hold your hyoid bone (thats the bone that holds up the adams apple) in one hand, dont squeeze to hard:duh look in a mirror to see the adams apple
-do these exercises in the morning, on an empty stomach, take a 5 sec. rest between exercises
-this exercise is 1 month in lenght devided into 4 one week periods

a. tongue exercises

1. with your mouth wide open, try to touch your nose with your tongue then bring your tongue back into your mouth as far back as you can, while pressing down and back with the tip
while doing this control the lowering of the adams apple (which will go from its highest point to its lowest


well, my parents are telling me to get to bed, so i will translate the rest later (or someone else can do it for me)
 
  • Like
Reactions: andrsn
Vince, please continue!

This is very interesting, it's nice we have a translator here.

I have been (dry) practising this kind of equalizing about 3 weeks. But this seems to be more complete exercise.
I have only practised half yawning with mouth closed many times a row, just to learn to control the proper muscles. I understand that by this way I have epiglottis and e-tubes open all the time. This means I should be able to dive to about 25m depth without pinching the nose. After this point I should change to frenzel.

/teppo
 
Last edited:
no hands equalising

i recently discovered that i can equalize without using my hands, but it didnt feel like i was actually equalizing.
i am able to equalize out of water by doing the yawning type technique, but have never got it right whilst diving. that is untill the other day diving with two guns. i did the yawn thing all the time during my decent. the strange thing is that it didnt feel like i was equalizing at all, but i knew that i was because i didnt feel any pain. my explanation is that when you use your hands and blow, you actually over pressurize your ears, and this over pressured feeling is what i got used to as equalizing. it takes a bit of getting used to the new sensation, and you have to go a bit slower, but try going deeper by "yawning" and only pull out when you feel pain. if you feel a bit of pain i think that there is too much of a pressure gradient and you wont be able to equalize.

i have a question for you guys who "yawn eqaulize" or BTV. when i do it i sort of impulse equalize ie. i do quick yawn type contractions. i have been thinking about it and found that i can sustain the feeling that i get when i BTV without the need to relax. its a strange feeling and it sounds like there is air blowing through my head :)naughty dont even think about it).
my question is this. is this air blowing state when the tubes are all open, and if i can sustain this state, will this allow a continuous equalization? if this is the case then i may be able to decend quicker because there is no lost time in between contractions.am i right?

thanks

mark
 
Originally posted by thin_air

here is how to do the BTV (thats what the no hands thing is called)

-loosen all tight things aroud your neck
-keep your head up
-hold your hyoid bone (thats the bone that holds up the adams apple) in one hand, dont squeeze to hard:duh look in a mirror to see the adams apple
-do these exercises in the morning, on an empty stomach, take a 5 sec. rest between exercises
-this exercise is 1 month in lenght devided into 4 one week periods

a. tongue exercises

1. with your mouth wide open, try to touch your nose with your tongue then bring your tongue back into your mouth as far back as you can, while pressing down and back with the tip
while doing this control the lowering of the adams apple (which will go from its highest point to its lowest......

now for the rest


2.with your mouth wide open place the tip of your tongue behind your 2 front (top) teeth, and slowly draw it back on the roof of your mouth, trying to touch uvula(the thing that hangs in the back of your throat)

3. with your mouth wide open place the tip of your tongue on your to front (bottom) teeth, try to stick as much of your tongue out of your mouth as possible while keeping the tip on your 2 front (bottom) teeth

b. exercises for the rear of the roof of the mouth (they say the actual name of this area, but i dont know the actual name in french)
With your mouth wide open (as usual, jee, this is getting kinda repetetive, :)), and your tongue resting, practice swallowing to the point that the rear part of the roof of your mouth contracts while trying to control the lowering movement of your adams apple. this exercise is successfully complete when you start getting an upset stomach

c. this exercise will combine both the tongue movement and the partial swallowing, with the mouth wide open :)duh who would have guessed), press the tip of the tongue on the 2 front (bottom) teeth, and the back of the tongue pressing down and back in the back of the mouth, perform the partial swallow (up to the point of the contrating at the rear of the roof of your mouth)

these exercises are for the first week, for the second week add the following exercises

d.
with your mouth half closed (hey were getting closer to actually being able to do this while diving, now only half of the water that was getting in before is getting in :t ) stick your lower jaw out as much as possible, place the tip of your tongue behind your 2 front (bottom) teeth, try to stick your tongue out as much as possible, and perform the partial swallowing trick

e. exercise with the mouth closed (finally :duh )
with your mouth closed (why do they bother repeating that..)perform exercises b,c,d with the emphisis placed on exercise b

exercises for week 3 (if your still with us at this point good job)
practice all of the exercises, but at a faster rythem, with emphisis on b, with the mouth closed

exercises for week 4
pratice all of the exercises a,b,c,d, and increase the number of "e" exercises
5 times exercises c,d,e
10 times exercise b

perform a "hard" valsalva maneouver (how is that spelled?) twice a week, then try clearing it up (untill you loose the "full" feeling in your ears) using the partial swallowing with your mouth closed technique, see how many contractions at the back of your mouth are nessacery before you can clear your ears


well, there you go, translated into common mans english (the only english i know)

ha ha ha, have fun trying the exercise, i have to wait till i get rid of this cold to start, my ears are plugged solid (anyone know an easy way to clear up my ears and sinuses>?)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tom Lightfoot
well done, vincent
my english is not good enough to translate this

hope this text will help some of you

i'm not able (yet??) to do this well
only a little, and very slowly at shallow depth

good luck all
bruno
 
i have been experimenting with this technique for some time now (before i was sick damn these colds), i think the only way to do this and still be able to get a relatively fast decent is to keep the estachion tubes open for the whole lenght of the decent, once there is a slight pressure difference the tubes become to "sticky" to open again with the BTV, if you use the valsalva to equalize and simply continue with the BTV you should be successful on the whole decent

in the 5m pool that i practice, i am able to get to the bottom no problem about half the time, if my ears are feeling at all sticky, i am unable to do this successfully

the best method i found to practice is to do a simple breathup and then let enough air out of your lungs that you can SLOWLY float to the bottom, then its easier to concentrate on equalizing

good luck, and dont hurt your ears
 
thanks

Aloha Vincent
Thanks for the translation. Things are a lot better in this information age. My dive buddy and I spent the whole summer learning this, about fifty years ago. You're right, when things are good, you can just open the tubes and kick hard. If it's a little sticky, just start clicking them 2 times a second as soon as you raise your foot. I presume every one hears them open.
After aboutr ten years in S. California smog, I found out about sinuses the hard way. Now, in a very smoggy Kona, I must use valsalva for these other holes in my head.
Bill
 
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT