Warm up or not for depth.

[Alejandro Mirab]

What's the best way to do a Max attempt at depth? Warm up? or just relax, hold your breath and go?

I know in one hand, warm ups will give you later contractions, but less dive reflex... In the other hand, we want dive reflex but no contractions at depth.
Personally i do a small static with no mask at the surface, then a very shallow FRC dive, and some times a little hang at 15m or 20m.

Cheers.
Alex

 

[Kars]

Since I usually dive in cold waters, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany etc. I do my warm ups on land. And there I do it the easy way, hot long shower, hot tea, some swinging and bending of the main muscle groups, and than chest and diaphragm - which I also stretch. Than a banana or two and hot tea and dressed warm to the boat. From the second tea to the OT is about 45 minutes to an hour. At the diveside I sit out of the wind, relax in my plain clothes rest and wait. about 20 minutes for OT I'll put on my suit, 3mm. I hope to have everything on at about 7 minutes before OT, sitting dry on the edge awaiting my turn. 6-5 minutes before OT I get into the chilly water (18c) with the knowledge that my thin suit is just warm enough for say 5-10 minutes without shivering - 1 dive. I move to the line and attach my lanyard. When there are waves and the water or I'm cold I hold on vertically, when the water is warm and calm I float on my back though it's much harder to hear the countdown that way. Sometimes I perform a pack stretch just 3 minutes before OT, but usually I breath very light and slow, letting myself relax. Breathing in I take a big breath without much effort, relax and and put another on top of that. I've got this energy and relaxed inhaling technique from Dave, so I call it Dave's double breath technique. Than some packs to say 70% of packing full, TC + ~0,9 L in my case, followed by a slow duckdive etc.

Like stated in other posts, leaving the surface relaxed is very important.
http://forums.deeperblue.com/constant-weight/84544-anxiety-depth-packing.html
When I'm relaxed I'll have no contractions until I'm half way up to the surface, diving 65m.

It will be interesting to hear what others find effective and comfortable.

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

 

[demasoni]

Hmmmm,

This subject is certainly up for debate as I know freedivers that do either method with success. I guess the answer is "it depends on who you ask."

Personally, I need to do some warm-up like 1 static at 15-20m then 1 FRC dive, all this after a facial immersion.

I've tried the no-warm-up approach many times and ended up getting squeezed very shallow with very early contractions. Perhaps I'm missing something...

I recently attended Martin's camp and I'd add that he always does warm-ups and has done the exact same one for a long time now. The logic being that your body benefits from the power of repetition and conditioning to a routine.

Most schools (at least here in the USA) will all advocate a warm-up whereby you pull down to a certain depth and hold until your first contraction then slowly pull up.

Also, if you do warm-ups, don't think that your warm-up static hold needs to be a certain length of time (popular misconception IMO). For example, just because your warm-up hold is 3:30, then that means you can or can't hit a certain depth. A warm-up is exactly what is - a warm-up; not a stress-up.

Most top dynamic swimmers won't do any warm-up with great results, but for me personally, once depth is added to the mix, the no warm-up approach is too mentally and physically stressful even though it may kick in the DR hard and fast.

My two cents anyways.

 

[Mullins]

Back in the days when I used to do CWT.... I'd do exhale warmups, but only for chest flexibility. I'd prefer to use the no-warmup approach if I could, but I think I could only manage that if I was doing CWT on a routine basis.

 

[cdavis]

Kars: What kind of tea are you drinking, with caffeine or without?

Interesting on the double breath, I stumbled onto the same thing.

Connor

 

[Alejandro Mirab]

Thanks for the aswers. I guess for now i will keep doing my warm ups and take it easy, get used to depth so i don't get depth contractions...:crutch

 

[Kars]

Tea: Without Cafeine, just a herbal tea for 'waking up', Though I have the ingredients I don't know the English plant names for it. But to me it's more about something warm inside. No, I would not take Coffee or "Earl Gray" because the are to strong upsetting morning belly and stress levels. I only drink coffee when I really need it, ie I need to do or finish something in time when I'm actually tired.

About the warm up I do, notice I don't do it IN the Water, but I do perform a warm up OUTSIDE the water.

BTW, when you truely relax and equalise with a rhythm surrendering with confidence to the depth you'll discover you've got air to spare. In the beginning of my freediving career and in every season start I have such a experience. The key to get it is to practice with a warm suit, slow, long dives where the goal is not depth but rather relaxation. At the depth where you start to feel tight slowly turn around, close your eyes and relax by saying, knowing and feeling everything is ok and your body can now relax. This very much is like the warm up dives other people explained.
Yes I do need to relearn my flexibility every season, in order to be able to dive without any in water preparation beyond RV.

Many people tension up, getting lost in using more strength to hold up air from their lungs. Stress. Once you've got it it's hard to get rid of. I just equalise with my air from the mouth full, and when that's getting empty I'll bring some more air up from my lungs, another mouth full. This way I avoid using many muscles often doing Valsava for the first say 30m. At 35 - 40 I'll take my last big mouth full, and you can use the Dave's Double Breath philosophy there as well, saving energy and stress. Maybe call it Double Mouth fill? Apparently some divers manage to bring up air even at around a 100m deep! Besides I think it's a good thing we're talking here to freedivers who are very decent loving human beings not interpreting freediving words and terms in a sexual way, though some of these may be very marketable towards that very profitable growth industry.

Before I get lost with my sleepy mind, I would like to say that Everything is OK*.

Love, Courage and Water,

Kars

*look it up on youtube

 

[fpernett]

I came a little bit late to this post, but wanted to share my opinion.

I think the answer depends on who you are. If you ask Will T, he will say no warm up. If you ask Herbert N, he will say yes, do warm up.

From a physiological point of view I think No Warm up is the way to go, but the problem is if your thorax and lungs are ready for the depth. Will T do deep dives very frequently and also a lot of lung stretching. But if you're only doing pool and seasonal deep diving you need some kind of adaptation to go deeper or will get squeezed.
In my case, all my max attempts at pool are without warm up, but in the ocean my "warm up" is mainly to adapt the lungs and rib cage to the pressure, not to become more confident.
So, I think you have to find the best way that suits your physiology

 

[Scorp]

Breathing in I take a big breath without much effort, relax and and put another on top of that. I've got this energy and relaxed inhaling technique from Dave, so I call it Dave's double breath technique.

Hi Kars,
could you explain this a lit bit better, i didn't really get it. Does it mean that you simply do two deep breaths (inhale and exhale 2 x) before packing and duckdive, or are these two phases of one big breath, with a hold between, at half way, so to say. Sorry for my misunderstanding, but I am curious to know.
thanks,
ivo

 

[Kars]

Hi Ivo,

It's not difficult, instead of carefully and slowly breathing in from the various sections including the upper chest and throat, where the last part really tensions a lot of muscles, I choose to start with an exhale, than inhale a bit quicker to say 90% full. Leaving out the last 10% saves a lot of energy. Now, without exhaling in between, I relax chest etc, hold the diaphragm down and do the second inhale mainly from the chest. Now I'm really full with less energy than if I were to inhale slowly expanding - and holding all the muscles around my lungs stretched in the out most position.
After this I can add some packing to my liking.

Testing sitting on chair behind my computer, a normal (multi section) full breath takes about 7 seconds for me, Dave's double breath takes 7 as well. But as I mentioned before uses less energy and I think is also easier.

I love to hear about your experiences.

Thank you Frank for confirming other's and my own observations, and sharing your experience.

 

[Scorp]

Thanks Kars,
that was clear and it makes sense, will try that.

Concerning my experience, I never did a deeper dive without warming up. What I found very effective and relaxing is the following:
I do 3 to 5 exhale dives to about 5 m, not pushing them at all, say around 1 min each, with some rest between them. After that I am already very relaxed. Next is a deep static at 20 - 25 m, with 30-60 sec of bottom time. After this dive I am superrelaxed und rest and breath up slowly and comfortably for at least 5 min, in the last 2 or 3 min keeping the breath after each inhale for 5 sec. Then two last deep and full breaths, a little bit quicker and without hold, and than down, no packing.
The dives done with this routine are, at least for me, very pleasant, I am extremly calm und feel in total "diving mode".

Cheers,
Ivo