Warming up to breath holds?

[Ash Wilkinson]

Hi all,
Heres my short story of learning breathhold so far. Hopefully giving this insight into my strategies to build a better/ more a comfortable breathold will provoke the more experienced to offer some much needed adive Thanks

Here we go,
my first dives/submergences are just play ranging from 20 - 40secs, aiming to aclimatise myself to the water over a period of maybe 5mins. I will add here I feel a massive tension on the hold even at these low times. I think I read somewhere in another post that it takes 3-4 mins for the body to start to respond to the dives ie heart rate etc. But even after this time I cannot achieve a comfortable 90secs breathold? Is this normal?

After my initial calming dips I attempt empty lung holds on the bottom of the pool starting at 20secs and working up in ten second intervals, to the full minute, aiming at promoting early contractions. Happy days

I then proceed with breathholding static. From 30secs with an increase of 10secs every time up to 2mins. Resting = double the time of each progressive hold.

Early holds really burn until I reach the 60sec mark. Then Its plain sailing to the 2min goal, which was a dry and wet PB a week ago but which, I can now sustain many times over but only once im up to that interval/cycle.

I guess my question is really
Does it always take this length of time to warm up? (maybe a full hour actual?)
And/Or

Am I just asking to much of myself after just three weeks training?

 

[sims]

Massive disclaimer - everyone's body and mind works differently and until you get to situations when your breath-hold gets limited by O2 (quite a bit longer than 2m), it's in my opinion mainly mental rather than physical. However, unless you are doing a table, I think most people wouldn't do more than 2-4 warm-up breath holds before a max attempt - I wouldn't at least, I get really bored otherwise.

Secondly, you're doing empty lung wet breath-holds as a beginner? That's pretty hardcore and hope you have a buddy watching you (in my case, doing a 1m empty lung hold is way more difficult than 2+m full lung frankly).

When the dive response kicks in varies massively from person to person (and subject to training).

For me, it is:
- during dry breath-holds, a few seconds before contractions start (people with more experience often claim dry breath hold also triggers it for them fairly quickly)
- during wet breath-holds, within a few seconds of facial immersion

For your initial shorter breath-holds, what is it that makes you stop? Assuming you are not one of the people who don't get contractions, do you get contractions really early? In that case, you're probably tense and should try to focus more on conscious relaxation (feel free to try things like yoga or meditation, if you like, it doesn't have to involve holding your breath - alternatively, distraction works very well for some).

Or do you feel otherwise uncomfortable or claustrophobic? That could be more tricky.. Some people claim that when training breath holds, you should never 'give up' before your first contractions because you're conditioning your subconscious you're going to 'give in' and make it more difficult. But I don't know how true that is.

 

[Ash Wilkinson]

I do stuggle mentally on the early wet holds, Im not nearly as confident as I am in the later holds and will let any distraction or discomfort dissuaded the hold even at 40 secs. I just feel they should be easier. The contractions do indeed start quickly in these earlier stages rather than in the longer later holds, where they may kick in around 90sec.

The empty lung holds are as you say completed with a buddy, I recruited a friend early in my initial enquiries after learning the need for safety. The strange thing here is, yep the holds are harder, but I think because I accept they will be I can push through. Odd that way I guess

Im happy taking away from this the need for more concious relaxtion and to man up in the early stages. Also to aim too, decrease the time building up to my longer achievable holds. And add tables to my wet training.

Many thanks for your considered reply, it's given me a good look at my training approach.

 

[Ash Wilkinson]

Kept it simple and relaxed in the pool today with just two casual warm up holds and four empty lung 20- 20-30-40secs
Then first static (90secs) comfortable. Took it to 2mins in two intervals.
Safely PB'd in at 2:30.

All done within 15mins
Thanks

 

[Bussard]

I think taking it easy can often help more in achieving your goals than trying harder. My advice would be to push yourself hard in no more than 1 out of 3 pool sessions, and don't expect constant progress of yourself.

As sims mentions, for breath holds like these the difficulties are more mental than physical. A buddy I used to dive with would often surface in a mild panic 1/2 way into his max - his problems were all in his head, his body was doing just fine. I told him the trick to prevent yourself surfacing early was ... don't surface early. Sometimes it's that simple.

 

[J Campbell]

On my first breath hold I just get in the water, relax myself for a couple of minutes, take a deep breath and submerge. Then stay down as long as I can, not going for a personal best, just pushing well into the struggle phase. Usually this is not very long ~ 2 min. What this does for me is inform my body that yes, we are diving now, time to get into diving mode. The following holds are smoother and longer.

 

[Soggy_Kilt]

I'm fairly new to the sport too but have found that doing a Co2 table prior to max hold makes a huge difference for me.

After my last hold of the table I did a 4 min breathe up and hit a big PB, this was all done dry.

A few days ago whilst training with an instructor (doing my first wet static) we did as follows:
3 min breathe up
Hold until first contraction ~2 mins
3 min breathe up
Hold to first contraction + 30s
3 min bread up
Hold to first contraction +60s
5 min breathe up
Max hold.

This approach worked very well too, I equalled my PB exactly however I had set the initial PB shortly after waking and not having left my bed which made a huge difference. This time I had dived earlier in the day, eaten a few meals and generally been quite active.