Warming up

[GALADION]

For quite some time I am trying to establish a fixed routine to warm up my lungs and muscles before spearfishing.
Does anybody have any good advise on that matter?

Thanks in advance!

 

[takeshi]

a friend of mine does breathholding. He lies on his back, relaxing, and takes some deap breaths and holds his breath for as long as he can. Then he breaths calmly for three minutes and repeats. He dos this four times or so. He says this is what good freedivers do before diving. Myself, I am often anxious to get in the water, so I skip his warmup. However I often experience that it is not until after 5 or 10 initial dives that I feel warmed up and can go deeper and get that nice relaxed feeling. I think with his warmup, you already reach that state before you go in. I guess the freediving forums probably have loads on this subject.

 

[Oldsarge]

Tak,
Your buddy must have been to a free-divers' seminar or something. That is exactly what they tell folk. By spending a few minutes warming up, you get down and happy immediately while the over-anxious are 'bobbing' until they, too, are set.

 

[Freediver81]

Hi guys!

The most reccomended warm up before the dive is doing pranayama!

 

[Judge]

In NSW, Australia we do a lot of diving from 17-19 ft fast fibreglass boats. This can make it difficult to warm up as you approach a diving site. You will be pounding along, leaving the water from time to time if there is any amount of swell.

The first person in the water can often have the pick of the big fish so none of us dally once we have anchored up. It is a bit better if you can start in shallow water, anything to 10 metres (32ft) but often that is not an option.

There are a couple of spots my son and I love to spear that we have to dive excess of 25m (82ft). If you start here it is rough diving those depths without a warm up. THe mammalian dive reflex takes a while to kick in and your first 2-3 dives are not fun. However Antony (my son...25yrs) came up with an easy solution that can be done on a boat in constant motion.

It was simple...as you approach your site you just start holding your breath. Your first breath hold might be short...the next one longer...the third should be even longer. This kicks in the reflex without having time out of spearing. Then as you hit the water you just work on relaxing and take a few slow deep breaths and you are away!

Judge

 

[cdavis]

Judge,

I use the same system. For me it isn't as good as an "in the water" warm up with negatives, etc, but is is a whole lot better than none at all.

Connor

 

[Judge]

Yeah, my favorite is about 30minutes spearing the shallows.

Judge