Warmup before static tables?

[Frank O'Donnell]

Hi all, well, I finally decided to get a little bit serious about training this week and have started doing static tables. For now I'm doing the CO2 tables we received in Performance Freediving's clinic.

I've noticed as I work up through some of the levels that, although I can handle breathholds in the middle to latter part of the session, the first one is always a little more tough because I'm coming into it cold as the first breathhold of the day. Now I know in, say, pool or ocean work it's usual to do a couple of shorter/shallower warmup dives before going for one that really stretches you.

With that in mind, is it normal to do some amount of warmup before starting a static table? How much is usual -- just a quick short static or two to get in the groove?

 

[DeepThought]

Sometime I do a 2 minute warmup hold before the CO2 table, I don't think there's any harm done by doing another breathold...
You can try doing your warmup hold till first urge to breath, or first contraction.

 

[Frank O'Donnell]

And a follow-up ...

Thanks for the input.

Do most folks do static tables 7 days a week, or is it normal/desirable to insert the occasional break day?

 

[Kars]

I always do some yoga streching before, the sungreeting works nice. Followed by a little bandha uddiyana. To get the appropiate muscles ready.

My PR currently is 6:11, and I do very little table workouts. Only one a week. I find it much better to improve overal stanima, flexibility, swimming technique and mental peace. 7 day's a week would not be good because:
You're body needs time to recover and grow, and when is that if you practice 7 day's a week?
Doing many breathholds does wear you down immensly, first the body, but soon afterwards the mind as well. After a few days of hard training apnea breaks the mind and you may very well begin to hate the training, maybe even the sport..

Rest is just as important for training, here's mine "schedule"

Monday: cycling 10km, monofin swimming 16x50m.+extra's
Tuesday: cycling 10km, monofin swimming 1 hour.
wednesday: cycling 24km, static Co2 of O2 schedule + 16x50
Thursday: Rest,
Friday: cycling 32km, 16x50 or an hour easy technique practicing
Saturday: 1 hour heavy monofin training
Sunday: rest.

That's about and average training week for me, I strech almost everyday as I really have a stiff back.

I see an static training as an exercise in finding the peace of mind and let every tension in my body float away combined with doing a proper breathup, and the comming up technique. For me it's not the key to gain every time a certain time or a PR, I just go for a perfect technique. I leave my watch on the shore and my buddy counts down and tells my numbers only after the last breathhold.

Good luck with training, keep us posted!

Kars

 

[portinfer]

Hi Frank,
I recently started on the dry tables too. And I would agree with Kars about the resting.

From reading around and from trying the tables I find that for me 3 times a week is good. I generally an oxygen table then wait 2 days before doing another one. For me every other day is too much and perhaps it would stress my body too much at this early stage - go slow and you won't be disapointed by an injury - like with most excercising.

I also cycle like Kars - not sure how much I do but at least 20 to 40 mins a day at high speed (gets the blood pumping and makes me forget that I drive a desk at work...). I have a nice commute to work along the coast.

Weekend cycling too. Normally most of the morning / flat and hills on road.

I'm about to go to a few training sessions with some local freedivers so hopefully can start including the technique training that Kars mentions.

Kars has a pretty good all round training schedule. I think that's important - otherwise you might get bored and also you might not train muscles / areas that you should be.

I go bouldering too when I can. i find this is really relaxing for the mind and a pretty good workout too. Anyway - rambling now - hope that's helpful. If you haven't already, try to hook up with some like minded people - makes the training safer and more fun. Ed

 

[Frank O'Donnell]

Thanks to Kars and portinfer for the comments, good advice.

I should mention that the tables aren't the only training I'm doing -- I also have a regular regimen of bicycle cardio, stretching, light weight work, occasional swimming etc. But since I was on the lower end of the scale in terms of breathhold ability when I took the PFD clinic last year, I wanted to get into a consistent static practice, particularly to build CO2 tolerance.

Thanks again for the ideas, and I'll definitely throw in resting days.

 

[Bill]

Frank
I seem to have that problem too. The first hold is often the most difficult. Now I do five minutes of stretching ending with a series of one breath negatives that increase from 10 -50 seconds. When the heart rate shifts gears, you are ready, physically and mentally. After doing this on my back, I walked over to the pool, sat on the shallow step, took five deep breaths and did a static about 70% of PB.
Aloha
Bill