What is CO2 tolerance?

[naiad]

This may seem like a funny question coming from me, but what exactly is CO2 tolerance? What is the physiological difference between having good and bad CO2 tolerance?

Most of the time I do exactly the same preparation for statics. Sometimes the reason I stop a static is because the contractions and urge to breathe are too much to bear. Other times I stop with no contractions, and only a slight urge to breathe, but I know that I am close to the O2 limit and in a few seconds more I would blackout.

It definitely improves with training. If I have done a lot of apnea training and static or dynamic CO2 tables, the urge to breathe is greatly delayed.

Lucia

 

[samdive]

Basically speaking, I guess it is how much you can put up with having higher than normal CO2 levels in your body - so for example, the ability to keep calm and composed, even though you have contractions and lots of messages telling you you need to breathe.

The more you train static, the more used to these feelings you should get, and therefore the higher your CO2 tolerance. I'm guessing yours should be pretty good with the amount of training you do!

S

 

[naiad]

Some of it is definitely about putting up with contractions, but sometimes they just don't happen and there isn't much urge to breathe!

I do a lot of training sometimes.

Maybe that changes something?

 

[BennyB]

I think the answer is a bit double-barrelled. In my eyes there are 2 types of CO2 tolerance. The first is where the person gets the urge to breath very late - an example of this might be someone who gets contractions at 5 minutes or more, or perhaps not at all. The second is the person who gets contractions but can hold out for a longer period of time than most.

I'll give the example of my first 5min static, a couple of years ago now (took me 18 months to repeat it too!). I did 10 purge breaths and got my first contraction around 2:10. I went on to 5 minutes with just under 3 minutes of contraction time, or 60% of my static time was with contractions. Does this mean I have a high tolerance for CO2? I don't think so as my contractions came at around 2 minutes. If I don't purge breath or hyperventilate, I will get contractions at 1:30.

So I think the closest answer for me personally, is that my body doesn't have good CO2 tolerance but my head has reasonable CO2 tolerance. At least at that point in time. I find it's very different for a plethora of reasons - hydration, mood, willpower, whoever's watching me (my best statics have always been with a few people watching) and so on.

I think CO2 tables tend to train your head more than your body.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[cebaztian]

It´s actually an intresting question.

It can mean two things:
1) Your ability to endure high levels of CO2.
2) Your "ability" to postpone the onset of the symptoms of high CO2 (the physical breakpoint)..

Sometimes it is said that if you repeat breathholds the CO2 physical breakpoint will move forward. This is as far as I know not true. The only two things that can move it forward are:
1) Ventilate more.
2) Lower your oxygen consumption (which inevitably leads to less wasteproduct of CO2).

So can you increase your tolerance?
Mentally, of course. You get more willpower and endure teh symptoms longer.

But can you physicly increase your tolerance? I let others answer that.

Sebastian
Sweden

 

[matrixed82]

Does anyone know if the amount of buffers in the blood increase with training? I checked a little and couldn't find anything.

If so, that could be some sort of physiological adaptation to increased CO2.

 

[BennyB]

I think (not 100% though) they increase for about 48 hours.

 

[naiad]

Interesting. So CO2 tolerance can mean two things - the ability to delay the urge to breathe, and the ability to bear it when it happens. For me it is a combination of both.

For my dry static PB of 5:45, the urge to breathe started at 4:30. It never became strong, and there were no contractions. I stopped because I had beaten my previous PB, and wanted to finish clean. My pool static PB of 4:45 was similar - there wasn't an intense urge to breathe, and I stopped because I wanted to finish clean.

Last week I did 4:00 in the pool, and my CO2 tolerance wasn't good. The urge to breathe started at about 2:30, and by 3:30 I was having such huge contractions that I had to grip the side of the pool hard to absorb the force. rofl

 

[samdive]

ast week I did 4:00 in the pool, and my CO2 tolerance wasn't good. The urge to breathe started at about 2:30, and by 3:30 I was having such huge contractions that I had to grip the side of the pool hard to absorb the force

oh my god... that doesn't sound like freediving to me... isn't it supposed to be relaxed???? my line gets drawn long before that time, then again maybe that's why my static times aren't great...

S

 

[cdavis]

Hi Naiad,

Eric F has had some interesting things to say about C02 tolerance and blood buffering. Look back through some of his threads and you should find it.

Connor

 

[naiad]

oh my god... that doesn't sound like freediving to me... isn't it supposed to be relaxed????

Well... most of the time it is... sometimes determination gets the better of me! rofl

Thanks Connor - I did a search and there is some interesting stuff. Certainly there is a short-term effect on buffering ability, but maybe there is also a long-term effect.
[ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?t=21797"]progression during warm ups, why ??[/ame]
[ame="http://forums.deeperblue.net/showthread.php?p=510730#post510730"]Static with no warm-up - Page 13[/ame]

 

[naiad]

Yesterday I did a CO2 table, with the longest times so far for that table. It's hard to get myself to do CO2 tables, but this one wasn't bad at all! The contractions came relatively late, and I wasn't bothered by them. I finished the table still relaxed and thinking of nice things! If CO2 tables are that nice, I don't mind doing them!

This must be at least partly because I have been doing a lot of CO2 training.

Lucia

 

[waxlips]

i just took a breath lets write "live " about co2 tolerance in me. i feel tension and contractions now. i have to really fight now. its over for that session now. how did you like it. i don't time them i just do them and can type at the same time.