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What's your preferred aerobic training for freediving?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

What is your preferred aerobic discipline for freediving?

  • Swimming

    Votes: 28 26.7%
  • Running/Treadmill

    Votes: 30 28.6%
  • Cycling

    Votes: 35 33.3%
  • Rowing

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • Other

    Votes: 10 9.5%

  • Total voters
    105
Sounds like a great idea John but it's too bad i don't have any sand beaches around; well guess i'll have to find some old shoes and start running in them
 
Want to add a post about swimming again!
Overhere in sweden we have an elite swimmer named Lars Frolander, he freedived to 32 meters depth the first time he tried!
I think that would give a descent picture of what hard swimming training can do.
I dont know if he ever tried to do some dynamic apnea . but my guess is that he would make descent results even there , if you consider that he never trains for making good results in freediving.
I know that they( swedish pro-swimmers) dont breath that much when thay are going for full at shorter distances.
I have tried to apply that kind of training at sometimes, it is also a good way to get your swimming teqnique better even though you wont use exactly the same kind of movement when you want to swim under the water.

Jeppe
 
hi

I was doing my training tree weeks a go -and there was a 15 years old swimmer.... i told him to try dimanic with no fins ..he did 35 meter for the first time very easy...i gave him some breathing tecnique ..but . he have a very good breastroke ...i thing he can go to the 50 meter

swimmer can do freediving ...just they need some tecnique how to take air....
 
Well, all good freedivers used to be a swimmers first (pelizzary too) (at least most of them); it's good to train lungs, to develop some swimming tehniques, learn to avoind any unnessary movements in water and if you try to swim with someone who is training swimming you'll see that he will swim faster than you even if you're pushing it stronger...
 
hi

I least most freedivers used to be swimmer first but no all...i my case i started spearfishing since i was 7 year old...i realized just a few month a go that i didn't have a very good tecnique for swimming.now that i learned i don't see the diferent between me and them......remeber swimmers can do laps doing breastroke or batterfly........but they no are familiarize with everything they need when doing dinamic with no fins..and breathing ..in my opinion they still need learn from freedivers ..

we always training under water.. they don't..

daniel
 
hi

I thing as they same way a swimmer name Henry Meyer experimented with an above-water recoveryof the arms in the breastroke in 1933 .the same way .. some innovation or a new method can be born for freediving or -dinamic no fins-in a future
______________________________________________

" I ma conviced that achievement is greatest when technique make sense to the athlete"

daniel
 
Last edited:
that's truth

That's truth Mlaen...we need each other....and classical swimming is the base.
and the breastroke the one we use now for doing dinamic no fins is the by far the oldest. it had a long and interesting history.for at least hundreds of years swimmer have propelled themselves with a stroke that is somewhat similar to our present breastroke.

Experts have developed refinements for the stroke...I thinK we freediver can do the same in the future...they created the breastroke for classical swimming ..and we have been adopted by this...why no devolped something for freediving?

saludos

Daniel. )<>
 
the breastroke

the breastroke was to face two more threats to its place in competitive swimming .The first of the theats was underwater swimming .Experimenting coaches and athletes found that they could move faster under water that on the surface.japanese swimmers,and particularly the japanese dominate the beastroke. This dominiation was lost when in 1957 the rules outlawed underwater swimming except for one stroke at the start and one stroke each turn.

The second threat to the breastroke came out of Brooklyn, New York n 1933 . A breastroker began experimenting with an over-water recovery of the arms. By bringing his arms out of the water during recovery,his movement was faster because he met less water resistantce. The new method really worked . he increase in speed was spectacular. The first use of the new recovery casused a storm of protests from swimmers,coaches,and official. But the new method apparently was perfectly legal,it could not be beaten,so it was joined. Other swimmers began to use it .Because of its appearence this new variation was called "butter-fly.This stroke proved to be so effective that in time the orthodox breastroker had no change against a proficient" flyer" Eventually the rules were changed so that the butterfly stroke was split off as separate event. One more the ancient breastroke was saved.
 
Monofinswimming....

..is what I prefer because I train the same muscles as I use when I freedive and I get good technique training from it as well!

I use a front snorkel.
 
Reactions: loopy
Since arriving back in Canada, I have started monofinning in the river that runs through our city. I wear a front snorkel and alternate swimming on my sides. The river is fast, so I just do my best to stay in one spot as the river passes! It is a really satisfying workout....I'm outside, my heart's at about 170+, no chlorine, and I am learning a lot about streamlining. This is very different than doing laps in a pool or on a calm outdoor surface. The water is shallow, and I can see exactly where the weaknesses in streamlining and inefficiency of the stroke are. As soon as I become inefficient in any way, I lose ground, so it's easy to see where to correct the stroke or position. I have been doing 45 minutes per sesssion. I first tried with my suit on, but I was so hot I couldn't believe it. The water's about 20C and I just wear swimming trunks.
Cheers,
Erik Y.
 
Reactions: Jon
LOL - when you first get in, does your voice go up an octive or two, or do you feel like you have a couple extra Adam's apples???
 
Vinyasa Yoga & Surfing

Major cardio work and strengthens key muscle groups. Plus, surfing is just a hell of a lot of fun.
 
Originally posted by Cliff Etzel
LOL - when you first get in, does your voice go up an octave or two,

Yup! But the intensity of the exercise heats me up fast.
Great fat burner I think.
Cheers,
Erik Y.
 
I got a waterproof heart monitor because I have a hard time detecting a pulse while exercising. I like to wear it while diving , too, just to observe how apnea affects the rate.

For aerobic conditioning I cycle, fin-swim, and skate. With fins I have to stroke with my arms ,too, to get the heart rate up. Cycling and skating work the thighs like finning, and skating gets my heart rate up as long as I keep moving. I only run in emergencies.

The simplest way to monitor your aerobic condition is to track your resting heart rate while breathing normally . Some of those distance runners have rates in the 40's.
 
Ruddy- Is your heart rate monitor waterproof enough to dive with? My normal heartrate is about 44-48 BPM, when I dive it would be interesting to know what it was. Wish the dive computers would add that feature.
 
Well ... for us gradually aging weekend warriors with full-time-plus jobs, whatever exercise we can work in is the preferred type for me.

Usually this is bicycling. When I'm near a pool or the beach, swimming is also good. I used to be a long-distance runner, but found in my 40s that my knees didn't care for the impact. (Knee strain from running around the beach with 60 pounds of scuba gear on my back was in part what sent me to freediving in the first place, so I guess there's a good side of this.)

I usually wear a heart monitor when cycling, and try to stay arund 70%-80% of maximum heart rate. I'd be interested to know the make and model of ruddyduck's saltwater-compatible heart monitor. I didn't know these things held up in that environment.

As others have noted, stretching and other forms of physical training are probably at least as important as aerobics as preparation for freediving.
 
I know that the Polar heart rate monitors are water resistant, but I'm not sure of the depth limits.

During freediving workshop with Kirk Krack we took a heart rate monitor and hooked it up to Kirk's laptop computer. Kirk was running a program that read the heart rate monitor and plotted it onto a graph. We did various exercises including some statics and it was really interesting to see how your heart rates change throughout the various stages of a static.

Jason Billows
Ottawa, Canada
 
Jason- What did the rates do during the static? Was there a pattern, or was everyone a little different?
 
There was deinitley a pattern.

As the diver became more and more relaxed during breath up, their heart rate dropped. When they actually took their final breath and started the static the heart rate increased quite a bit and spiked on the graph. Then, as they settled into the static, the heart rate dropped again. This was where the biggest difference could be seen from diver to diver. The more experienced you were, and the more you were able to relax, the quicker the heart rate would drop back down. If I remember correctly, the heart rate continued to gradually slow until contractions started, then you would see increases in heart rate again depending on the intensity of contractions and how well the diver handled them. As you reached the final fighting stage of the static the heart rate spiked again. After coming up and breathing again the heart rate settled down quite quickly.

Unfortunately we weren't able to look at heart rate charts during dynamic or CB dives. If anyone has a monitor that can do this, I'd love to hear the results.

Jason Billows
Ottawa, Canada
 
Reactions: Jersey Jim
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