Normal breathing pattern or holding breath?

[Huey94]

A quick self check question. My breathing pattern underwater mimics my breathing on the surface... A deep, slow, abdominal breath in.. 1-2 second pause, then exhale...1-2 second pause. I've begun questioning whether this is considered holding my breath. Not a big concern for me at shallower depths, but I'm diving several 80-100 dives next week. Am I holding my breath? If 1-2 seconds isn't holding my breath, when is?

Might be splitting hairs, but curious what more experienced deep divers think. Thanks in advance!

 

[Tigerman]

A quick self check question. My breathing pattern underwater mimics my breathing on the surface... A deep, slow, abdominal breath in.. 1-2 second pause, then exhale...1-2 second pause. I've begun questioning whether this is considered holding my breath. Not a big concern for me at shallower depths, but I'm diving several 80-100 dives next week. Am I holding my breath? If 1-2 seconds isn't holding my breath, when is?

Might be splitting hairs, but curious what more experienced deep divers think. Thanks in advance!

IF you consider it holding your breath (I dont) you should be more concerned about it in the shallows than in the deep as the relative pressure change is much higher when shallow than when deep..

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Don't change your breathing patterns. And remember that even during a dive, not just on final ascent, to ascend slowly. On a deep dive your depth may vary as you swim over a feature, move up a wall to observe something interesting, or for other reasons. Slow movements vertically in the water column will prevent lung expansion injuries when breathing normally.
DivemasterDennis

 

[So-Tx-Rich]

In technical terms this would more likely be called skip breathing than holding your breath, though skip breathing would typically have a longer pause. Pay attention to your body when you do it. If it's a pattern that is natural (unconscious) for you, then I would say that it is not holding your breath, as you probably aren't closing off your airway, so in an expansion situation, expanding gases would still have somewhere to go.

 

[TSandM]

A brief pause at the end of inhalation and exhalation is not a problem, if you keep your glottis open while you do it. If you don't know how to tell if you have your glottis open or not, don't hold your breath at all. And as already pointed out, you are safer with a pause at 80 feet than at 10, because the proportional pressure changes of a two or three foot ascent are much greater in the shallower water.

 

[Superlyte27]

At depth the issue isn't over expansion but rather CO2 retention. The industry response is: Do away with the pause.

 

[spectrum]

A quick self check question. My breathing pattern underwater mimics my breathing on the surface... A deep, slow, abdominal breath in.. 1-2 second pause, then exhale...1-2 second pause. I've begun questioning whether this is considered holding my breath. Not a big concern for me at shallower depths, but I'm diving several 80-100 dives next week. Am I holding my breath? If 1-2 seconds isn't holding my breath, when is?

Might be splitting hairs, but curious what more experienced deep divers think. Thanks in advance!

If you are pausing your respiration with your diaphragm while keeping your airway open you are all set. You can stop breathing but you must not hold your breath by closing your airway.

The distinction is subtlety left out of instruction to limit task loading. Here the message is don't stop breathing and don't hold your breath.

Pete

 

[Dive the World]

pause is not the same as holding your breath.

do practise breath control - and long breathing cycles would help you. For me, I find it meditative Ommmmmmmm

 

[Kilili]

You're doing the right thing. Don't worry about it.

---------- Post Merged at 02:31 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 02:29 PM ----------

pause is not the same as holding your breath.

do practise breath control - and long breathing cycles would help you. For me, I find it meditative Ommmmmmmm

I agree, and it will go a long way towards increasing your dive time.

 

[Rogersea]

As you already noticed, even knowledgable experienced divers will provide you answers which are 180 degrees out from each other. In my opinion you should be breathing normally(as you described). In my opinion you are not holding your breath, nor are you practicing Hypoventalation/skip breathing... Your normal breathing pattern should not cause you any problems especially if the pause is 1 to 2 seconds.

Again this is my OPINION, but Holding your breath would be any "unaturaly long" pause before exhalation...

Cheers,
Roger