Normal breathing pattern or holding breath?

[uncfnp]

It always surprises me when I read these threads, old and new, on breathing patterns and diving. To me there is nothing "natural" about breathing underwater. I do not breathe the same diving as I do dry. It is simply different. Prehaps it stems from the first time putting my head underwater and taking a breath. It felt wrong. It took a conscious effort. I even found myself hyperventilating and feeling like I couldn't get a good breath my first pool dives. It was embarrassing. Me, the one that nothing bothers and swimming since a toddler, was afraid that I might actually not be able to dive.

But I knew what was happening and was able to work through it. Slow deep breaths. And yes, a brief pause. It is not breath holding. It is not skip breathing. It is a more "normal" pattern of breathing. Without that brief pause, we would indeed be hyperventilating.

My advanced nitrox instructor, a seasoned diver, said there were two patterns of breathing in divers, those that had a brief pause after inhalation, and those that had a brief pause after exhalation. He said that most divers had a longer pause at end inhalation and because of this they typically need slightly more weight. Divers that paused at exhalation were less common and needed slightly less weight. I haven't tested this but it does make some sense.

When he asked which I was, I thought a moment and said pause at end exhalation, because that is "natural" for me on land. But I found I was wrong. I pause at end inhalation when diving. Focusing on this, I found that I do take slower and deeper breaths diving and I then exhale more fully so I have the impulse to breathe in sooner then I would otherwise. Hence I found I was an end inhalation pauser.

Advice to new divers to not worry about breathing patterns is sound but for divers with a few more dives under their belt it may well be worthwhile to be a little more conscious of their breathing and analyze the pattern, then take a look at yoga. Not just for the breathing technique but for the relaxation that can follow a conscious effort to breathe relaxed.

And what did we learn in rescue? Stop-breathe-think. When I find myself stressed, I stop, slow my breathing, make sure a have that brief pause so I am not over breathing, then I can proceed more calmly. Breathing and actions go hand in hand.

And you are less likely to scare the fish away with all those bubbles and movements!

 

[XS-NRG]

Your pause after inhale would be the only time to start being concerned. Depends how long the pause is and how much you just rose by pausing. If you took in a huge amount of air then paused and ascended too much you are going to run into problems. If you pause at the end of exhale then you could theoretically pause forever because the whole "don't hold your breathe thing" comes from expanding gases on ascent which can lead to an A.G.E. which is very bad but with no air in you you won't have that problem.

Where this gets tricky is using breath control to navigate the reef for vertical positioning. If I'm coming close to the reef and don't want to hit it the first thing I do is suck in a bunch of air. Don't use that power inflator as a crutch!!! I will breathe in a nearly full breath then pause and the instant I feel myself start rising I'm venting it out right away and usually in much bigger spurts than my normal breathing. I'll bark out 3 big bubbles while rising 1-2 feet then immediately resume breathing the same way as the rest of the dive. Inversely to go down I'll breathe all my air out, then take a long pause while I'm naturally descending then start to breathe in again normally after dropping 3-5 feet or less if navigating the reef.

Pausing is fine as long as you're cognizant of whether you are ascended naturally as a result of taking in the breath, how much you are ascending and the rate and how much of a breath you took in. Don't let it get away from you or you'll get into serious trouble, FAST!

 

[WarrenZ]

I try to remain with a more or less normal breathing pattern however after a few dives I notice myself slowing down and pausing my breathing after exhalation. The first dive of the week usually is my worst on air use.

 

[Gareth J]

My concern with new divers asking about changing breathing behaviour is that they are normally attempting to match the gas consumption of either their dive instructor, divemaster or an experienced diver.

In the vast majority of cases, new divers are consuming volumes of gas 'fiddling' with their buoyancy. They have yet to learn and absorb how to control their buoyancy efficiently. So they are constantly inflating and deflating their BCD (Drysuit).
In addition most new divers are; nervous, and have very elevated breathing rates. heavy, carrying to much lead, inefficient, bad swimming technique.

When new divers 'force' a new breathing rate you often here them complaining of headache's.
Remember breathing is also part of the off gasing on ascent.

For new divers, it is far better they learn to relax, breath in a normal relaxed surface manner, and fix the fundimentals first. Buoyancy. With better buoyancy they can remove lead. With better buoyancy they relax. With better swimming technique, and slower more relaxed swimming they use less energy, less gas!

Gareth

 

[AJ]

On other words: don't think too much, just enjoy your dive

 

[boulderjohn]

It my humble opinion that PADI and other dive training certification organizations do a dis-service to those they certify by not spending more time on breathing through practical exercises to discover what normal breathing is by watching others and yourself during rest and daily life then comparing to what one does underwater.

The degree to which this is taught depends upon the instructor. With PADI, breathing is described in the course content, and I reinforce it in the pool. It takes very little time. When we go under water for the first time, I have the students lie on the floor to get relaxed about being under water. Before we submerge, I tell them I will point my fingers toward my mouth when I am inhaling, point away while I am exhaling, and point the fingers toward each other while I am pausing. I tell them to breathe with me as I do. I believe that little exercise does wonders for them.

 

[Viron]

You do your students a good service.

My instructor and I didn't do an exercise like that, but we did have a pretty good discussion of the topic talking about slow steady breathing and the difference between pausing and holding by closing the glotis.

The best discussions I've had are have been with my brother that has been diving for over 30 years. His SAC runs about .4 even consistently from dive to dive. He has reached .29 SAC, but that probably wasn't crawling a reef looking for lobster and fish.