Breathing
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I do not believe that the following has been adressed: the way respiration is done under and above water is very different. Above water expiration is a natural, easy process while underwater the expiration needs to be somewhat "forced". Since it is important, like others have said, to eliminate a maximum of CO2, the expiration is important. So concentrate on full expiration and you will improve with time.
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Ok, so I am an average weight, somewhat better than average fitness, 60 year old male diver with better than average buoyancy and trim. My average SRMV is in the low 0.3s cu ft/min. My respiratory pattern is distinctly different than on land. I have a slow, relatively deep inspiration, a slight pause, and then a slow expiration. This is the opposite of on land where the pause is after expiration. This breathing pattern becomes quite natural and very comfortable after diving for a while. I agree entirely with all the other comments regarding relaxation, buoyancy, trim, reserving effort, slowing down... I also frog kick almost exclusively, with a kick and glide technique. I find this most relaxing and energy conserving. I can pick up my rate to keep up with whatever effort is needed. I will occasionally flutter kick like crazy when the effort is needed. My background in swimming and water polo makes me extremely comfortable in the water and confident in my abilities. Having dived for 45 years now does not hurt.
It's a nit, but as long as you're breathing, Mike, you're not breathing incorrectly in my book. I tell students the same thing. That said, there are definitely ways to improve your breathing in order to a) maintain neutral buoyancy and b) extend the life of your gas supply and therefore bottom time.
Some good points made by previous posters. Scuba's exciting, so it's natural to be amped up, especially as a beginning diver. What you'll start to realize is that you really want to slow down. Way down. Then slow down some more. Not just your breathing, but everything: moving slowly and deliberately through the water will reduce your need for oxygen, increasing your bottom time. I took up bikram yoga after starting diving and found it helped my gas usage immensely, because I learned how to control my breathing and how that impacts everything else I was doing, to include diving. YMMV but I recommend it to most student divers I work with. (NB, any style of yoga should do the trick.)
Some of the other posters have correctly pointed out that breathing too deep will affect your position in the water column, and they're spot on. It's why exhaling is as much a part of descent as deflating your BCD - the air space in your lungs is an important factor and if you're neutrally buoyant, exhaling should cause you to descend and inhaling should cause you to ascend, everything else being equal. Controlling your position through breath I find is mostly a feel thing - there will be a moment in your training where it just clicks and you're able to do it. (That's what happened to me.)
I'm hoping some more experienced pros can offer a better, more teachable way to explain the relationship between breathing and neutral buoyancy as I find I struggle to put it in different t ms when the students don't intellectually pick it up from the above explanation...
Some good points made by previous posters. Scuba's exciting, so it's natural to be amped up, especially as a beginning diver. What you'll start to realize is that you really want to slow down. Way down. Then slow down some more. Not just your breathing, but everything: moving slowly and deliberately through the water will reduce your need for oxygen, increasing your bottom time. I took up bikram yoga after starting diving and found it helped my gas usage immensely, because I learned how to control my breathing and how that impacts everything else I was doing, to include diving. YMMV but I recommend it to most student divers I work with. (NB, any style of yoga should do the trick.)
Some of the other posters have correctly pointed out that breathing too deep will affect your position in the water column, and they're spot on. It's why exhaling is as much a part of descent as deflating your BCD - the air space in your lungs is an important factor and if you're neutrally buoyant, exhaling should cause you to descend and inhaling should cause you to ascend, everything else being equal. Controlling your position through breath I find is mostly a feel thing - there will be a moment in your training where it just clicks and you're able to do it. (That's what happened to me.)
I'm hoping some more experienced pros can offer a better, more teachable way to explain the relationship between breathing and neutral buoyancy as I find I struggle to put it in different t ms when the students don't intellectually pick it up from the above explanation...
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How I get my students breathing down a bit.
It's my opinion that biggest issue with breathing is your anxiety. You're not used to breathing under water and you're looking for a rhythm. Go to the pool with a buddy, and practice buddy breathing. Here's how I do it with my students. The donor grabs the hose right by the second stage with their right hand. The recipient grabs that wrist with a death grip. The recipient takes two breaths watching the donor blow tiny bubbles. At the end of the second inhalation, he pushes the reg away to the waiting donor. Now the recipient blows tiny bubbles as the donor takes two breaths and yes, immediately pushes the reg away from himself to the donor right after the second inhalation. When you feel comfortable in one place, swim the length of the pool buddy breathing. GO SLOW. When you are really comfortable, break up the pattern. Take one, two or three breaths and see how you and your buddy adjusts.
Here are the rules:
Yes, all of my OW and Trim, buoyancy and propulsion students do this. I find it's usually a watershed moment where they figure out how to relax and breath without stress. This is a confidence building skill. You should never, ever need to actually use it in open water.
It's my opinion that biggest issue with breathing is your anxiety. You're not used to breathing under water and you're looking for a rhythm. Go to the pool with a buddy, and practice buddy breathing. Here's how I do it with my students. The donor grabs the hose right by the second stage with their right hand. The recipient grabs that wrist with a death grip. The recipient takes two breaths watching the donor blow tiny bubbles. At the end of the second inhalation, he pushes the reg away to the waiting donor. Now the recipient blows tiny bubbles as the donor takes two breaths and yes, immediately pushes the reg away from himself to the donor right after the second inhalation. When you feel comfortable in one place, swim the length of the pool buddy breathing. GO SLOW. When you are really comfortable, break up the pattern. Take one, two or three breaths and see how you and your buddy adjusts.
Here are the rules:
- DON'T DO THIS IN OPEN WATER. This is a pool skill only.
- Keep the same depth. Injuries can happen if you goof while ascending.
- When the reg is out of your mouth, you must be blowing bubbles.
- Please stop if it ceases being fun.
- Please stop if it's obvious that it's over stresssing your buddy.
- Remember: when you have finished taking that second breath to immediately push the reg away towards your buddy.
Yes, all of my OW and Trim, buoyancy and propulsion students do this. I find it's usually a watershed moment where they figure out how to relax and breath without stress. This is a confidence building skill. You should never, ever need to actually use it in open water.
A great factor in air comsumption will be how much work you are doing. Others have talked about minimizing movement, esp. of hands/arms/legs/feet and that's a huge help, also a big factor in not creating underwater dust clouds like "buffalo herd was here".
To reduce effort expended you should work also on getting easily into and always maintaining a horizontal position. Lie down on the floor with your fins on and practice what a truely horizontal position feels like. Practise on your own underwater, then once you think you're pretty OK try getting a friend to watch and police how well you are learning to maintain a horizontal profile. Remember the idea is to remain horizontal, not to learn the bunny hop of horizontal forward movements punctuated with head-up searches for bunny-eating predators. Once you think you are ready for a test have someone videotape you, preferably without warning you. Learning to be and remain horizontal should take a nice slice off your original SAC rate.
To reduce effort expended you should work also on getting easily into and always maintaining a horizontal position. Lie down on the floor with your fins on and practice what a truely horizontal position feels like. Practise on your own underwater, then once you think you're pretty OK try getting a friend to watch and police how well you are learning to maintain a horizontal profile. Remember the idea is to remain horizontal, not to learn the bunny hop of horizontal forward movements punctuated with head-up searches for bunny-eating predators. Once you think you are ready for a test have someone videotape you, preferably without warning you. Learning to be and remain horizontal should take a nice slice off your original SAC rate.
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