How much air do you keep in your lungs most of the time?

[Chugwhump]

I have no idea.
I just breathe fairly regularly, and so far, so good.

Chug
Sometimes skip breathes, and sometimes not.

 

[tracydr]

people do a small and a big pause between inhaling and exhaling. at least for me the small pause is after inhaling before exhaling, and the long pause after exhaling before inhaling again. My lungs are thus rather empty most of the time, let's say about 25-50% full. The question is how is this for other people... is it a dumb question?

My question was motivated by this video:



the guy is diving normally at depth X and start ascending just by using his lungs. You can do that only is you are diving with rather empty lungs, otherwise you have to overinflate them, which isn't advisable when you are ascending.

He also dumped air from his drysuit. That wasn't entirely lungs.

 

[beaverdivers]

I did't vote. But the Mad Puffer Fish is dangerously intriguing!

 

[phoenix31tt]

people do a small and a big pause between inhaling and exhaling. at least for me the small pause is after inhaling before exhaling, and the long pause after exhaling before inhaling again. My lungs are thus rather empty most of the time, let's say about 25-50% full. The question is how is this for other people... is it a dumb question?

My question was motivated by this video:



the guy is diving normally at depth X and start ascending just by using his lungs. You can do that only is you are diving with rather empty lungs, otherwise you have to overinflate them, which isn't advisable when you are ascending.

That's incorrect... buoyancy changes take a couple seconds to be noticed... you can dive your whole dive going from 25% to 100% with every breath and not effectively change your buoyancy...

i surface the same way as the guy in the video (minus the drysuit venting).. when i surface instead of my breaths taking my lung volume from 25% to 100% with every cycle, i instead breathe 50% to 100% or something like that so i technically always have a additional 25% of air that allows me to rise..

if i need to sink, my lung volume will go from 25% to 75% or something like that, so i technically always have 25% less air that allows me to sink...

when i reach my required depth, breathing goes back to full inhale (100%) and full exhale (25%)..

hope that makes sense

 

[TSandM]

What's important is to keep yourself comfortable while breathing. When you sit at the computer and breathe, you don't think about how much volume you are keeping in your lungs. When you are diving, and want to use breathing for depth adjustment, you alter your normal, comfortable breathing pattern, and make a conscious, deliberate effort to keep your lungs either fuller or emptier than you normally breathe. This is effective but not terribly comfortable, and worse, it's a great way to increase your gas consumption. Therefore, it is something that should be used only for brief periods of depth adjustment, and normal diving should be done cycling around a middle volume where breathing feels very natural.

When I started cave diving, my gas consumption when running line was significantly higher than my norm -- it was for all of us. One day, when I was complaining about this, my friend KMD said, "You're using your lungs too much for buoyancy when putting the ties in; adjust your wing instead." And lo and behold, he was right!

If you keep your breathing comfortable, you'll have PLENTY of room to make buoyancy adjustments with your breathing when you need to.

 

[Peter Guy]

Someone wrote

DIR style divers are trained to use their lungs for micro-buoyancy adjustments

while true the statement should read:

All divers are trained to use their lungs for micro-buoyancy adjustments.

In your basic Open Water class you were probably taught something called the "fin pivot." That is an exercise that teaches you how to use breath control for "micro-buoyancy" adjustments. All divers do it -- not just "DIR style divers."

 

[Tigerman]

Althoug I think you're right Peter, It wouldnt surprise me if some (very bad, probably *****an) instructors skip it

 

[scubastingray]

Someone wrote while true the statement should read:

All divers are trained to use their lungs for micro-buoyancy adjustments.

In your basic Open Water class you were probably taught something called the "fin pivot." That is an exercise that teaches you how to use breath control for "micro-buoyancy" adjustments. All divers do it -- not just "DIR style divers."

Aren't you taught to exhale to descend also in OW? I sure as hell was.

 

[dfx]

I used to follow a recommendation that you see quite frequently around here: take slow, deep breaths. This works and makes for a comfortable dive, however at least in my case, it also results in quite a high air consumption rate. I don't know if I have larger lungs than other people, but that's what I got with that technique. Another side effect is that your buoyancy swings are quite large.

Then I noticed that under normal circumstances, I don't really breathe like that, and I'm not sure if anybody does. Like right now, sitting at the PC, I don't normally breathe in fully, and I also don't really fully exhale. In other words, I'm actually breathing relatively shallow, with my lungs more on the empty side on average. It has been my goal on all recent dives to achieve this same breathing pattern underwater, however without forcing myself to breathe shallow (because that can be dangerous).

I'm not fully there yet, but getting close. Air consumption is down, even though I'm now probably taking more breaths per minute than before. This also allowed me to drop some weights, which in turn means I have to fiddle less with my BCD. I get into the most natural breathing pattern when I get slightly distracted, like when concentrating on some interesting critter and trying to get some nice pictures or video of it. I totally forget about breathing and what happens is that I suddenly start sinking, when before I was neutral.

This also leaves a lot of "head room" in your lungs that you can use to adjust your depth or (temporarily) buoyancy. I think that this is what "breathe normally" from every dive course is all about. But in order to do that, you first have to get used to the feeling of sucking compressed air out of a hose, under water.

 

[the_dragon_no1]

I would say on an average dive i go in between 20%-80%.. then have my +/-20% to adjust buoyancy up and down. But most of the time i thing my lungs are at the 20% level actually. . Doing uv photography i find myself exhaling to drop down to my subject, "holding my breath", take the shot, then move on with the dive


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