How to reduce air consumption?

[DevonDiver]

There are three issues:

1) Improving how your body deals with effort (cardio-vascular fitness).

2) Reducing the effort (proper weighting, horizontal trim, effective buoyancy control, streamlining, efficient propulsion, diving slowly).

3) Overall Water Comfort (general level of anxiety, irregular breathing patterns and muscular tension)

I'd suggest that cardio-vascular fitness was a more symptomatic cure. It never hurts to be fitter though. If you're breathing/working hard on a scuba dive, you're doing something wrong (see: reduce the effort) and/or diving beyond your physical capabilities and psychological comfort zone. It also means you will have little additional performance left in reserve should an emergency arise.

If your respiration rate increases beyond normal, then stop and rest. Pace your dive to ensure a very relaxed breathing rate.

Water comfort is primarily experience-related. It develops slowly over time, as more dives are done. It is also linked to comfort with specific activities and conditions. I've seen experienced open-water divers dramatically increase their air consumption when first learning overhead environment (wreck/cave) diving. COMFORT ZONES are important and do relate to air consumption.

The old adages "dive within the limits of your training and experience" and "identify and respect your own personal comfort zones" apply significantly to air consumption control.

Efforts to artificially regulate/improve breathing patterns typically show poor results (worrying about breathing causes more tension, increasing air consumption). Stress increases air consumption. Stressing about your air consumption is inevitably a negative catch-22 scenario. Visualization and relaxation/meditation type techniques, before and during the dive, do more to help, than breathing modification alone does.

Reducing effort (i.e. good diving skills and prudent choice of dive activity/location/conditions) tends to be the underlying problem with most novice divers - and easier to fix for the majority.

 

[raftingtigger]

All of the above. Also quit worrying about your SAC rate. It will come down as you get more relaxed underwater and have better trim and SLOW down. Worrying about your SAC rate only adds an anxiety point.

If you can handle the extra task loading, focus on something underwater rather than your breathing. I have found videography helpful. This requires you to go slow, and hold steady (good quiet trim/buoyancy).

 

[RJP]

Swimming is probably best. Increase fitness and comfort in the water and should help you to control your breathing rate.

When I started seriously cycling and swimming two years ago my gas consumption came way, way down. Not coincidentally, my resting pulse rate came way, way down as well.

Most people forget that gas consumption is a DEMAND problem - the more metabolic activity your body has going on, the more O2 your cells demand.

 

[TecGirl]

Don't drink caffeine, don't smoke. I've noticed a huge difference in my gas consumption while diving on caffeine and not. It was a surprise and I wouldn't have expected one cup of tea to make such a difference.


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---------- Post added January 24th, 2014 at 03:41 PM ----------

Oh... And dive a lot 😊


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[bamafan]

I was trying to get my air consumption down and I was running about 6 miles 3 - 4 times per week and didn't notice any difference. I was talking to a famous cave diver and he told me that when he started cave diving an old time cave diver told him just don't breath as much so that is what he did. I took his advice and started doing some freediving breath hold exercises. I found some apnea apps on the Google store. It has made a very marked difference. A lot of people say don't hold your breath but it has really helped as now I only breath about 2-3 times per minute. I am sure a lot of people will disagree with this but it has really worked for me.

 

[diveprof]

I don't think anyone has mentioned this one yet and I find that this is for many folks the primary reason for excessive air consumption - make SURE you are properly weighted. Many folks leave OW classes thinking "well they told me I needed 18 pounds of weight so that is what I use." Weighting should be reassessed at regular intervals as you develop more experience and become comfortable in the OW environment. Diving with too much weight has lots of negative outcomes: 1: you need to make adjustments - adding and dumping air - with small depth changes; 2. too much weight negatively impacts your trim - you add air to compensate for the extra weight which lifts your upper body while the weighting pulls your waist down which means you have to move water out of the way as you go forward (not efficient); 3. over-weighted divers often don't add sufficient air to their BCDs/drysuit and do a lot of hand movements to stay off the bottom expending energy and air. One diver I worked with recently diving steel 100s in fresh water with a 7mm suit started with 18lb that he was using in his OW class. He now dives 8lbs with this set-up. To check your weighting, with no air in your BCD/drysuit you should be able to float at eye level holding a normal breath and slowly sink when you exhale. I also believe in checking weighting at the end of the dive at 15' with 500psi in your tank. After completing your safety stop have your buddy assist to see if you can remove additional weight with the goal of being neutrally buoyant with little or no air in your BCD/drysuit.

 

[TecGirl]

Bamafan... That's called skip breathing and you might notice a headache after you dive Donna this. That's because breathing like that ( anything other than regular breathing) will cause you CO2 to build up in your body like crazy. Not a good thing to do at all. Just dive with a larger tank if you want more gas.


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[TecGirl]

'After you Dive while doing this' ... Sorry Donna autocorrect lol


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[TryOutDive_com]

Sorry about my english, im German!
Your Air-Consumption is to high, because you change your Breathing underwater!
I will try to explain you:
You are now in front of your Computer on the Surface. Please watch your Breathing for a few Minutes: You breath in, immediately out, and then you have a Break for 1-2 Seconds. You breath in, immediately out, and then you have a Break for 1-2 Seconds. You breath in... and so on...
Now you go Diving. You know, you cant breathing Underwater, but you know also, you can breathing with your Regulator. Your subconscious doesnt know a Regulator. He think always, you cant brath Underwater, and thats your Problem.
Now you are Underwater and all is ok, you are happy. But not your subconscious. He is stressed, because he think you cant breathing Underwater, and he changed your Breathing. You remember the Breathing on the Surface: In-Out-Break. The subconscious changed it Underwater to: Breath in - Hold your Breath a few Seconds - Breath out - Breath in - Hold your Breath a few Seconds - Breath out - Breath in ... and so on.
The Different is, you stop your Breath after Breath IN and not Breath OUT.
Please try this now on the Surface: Breath in, hold your Breath a few seconds, and then breath out. Do this 10-20 times, NOW!
You will feel, your Bloodpressure is going up, maybe you will have a little Headaches, and you breathe much more than with the normal "in-out-break"-breath.
Thats all!
During the next dive, watch at your Breathing, and change it to the Surface-Rhythm. So breath also Underwater in-out-break and never hold on your Breath after a breath-in.
Have Fun!