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I would like to ask what is the correct breathing pattern. I have read few threads concerning breathing, quite a few of the advice are to breathe slow & deep.
How exactly is it slow & deep?
When you say slow, does it mean we inhale & exhale slower than when we did it on land; and deeper than usual?
Currently, when inhaling, I took deep breathe, then at the exhale part, I do not exhale slowly and continously; rather I exhale a bit, stop, exhale a bit, stop, exhale a bit, stop.
Is that the correct way? After being concerned that I am an air hog, I change my breathing pattern to as I had explained. Previously, I breathe as per normal, ie like I'm on the surface.
Henry, there is no need to concern yourself about being an air hog. The more you think about it today, the less it will improve (not entirely true but watch water boil and tell me how it goes). SAC is something that I believe every single diver sees improvement on with experience. I was seeing improvements with my air consumption after 25 dives, 50 dives etc....
The important things to focus on are just getting experience in the water. Focus on your trim and buoyancy. If your trim is off then it is taking more energy to force yourself through the water and thus you use more air. If your buoyancy is off, then you will either breathe heavier to compensate (add buoyancy) or kick more than you should to stay up or down. Proper buoyancy allows you to sit in place in the water column with no effort allowing you to breathe as if you were on the couch watching a boring movie. If you need to fight to not sink or not ascend, then you are using your air faster than you need to.
Another thing to work on is proper weighting. If you are over weighted as many newer divers are, you will put more air in your lungs or in your BC to maintain a positive or neutral state. This is huge because less weight will also require less effort to push or pull through the water.....this equals less air.
Bottom line, just work on your diving skills and your SAC improvement will follow.
Again, I was an "air hog" and I am now much closer to matched with my regular dive buddy and we have very similar dive counts, experience and training. And he saw improvements too.
As for the actual breathing pattern, I truly breathe as I do on the surface and do not think about it. It is a slow steady inhalation, a short pause (which is normal) and a slow exhalation finishing off with a short pause.
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Henry. I was an air hog when I first started. I was calling dives when everyone else still had a grand or so left in their cylinders. I happen to have a very large lung volume and I can take very deep breaths but I tried a technique that you see in martial arts, where you breath from the bottom of your lungs and from your stomach but from the chest. It's difficult to explain in words and better if you see it demonstrated. You just need to be careful that you breath enough air and don't short yourself so you end up with a headache later. As mentioned before, the SAC will come with more experience and the better your buoyancy control the better your breathing will be. It gets easier as you go and before you know it, you'll see your air consumption get better
Seriously, just relax, get your buoyancy right and drift along. Use as little effort as possible, quit trying to swim with your arms, that kind of thing.
Hi Blackwood, so at the exhale part, it should be continous instead of inserting pauses in between?
I wouldn't worry too much about if you pause or not when you exhale. There is no real right or wrong way except for holding your breath and ascending. Quite frankly, my breathing is a little like what you have described for yourself and while some people will say never hold your breath when diving, I do it quite often while diving. But I do it at a constant level and again, never while doing an ascent. I get much longer bottom times that way. Do what is comfortable for you.
I would like to ask what is the correct breathing pattern. I have read few threads concerning breathing, quite a few of the advice are to breathe slow & deep.
How exactly is it slow & deep?
Just breathe normally and everything will be fine.
The recommendation for "slow and deep" is to prevent it's opposite "fast and shallow", which can create anxiety, CO2 buildup and other unpleasant things.
You really don't need to do anything extraordinary. Just relax, dive and breathe normally.
Your air usage will improve as you relax, slow down and fine-tune your weighting and trim. Carrying extra weight increases drag (and exertion and air usage) due to non-horizontal trim and an unnecessarily inflated BC.
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Originally Posted by Blackwood
