What is skip breathing?

[dbulmer]

What precisely is skip breathing?

I have read that one way to breathe is to inhale-pause-exhale-inhale-puase-exhale etc slowly. If you are pausing for a second or 2 , is that the same as holding your breath?

 

[Cave Diver]

Skip breathing is holding your breath as a method of trying to conserve air. Aside from the fact that you should never hold your breath under water, skip breathing can cause a carbon dioxide buildup which stimulates your breathing mechanism and actually makes you want to breathe more.

Not only does that make it counterproductive, but the build up of waste gasses in your body that is associated with skip breathing can have some other nasty effects.

The best way to extend your bottom time is just to learn how to manage a slow relaxed breathing pattern. Inhale slowly, exhale slowly, pause for a second then repeat.

You never want to hold your breath with a lung full of air while on SCUBA.

 

[zeN||]

I don't agree with that cave, holding your breath while ascending can cause lung-overexpansion injury (and other trauma), but being neutral in the water, I cannot see how holding your breath has any detrimental effect, one can vary the amount of air we inflate our lungs with to change buoyancy, to temporarily reduce noise, etc. zeN

 

[drbill]

Since I am videotaping on every dive, I often have to hold my breathe because the regulator movement during breathing can affect my footage stability if I'm shooting close-up. Of course I'm at a fixed depth and not making any vertical movement while doing so. While searching for subjects I use a slow, steady breathing pattern with good exhalation to help clear gasses from my lungs.

Dr. Bill

 

[HammerNoMore]

You can hold your breath at any point in your dive as long as you do it properly. You should hold your breath with your diaphram which allows gas to escape if the pressure changes. You should never hold your breath with your epiglottis.

 

[jiveturkey]

I agree with Cave Diver. Don't hold your breath ever.

I don't think anyone should be advocating holding your breath in anyway on scuba....in a public internet forum.....without any real knowledge of your audience.......or their knowledge of diving physics.....

You never know what you might end up being responsible or even liable for.

 

[dbulmer]

Inhale-pause-Exhale-inhale-pause-exhale - is that holding your breath?

BTW with scuba I always do as Caveman suggests but I was interested in the pause element of breathing as in the top line.

Any further comments?