Can freediving exercises improve SCUBA?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

WaterFox

Registered
Messages
48
Reaction score
0
Location
Northern CA
# of dives
0 - 24
Got into freediving recently. Been using the static apnea training tables to help improve. Just curious though, can doing breath holding excersizes using the apnea tables improve your air consumption rate for SCUBA? or is there no correlation?
 
Got into freediving recently. Been using the static apnea training tables to help improve. Just curious though, can doing breath holding excersizes using the apnea tables improve your air consumption rate for SCUBA? or is there no correlation?

Quick answer...without a doubt it will help!
 
Got into freediving recently. Been using the static apnea training tables to help improve. Just curious though, can doing breath holding excersizes using the apnea tables improve your air consumption rate for SCUBA? or is there no correlation?

The closest approximation of a relationship would be skip breathing on scuba, which is a very bad idea much deeper than 60 feet ( most would say bad idea at any depth, but in practical terms, most old timers in scuba diving skip breathed at non-challenging depths, when not working hard.

A better way to improve bottom time on scuba is to work on improved efficiency in streamlined gear and finning technique ( freediving should help here alot)....on lower heart rate, from much better cardiovascular efficiency ( from bicyling with heart rate monitor, interval training, etc)....Keeping yourself in a calm state ( goes to heart rate awareness, and heart rate monitor use can help here)...Making sure you are completely "flat /horizontal" in your underwater orientation while scuba diving--many divers waste huge air by having weighting which causes them to swim head up and feet down--this creates a bow wave, slows them down, and wastes air---keeping more weight on upper torso is a part of the solution here.

Skip breathing at depth will cause a CO2 buildup that will increase narcosis at even shallow depths like 80 feet, and once you have a build up of CO2, it is much harder to rid yourself of it than on the surface--even for aerobic athletes( although aerobic athletes will rid themselves of it far better than sedentary divers). If you increase narcosis, you are effectively making yourself stupid. Some divers do not dare gaining in this area :)..... None of us should. And you can think of the CO2 headache often following a "skip breathing" session, as a smack on the head from Darwin :)

DanV
 
I've got two different responses and I think I wasn't being clear with my original question. Sorry about that. I meant to add that while on scuba I have no intention of skipping breaths or breath holding. Just wondering if practicing freediving static apnea exercises will improve scuba air consumption rate when breathing normally on scuba equipment. In other words does your normal scuba breathing become more efficient from static apnea exercises?

Thanks!
 
I've got two different responses and I think I wasn't being clear with my original question. Sorry about that. I meant to add that while on scuba I have no intention of skipping breaths or breath holding. Just wondering if practicing freediving static apnea exercises will improve scuba air consumption rate when breathing normally on scuba equipment. In other words does your normal scuba breathing become more efficient from static apnea exercises?

Thanks!

Once again...without a doubt, it will benefit you well!! :D
 
Do you think static apnea tables (on your couch) are going to reduce the quantity of oxygen used and amount of CO2 you can safely tolerate when swimming around on a scuba tank? Do you think it will make you appreciably more relaxed and comfortable underwater? I doubt it will help much.

Now freediving and swimming underwater and doing other aerobic activities would probably do more to make you a more efficient scuba diver and freediving itself should make you feel more relaxed in the water when wearing a tank.
 
Do you think static apnea tables (on your couch) are going to reduce the quantity of oxygen used and amount of CO2 you can safely tolerate when swimming around on a scuba tank? Do you think it will make you appreciably more relaxed and comfortable underwater? I doubt it will help much.

Now freediving and swimming underwater and doing other aerobic activities would probably do more to make you a more efficient scuba diver and freediving itself should make you feel more relaxed in the water when wearing a tank.

I looked again and I guess I missed where the poster said they were going to limit their training solely to the couch (still can't find it!).
Now if you are referring to static training in-water then I would say that it would be difficult to find a better way to gain comfort in the water than through the most fundamental way. Now through your static training I can only hope that you are training correctly in which you have an additional focus on improving the elasticity of your ribcage, conditioning your diaphragm, breathing properly, learning to induce relaxation and lower anxiety by gaining feedback from your static holds, and how to effectively take a "screening inventory" during the hold, among others. If this is the case, I would be willing to bet that your scuba will benefit from your static training. Even if you spend all your time on the sofa, there are many who train "dry" and receive some benefit from this while freediving so why wouldn't this extend to scuba as well?
But don't take my word for it! Go train and then go scuba and draw your own conclusions! :D
 
I looked again and I guess I missed where the poster said they were going to limit their training solely to the couch (still can't find it!).
Now if you are referring to static training in-water then I would say that it would be difficult to find a better way to gain comfort in the water than through the most fundamental way. Now through your static training I can only hope that you are training correctly in which you have an additional focus on improving the elasticity of your ribcage, conditioning your diaphragm, breathing properly, learning to induce relaxation and lower anxiety by gaining feedback from your static holds, and how to effectively take a "screening inventory" during the hold, among others. If this is the case, I would be willing to bet that your scuba will benefit from your static training. Even if you spend all your time on the sofa, there are many who train "dry" and receive some benefit from this while freediving so why wouldn't this extend to scuba as well?
But don't take my word for it! Go train and then go scuba and draw your own conclusions! :D


The OP didnt' mention any in-water static training:

(see the quote from the OP below)

Got into freediving recently. Been using the static apnea training tables to help improve. Just curious though, can doing breath holding excersizes using the apnea tables improve your air consumption rate for SCUBA? or is there no correlation?
 
perdidochas, I have pointed out what I feel to be benefits from both wet and dry static training. So aside from pointing out the poster's lack of specificity, is there anything constructive you would like to give the original poster? I gave my input based on 20+ years of freediving and scuba experiences. My apologies to the original poster if I played a part in leading you astray.
 
what exactly is skip breathing? is it just holding your breath a little longer than you would on a normal breathing cycle?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom