Skip breathing Vs Buoyancy control

[The Chairman]

Stupid question... how do you keep your glottis open and how do you know when it is?

You use it when you cough or clear your throat. It's why I suggested that you cough to feel how it works.

 

[Marie13]

Just a comment on skip breathing - haven't read the thread. Apparently firefighters use the technique. A guy in my OW class was a firefighter and had to be reminded more than once to forget about skip breathing uw.

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

You use it when you cough or clear your throat. It's why I suggested that you cough to feel how it works.

If I cough then hold and not swallow it will be open?

 

[The Chairman]

If I cough then hold and not swallow it will be open?

Swallowing involves you closing your glottis by using your larynx and epiglottis. This allows food to pass down through your esophagus and with the use of peristaltic muscles, move the food/liquid into your stomach. Should water go down the "wrong pipe" as it were, you experience a laryngospasm, which is quite uncomfortable and results in a fit of coughing that attempts to expel any fluid. Eating and breathing are mostly automatic, so we're unaware of these muscles for the most part. But with a bit of practice and soft coughing, you can learn to feel and control them fairly easily. Another easy exercise to discover your glottis is to talk with a Cockney accent. They use a glottal stop when they say "ello" (hello), while most Americans will voice the "H". Here's a Youtube of it...

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Once you learn how to control your glottis, it will become easy, just as you learned to control your pharynx when you did those mask off breathing exercises.

 

[The Chairman]

It should be noted that by default, your glottis is open. You can't breathe without it being open. You open it by relaxing those muscles closing it.

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

It should be noted that by default, your glottis is open. You can't breathe without it being open. You open it by relaxing those muscles closing it.

Got it... so as long as my glottis is open and when I move up and down the water column without taking a breath or exhaling, I should be fine?

 

[The Chairman]

I should be fine?

If you don't close your glottis, yes.

If in doubt, don't take chances. You shouldn't have a question about whether it's open or not. If you're not in tune with that portion of your body, make sure you are actively exhaling or inhaling all of the time.

 

[Open Ocean Diver]

If you don't close your glottis, yes.

If in doubt, don't take chances. You shouldn't have a question about whether it's open or not. If you're not in tune with that portion of your body, make sure you are actively exhaling or inhaling all of the time.

No no I won’t. I would imagine when descending with an open glottis your lungs would exhale through yours regulator without you trying. True?

 

[TMHeimer]

No no I won’t. I would imagine when descending with an open glottis your lungs would exhale through yours regulator without you trying. True?

Well, air in your lungs expands when you ascend, not when you descend. I don't know if any would exit your lungs with an open glottis when descending... never thought about it. But why would you not be just breathing normally when you descend (or ascend)?

 

[Blackcrusader]

If any of you have played wind instruments you will know what it is like to breathe in and control your breathing out to play the instrument and some of us could hold a note for quite a long time as we control the amount of air exhaled. I used to play a 4 valve Boosey and Hawkes Euphonium for several years in a school band. Also if you sing or hum quietly you can hold a note for a long time. In doing so we are not following the natural cadence of automatic breathing as when we are sleeping. We manage the breathing. Most of the time we do not use the full capacity of our lungs but sometimes you take those deep breaths.

Also if you are not ascending you will not damage yourself by using controlled breathing. Sometimes if I want to get down to a wreck say at 35m - 40m I will go off the boat negative and exhale most of my air from my lungs. I may only take a few sips of air with short breaths to maybe a third of my lung capacity and drift down. Be careful with this, one time my own dive master guide swam down after me as I left no bubble trail and he thought I was an unresponsive diver as I was at such a steep angle speeding down and pulled on my fins.