Increasing breath hold

[Duke Dive Medicine]

I'm not looking at this for freediving so much even though that would work their too but more as a safety resolve or just comfortability if loss of air and waiting for that buddy of yours to hand over his reg.

So lets say I can travel 60 feet on a breath hold no fins. How does one increase that too say 120 feet without the doing the hyper ventilate thing free divers do?

Just keep swimming underwater for as long as possible and over time it will build?

Aside from overcoming the panic threshold, the best way to increase breath-holding time is to engage a qualified free-diving instructor. But, among the things they'll teach you is a specified breathing pattern - not necessarily hyperventilation, but a way of pre-breathing prior to an extended apnea dive. This would not be an option in an out-of-air scenario. I would recommend that you focus more on mitigating the risk of that than on extending your breath-holding time. You can adopt multiple layers of protection - make a habit of carefully monitoring your breathing gas supply, stay close to your buddy, practice air sharing while at depth, and consider carrying a backup gas supply.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[dmaziuk]

Ok, serious answer time. What technique do you use for this? I can travel the farthest underwater without fins by doing breaststroke but pulling all the way through so the hands end up by the legs. You want a slow cadence with lots of glide from both the kicks and pulls to minimize aerobic effort.

Actually... this leads to very "jerky" movement and one argument is that stop-go pattern burns up more gas than a more even movement. The way you do that is hand pull during leg recovery and kick during hand recovery. I haven't tried timing it either way so take it with a pound of salt. Not that it matters in gear and fins and hoses the rest of it: too much drag.

When I do this it's mostly to practice keeping my airway open.

 

[johndiver999]

Aside from overcoming the panic threshold, the best way to increase breath-holding time is to engage a qualified free-diving instructor. But, among the things they'll teach you is a specified breathing pattern - not necessarily hyperventilation, but a way of pre-breathing prior to an extended apnea dive. This would not be an option in an out-of-air scenario. I would recommend that you focus more on mitigating the risk of that than on extending your breath-holding time. You can adopt multiple layers of protection - make a habit of carefully monitoring your breathing gas supply, stay close to your buddy, practice air sharing while at depth, and consider carrying a backup gas supply.

Best regards,
DDM

A lot of good points and to further clarify, freedivers are taught to RELAX before the dive and one of the major means to achieving this is a modified (pre-dive) breathing pattern. Relaxation is the goal,as is reduction in heart rate and this is enhanced by proper breathing and also an elimination of motion or physical exertion (i.e., NOT swimming).

A person's ability to relax and then move through the water (in some freediving disciplines) in an extremely efficient manner is hardly relevant to how a true lost of air emergency situation is going to go down for a scuba diver.

To put it more bluntly, just because you can manage a 3 minute breath hold while relaxing 6 inches below the surface of the pool (after a 5 minute preparation period) doesn't mean you can swim for 45 seconds while scuba diving with no air supply. The antecedent conditions and metabolic rate before the apnea are critical factors. The two situations are so different, that, as mentioned above, the best way to deal with lost of air supply when scuba diving is to get a new one soon, rather than try to rely on superior freedive skills.

Being comfortable underwater, avoiding over-exertion, keeping your breathing rate down 100% of the time, being in good physical condition and not being terrified of an actual loss of air situation( because you know you can stop breathing for 30 seconds, without dying) may all be very useful, but freedivers need air as well.

I think that, in general, scuba divers have a distorted view of the applicability of freedive skills to a scuba emergency. Increasing your apnea time is probably not the most logical means to enhance your safety if you are scuba diving deeper than 30 or 60 feet.

 

[lowwall]

Actually... this leads to very "jerky" movement and one argument is that stop-go pattern burns up more gas than a more even movement. The way you do that is hand pull during leg recovery and kick during hand recovery. I haven't tried timing it either way so take it with a pound of salt. Not that it matters in gear and fins and hoses the rest of it: too much drag.

When I do this it's mostly to practice keeping my airway open.

You don't glide until you stop. This is what I meant:


But I certainly agree this isn't particularly relevant for scuba divers.

 

[dmaziuk]

These being world champs, I expect they know how to stretch their air way better than I do. In the shots where you the guys' head/shoulders and the tiles clearly, you'll see them almost stopping during leg recovery -- evidently this is the timing that works best for them.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Freestyle, Sidestroke, Combat side Stroke, and Fatmans breaststroke (Underwater) <- My sis was a competitive swimmer. I can do 90' on a "underwater" breaststroke. I can pass the 60' requirement no problem it that I just want to be able to go farther underwater.. Say 120' with no issues.

Why?

Realize that going 60 feet horizontally is much, much different from going 60 feet vertically (from a depth of 60 feet). The reason has to do with the expansion of air as you ascend into decreasing pressure. So I ask again, “Why?”

SeaRat

 

[Ulfhedinn]

Why?

Realize that going 60 feet horizontally is much, much different from going 60 feet vertically (from a depth of 60 feet). The reason has to do with the expansion of air as you ascend into decreasing pressure. So I ask again, “Why?”

SeaRat

Couple of reasons.
1. Stronger lungs
2. Better mental self control
3. Certain classes call for breath holds to pass. Why not be the best?
4. Freediving sounds like fun when scuba is not an option. (Not sure when that is but)

 

[Joris Vd]

Practice negative ventilation breath holds. So exhale completely then hold your breath as long as you can. Then move on to doing the same thing, but walking rather than sitting down. No prep, just a regular exhale and go. Don't do this in the water!

I don't know that it will actually help max breath hold times, but it will increase your comfort with needing to breathe. Freedivers build up resistance to the CO2 trigger to breathe, and also have the built in comfort of holding their breath from the get go. Being surprised that you can no longer breathe is not the same thing! But knowing that you can hold your breath and walk for 30 seconds on an exhale and with no preparation will help keep you calm. You can swim a long way in 30 seconds.

This is by far the best way to practice 'not panicking' when you're getting breathing contractions. Before doing serious breathhold training I always do a set of 5 full exhale breathholds just to get accustomed to the contractions.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Couple of reasons.
1. Stronger lungs
2. Better mental self control
3. Certain classes call for breath holds to pass. Why not be the best?
4. Freediving sounds like fun when scuba is not an option. (Not sure when that is but)

Okay, let me address each of these individually.

1. Stronger lungs
Lungs don't get stronger, but you knowledge of breathing, and the breathing cycles, does. Many divers are no longer taught about how we breathe. They don't know basic anatomy and physiology of breathing. For instance, do you know the terms "residual volume," "tidal volume," or Vital Capacity" concerning lungs? Below is a diagram of this from the U.S. Navy Diving Manual, March 1970. Note that the lungs have a "expiratory reserve volume of some 2-2.5 liters, which is the amount of air that you would have if you exhaled through a scuba regulator and it stopped cold functioning and you could not inhale. There is still air there.

This diagram is important as what the training for breath-holding gives is a knowledge of the entire vital capacity of the lungs, some 4-5 liters of air. So knowledge of the physiology of breathing is pretty vital in addressing anxiety about a regulator malfunction. Over time, vital capacity can be increased, but not over a period of 14 days as one video that was there (and has been pulled) suggested.

2. More mental self control
Once you gain a better understanding of breath control, and the lung's ability to hold air, you can do a lot of different things. In 1975 I was diving on a subtidal clam bed research project for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and ran out of air on the second dive at about 30 feet depth. Rather than surface, I was able to get a few breaths buddy breathing from two members of the research team, and finish shooting photos of the project. It took another about 5-7 minutes of buddy breathing a few breaths, and backing away to shoot a photo, then coming back. But that happened, and I was none the worse for it. After running out of film, I simply did a CESA.

3. Certain classes call for breath holds to pass. Why not be the best?
This implies competition, and competition in underwater swimming, unless very closely supervised, can be deadly. I know, as I suffered shallow water blackout after a swim team competition in underwater swimming. I'll detail it later.

4. Freediving sounds like fun when scuba is not an option.
It is, but it is also more dangerous. You don't have breathing gas, and unless you know what you are doing, and have a good buddy nearby, free diving can be deadly. I've come closer to "buying the farm" free diving than scuba diving.

SeaRat

 

[John C. Ratliff]

This is by far the best way to practice 'not panicking' when you're getting breathing contractions. Before doing serious breathhold training I always do a set of 5 full exhale breathholds just to get accustomed to the contractions.

In my opinion, if you are getting to the point of having these contractions, you've already stepped over the bounds. Those contractions are there for a reason--high CO2 buildup. There are better ways of free diving than going all the way to having respiratory contractions. If you are going this far, you are potentially setting yourself up for shallow water blackout. And, as mentioned by the other poster, sea_ledford, this should never be practiced in the water.

SeaRat