Breathing Techniques and Air Consumption

[nitrousbuzz]

Hello all. First time post here, long time lurker and diver.

I wanted to start a thread on breathing techniques as it relates to air consumption and buoyancy control. I will share my personal experience and am curious if anyone else has a different technique.

I was tought to control my buoyancy by controling the volume of air in my lungs. As a result of too much focus on fine tuning of buoyancy, my breathing was quite shallow. For many years I was the first up in every dive and was a certified air hog until I recieved a tip from an old grizzled ex navy seal who was captaining a dive boat in Kona. After surfacing early from a dive with a headache, he suggested that I try breathing deeply and exhaling very slowly and fully on almost every breath.

I tried this and sure enough, my air consumption improved dramatically. I now easily hit the NDLs on AL80s with air to spare. When I need very fine buoyancy control I can hold a more constant volume when needed, but will quickly switch back to slow and deep. The deep breathing creates deep relaxation and is very efficient particularly with scuba equipment and the resulting dead air space it creates. When you are exhaling you are not sucking your tank and the steady slow deep exhale allows your lungs to absorb more O2 so that you never feel out of breath.

Does anyone have a similar or different technique?

 

[Rockets]

I have sleep apnea and have had environmentalyy induced asthma, so I have an 'Air Anxiety'. Before going down, with rental gear usually, I get a little anxious, and have even called dives because of it. I have a Conshelf XIV that I love and breathes great. To beat the anxiety, I breath deep, relax, and go. Underwater, I have to remember to breath deep and relax. It works great for me, I'm seriously out of shape, but my SAC is average to two decimal points. I think it's because of the deep breathing and relaxing.

 

[rmc77]

You should always avoid shallow breathing as it leads to CO2 buildup, which other than giving you annoying headaches, increases inert gas narcosis and even has some more serious effects on higher doses. If in order to control your buoyancy you feel you cannot deep breath, adjust your weight.
A common tip for deep breathing is to concentrate on your expiration, let all the air go out of your lungs; expiration time should "feels like" longer than inspiration time... Use your diaphragm muscles; do not inflate your chest!
And, if it interests you, you can always try some Yoga... there is a nice book on Amazon about that:

Amazon.com: Yoga for Scuba Divers (9780615154329): Todd Stedl: Books

Cheers

 

[Lee Taylor]

As time passes underwater you will connect mass air consumption with the usage of you thigh muscles. Minimize the use of these LARGE muscles and you will significantly minimize your air consumption.

 

[TechBlue]

Always breath deeply and slowly and you can still use your breathing to change your bouyancy

 

[Sas]

I found initially I would have to pick between low air consumption and fine buoyancy control. If I breathed heavily and deep my depth would fluctuate a lot, and this would cause problems on shallow shore dives. If I wanted to be motionless I would have to breathe shallow to hold my depth. But over time I learned to do both at once. Just practice really.

 

[Erock116]

I was taught to breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for 5 and release for 5. It regulates your air consumption and you will feel better post dive. I never had a problem with air comsumption but this technique has allowed me to have a more relaxing dive. Give it a try!!

 

[RJP]

I was taught to breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for 5 and release for 5.

 

[Sas]

I was taught to breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for 5 and release for 5. It regulates your air consumption and you will feel better post dive. I never had a problem with air comsumption but this technique has allowed me to have a more relaxing dive. Give it a try!!

This middle bit sounds like too long to be holding your breath. Or was it a typo?

 

[Erock116]

This middle bit sounds like too long to be holding your breath. Or was it a typo?[/QUOTE

You know, I thought the same thing too. My instructor said it was safe and a great way to regulate your breathing. I use the technique everytime I dive.