Can freediving exercises improve SCUBA?

[dhrpro1]

Breath hold free diving will in fact make you a better diver. Im a 22 year vet in diving and started out doing free diving from the age of 12 in Guam, and Im a firm beliver that everyone should start out free diving. It'll teach you to remain calm and bond with with the water, however skip breathing is a bad habit to get into and should'nt be practiced ever. Just my opinion...

 

[KyDodenhoff]

LOL wow there are some know it all D!CKS on these boards I swear, A person asks a simple question about improving their consumptions rates by doing free diving exercises and some posters find it necessary to just be smart ass's and completely down the idea!

 

[cmburch]

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!

This type of exercise may help with breathing control when on SCUBA.

DumpsterDiver and dhrpro1 made more sense in that the act of freediving (not the static breathing exercise) will help SCUBA air consumption rate.

As for if the exercise will actually help to lower SCUBA air consumption rate. It does not make sense to me that it would. It is like saying that people that practice this need less air over the same period of time as a person who does not practice it. I think check with other professionals that perform this exercise to see their point of view on DeeperBlue.net http://www.deeperblue.net/

 

[seaglass_mermaid]

Hi,

Snorkeling, free diving and spending time swimming in the sea will benefit anyone's Scuba diving simply because you will become more relaxed and comfortable with being in the sea. I use to live in the Caribbean and snorkeled for years on a regular basis before I got my certification. When I did my certification I was already very comfortable and relaxed.

Lisl Armstrong,

 

[Ron Brandt]

Dan V pretty much summed it up as he is a pro at both.

I'm sure freedive practice helped me to kick butt even more on my air consumption.

Ron

 

[40Fathoms]

Freediving apnea training is based on two things: increasing lung volume (by increasing flexibility in the chest area, yoga helps) and training the body's ability to use the O2 in the air (done with apnea training and cardio). Both, but esp. the second thing, will help a lot.

If you do yoga for your freediving, that will improve your bodily awareness and teach you better breath control, so that'll help too.

I do both SCUBA and freediving. I love freediving, mostly for the freedom of it. But I've experienced great benefits to my air consumption by training freediving. Some of the benefits come from the things mentioned above, some from the fact that a lot of freediving training (pool or open water) has to do with moving gracefully and efficiently under water. Also, it will really improve your comfort level under water.

So in my book, yes, freediving will benefit your air consumption. Not just the apnea, though, although that does do some.

See ya down there!

 

[stefusa]

YES it will help the oxygen consomption.
On the other end, you will train also bad habits that I had myself to fight when i started scuba after 6 years on freediving: Never hold your breath when scuba with (not a problem) or without the reg in mouth (the biggest problem as your habit will be to hold your breath)

 

[Thalassamania]

Using free diving to lesson air consumption is a bad idea for a multitude of reasons. However ... knowing that you can hold your breath for 2 minutes or more and solve a problem or easily make a 130 foot ESA ... those are great confidence builders.

 

[freediver]

Using free diving to lesson air consumption is a bad idea for a multitude of reasons.

Could you elaborate on those reasons?

 

[cmburch]

It still does not make sense to me that static apnea exercises. Not moving.

Will make one better in the amount of air consumed over a period of time while moving on SCUBA.