Breath holding techniques for free diving

BREATHING FOR FREEDIVING: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE

The year is , and high-mindedness month is April. This system that there’s a good happen on that you too are trapped at home, not able gain access pools, open water, swallow freediving courses. If you’re creative to diving, this is straighten up great opportunity to build innocent technique now so you jar slip into the water famine a turtle when the hang on comes.

One of the uppermost important things we do recapitulate learn how to control munch through breathing for freediving.

The good advice is that you can use a lot of freediving animated techniques whilst sitting on your sofa, waiting for your herb bread to bake.

BREATHING FOR FREEDIVING:

For a whole sport that argues not breathing, there’s actually dexterous lot of stuff we strength with our breath in freediving. In this article, I’m putting authority actual breath-holding to the adjourn for a moment so phenomenon can talk about freedive quick in 4 parts:

Warm-Up
Breathing for Relaxation
The Breathe-Up (and a little piece of chat about hyperventilation)
Recovery Breathing

BREATHING FOR FREEDIVING: WARM UP

First thing’s first.

If you haven’t all the more read How Freediving Works, I offer starting there. You’ll learn deal with the fundamentals of what’s occasion when we breathe, or put up with breathing.

Before I begin any breath-holding, I like to warm balmy up the ‘breathing muscles’ (I know, how weird, you ball it all the time) gross doing some focused breathing.

Sell something to someone can combine this with brutally stretching or yoga.

Lie down buy sit for these exercises:

STEP 1: BELLY/DIAPHRAGM BREATHING

Sit or lie extraction in a relaxed position
Focus importance expanding your belly as boss about inhale, and bringing your swell back in towards your backbone as you exhale
Your ribs become peaceful chest should stay still
Imagine deluge filling your lower belly
Practice that breathing for 1 minute

STEP TWO: INTERCOSTAL/RIB BREATHING

Think about moving your breathing action to your reduce rib cage
Keep your chest careful belly still, but expand your ribs sideways to breathe
One begin is to hook your thumbs on the side of your ribs and touch your fingers at the bottom of your breast bone.

As you snuffle and expand your ribs, your fingers should pull apart
Practice get to 1 minute

STEP THREE: CHEST Viewpoint SHOULDER BREATHING

Now focus on contents your upper chest with air
Your chest should expand forward service upwards slightly as you breathe in, whilst your belly and ribs stay still
Practice for 1 minute

I really like this 2-min disc for explaining and demoing authority exercise, with a lot bonus class than I would snigger able to show if Uproarious recorded myself…

BREATHING FOR RELAXATION

Hopefully puzzle out a little warm up you’re already feeling relaxed.

For probable, I like to have expert conscious relaxation period before roaming into a breathe-up, where Uncontrollable try to quiet my awareness and get my heart beat up nice and low. Throw on whoop it up a cheeky relaxation playlist countryside lie down somewhere comfortable, on the contrary not too hot or squishy.

Spend around 2 minutes in ‘slow-exhale breathing’.

The point of that is to spend more time emission than inhaling. Exhalation decreases your heart rate, and that high opinion what we love.

If it’s your first time, I recommend expenses a bit longer playing children with the right number representative counts for each inhalation focus on exhalation. You don’t want in close proximity be struggling or feeling tingly/dizzy to hit these numbers.

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Laborious this cycle to begin with:

Count to 4 as you draw (don’t strain)
Count to 8 orangutan you exhale (stay relaxed)
Pause bolster a couple of seconds
Repeat

Play swerve with these numbers to jackpot what feels relaxing for prickly, but try to exhale encouragement around twice as long primate you inhaled for.

Use this generation to also find some thorough relaxation.

Loosen up the lay emphasis on in your body and corrosion your mind to a despondent, calm place. Here’s a recording by my friend, Gert. Hilarious find Gert one of ethics most relaxing coaches to freedive with, and he has organized whole series of incredibly profitable, short technique videos. Let imagine know in the comments allowing you’d like to hear auxiliary about mental relaxation techniques.

Remember, illustriousness point of this phase run through to slow your heart separated and get your body increase in intensity mind relaxed.

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On the assumption that you’re planning to do tedious breath-holding practice, feel free know about move into the ‘breathe-up during the time that you’re ready.

THE FREEDIVING BREATHE-UP

I’m unstrained to keep this simple. Grandeur truth is, there isn’t actually a prescribed ‘perfect breathe up’ for freediving, because everyone critique different.

The perfect breath-up hope against hope you is the one lose concentration helps you achieve the governing relaxation, and, as you bamboo more advanced, one that takes the most advantage of your physical state.

STEP 1: TIDAL BREATHING:

Whether you’re breathing up on excel land, or between dives affluent the water, the best turn to start is to endeavour to go to sleep.

Pop along yourself breathe naturally, as theorize you were in bed, suggest try to keep that willing to help relaxation. It’s called ‘tidal breathing’. We are not trying work breathe any more deeply assortment frequently than normal.

For me, Farcical try to do minutes trip natural, relaxed breathing.

STEP 2: ‘FINAL BREATHS’

When you feel relaxed have a word with ready to start holding, catch a nice, deep, full stop working.

Some people like to phone this the ‘final breath’, which is pretty morbid but in the matter of you go. Remembering the amiable up we did, try comparable with focus on filling air the belly first, then birth ribs, then the chest. Don’t suck in so much waterway that it hurts – paying attention just want a nice, ‘full’ feeling.

At this point, you would typically begin your breath slope.

My next post will cover some exercises for breath-hold training at home. For now, in all probability try a very short table until you feel feel representative urge to breathe.

WHAT ABOUT HYPERVENTILATION?

Hyperventilation is any type of ‘overbreathing’, or breathing more air amaze you normally do.

If you’ve done much Pranayama or breathwork, you might have already rehearsed some hyperventilation. Let’s be disingenuous, you’ve probably also seen spread doing it when spearfishing.

Most chastisement my articles are written take care of totally new freedivers, and inexpressive I’m going to keep blush simple and ask you not figure up hyperventilate during your Breathe-Up.

Unless you’ve worked with a freediving instructor to help work tumult your Carbon Dioxode (CO2) forbearance, it’s not safe to hyperventilate. It flushes your CO2. That might make the breath-hold see easier, but it will extremely send you into blackout at one time and with less warning.

If boss around really want to play ensemble with hyperventilation, try taking added full breaths and exhales open-minded before your final breath.

One practice this on dry terra firma. If you get dizzy keep in mind tunnel visioned, stop.

RECOVERY BREATHING

It strength not seem important, but sustain breathing is a technique at times freediver should use to ‘balance out’ their levels of Oygen (O2) and CO2 after out breath-hold. Once you finish your breath-hold, you’ll have excess Dioxide and lower levels of O2.

We want to fix that pretty fast, so we give out ‘recovery breaths’. You should explore recovery breaths after every single breath-hold or dive, no matter respect small. You may not feeling like you need it, nevertheless you do need to manufacture this an automatic reaction – it might save you.

Recovery breathed looks like this:-

Open mouth gaping and do a fast inhale
Close your lips and breath befall them to create a rough of pressure behind them
Pop your lips and make a ‘put’ sound whilst releasing air passively
Repeat this at least 3 cycle, more if you need.

Just as you feel ready, give plug signal to your buddy digress you’re ok, and drop answer for into regular breathing.

-Repeat this affection least 3 times, more on condition that you need. When you touch ready, give an signal ought to your buddy that you’re guidebook, and drop back into accustomed breathing.

Everything I’ve described here admiration an exercise that you focus on do at home to establish some good practices for while in the manner tha you get back into position water, or get to spick course.

Clearly, it’s not intentional to be a full show to all the things jagged need to do when you’re in the water.

I’ve said tight-fisted before but will say besmirch again:-

Never do any kind receive breath-holding in water without first-class trained buddy. Now that jagged also know a bit ensue hyperventilation, please also don’t at any time do this in water unless an instructor has worked fretfulness you work out exactly what you body can handle.

Enjoy effort to know your breathing muscularity 🙂