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Old 02-28-2006, 07:48 PM   #1
seahunter
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technique questions

I have some questions about some of the things I do while freediving.

When I am on the surface I breathe slowly and deeply then on my last breath I make a few kicks to get my momentum going. At the same time I extend my belly, inhale, lift my shoulders (inhale more) and bend at the waste to start my descent. I don't hyperventilate any more.

Do most of you guys still hyperventilate? How do you personally hyperventilate? I used to take took 3-4 rapid deep breaths. I would exhale so deeply that I would make a wheezing noise. Is that right? I have never seen anyone hyperventilating. Is there a video clip of someone doing it properly?

On my decent I usually kick down 20-30 feet and then stop kicking and begin to freefall. Is it better to kick all the way down or does it use more O2 then it makes up for in speed?

I set up my weight belt to be neutral at 20 feet. On the way up I stop kicking at about 15 feet and float to the surface. Is it better to kick all the way up?
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Old 02-28-2006, 09:13 PM   #2
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Re: technique questions

if I hyperventilate at all its 2 breathes then hold on the 3rd. w/ a buddy watching.

I dive solo 90% of the time so I stick on the saftey side and just keep my breathing steady and calm.

neutral at 20', kick down to around 30-40 and freefall the rest. resurfacing I stop kicking the last 15'.
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Old 02-28-2006, 09:18 PM   #3
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Re: technique questions

I take three fast deep breaths, then one fourth one, taking as much air as possible hold it then start my descent.
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Old 02-28-2006, 09:29 PM   #4
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Re: technique questions

Quote:
Originally Posted by seahunter
I have some questions about some of the things I do while freediving.
Good bunch of questions. I'm interested in how the others're doing it, too.

When I hypeventilate I go through three deep exhale/inhale routines (sometimes wheezing on the exhale).

When I dive, I kick until I start getting heavy (about 30 ft) then glide.

I usually kick all the way up.
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Old 03-01-2006, 12:23 PM   #5
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Re: technique questions

Quote:
Originally Posted by el_pedorro

I usually kick all the way up.
I also used to kick all the way up to the surface. I would feel like I was about to drown and I would race up to get a breath as fast as I could. I would have very fast fin strokes. Now I look down (to stay streamlined) and make very few, calm deliberate strokes. When I get near the surface I point my toes (and therefore my fin tips) strait down to stay streamlined and glide to the surface. It seems to conserve air, but i have no idea if it does and I have always wondered if it was a good technique.
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Old 03-01-2006, 07:44 PM   #6
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Re: technique questions

I have a question as well. How do you guys train by "packing" breaths while in the water as opposed to outside the water? It is easy enough outside the water, but with the pressure on your lungs at the surface I find it hard to get a completely full breah in my breathe up.

BTW, I usually kick up until the last 15 or 20 feet when I am really positive and glide the rest of the way.

Steve
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Old 03-01-2006, 07:56 PM   #7
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Re: technique questions

A quote from Eric Y.

Quote:
Ok, here goes:
What we're talking about here is using your mouth and epligottis as two separate valves, and the area in your mouth as an air holding chamber to over- inflate your lungs as you would a balloon.

Inahle with your mouth open, then stop, using your Epiglottis. If your epiglottis is closed, you can hold your breath and drink water, or bear down with your diaphragm and no air will escape from your lungs, even if your mouth is open.
So: take a full breath, close that 'E' valve, then close your mouth. Now, without letting air escape out of your nose, open the 'E' valve and squeeze your mouth tighter, using your lips, cheeks, and tongue. This will pump that chambered air into your lungs....now close the E valve again.
You have just completed 1 'pack'. Keep doing this properly and you will start to feel the pressure in your lungs increasing, and your stomach/chest will start to expand. Just as you stretch a ligament and/or muscle, be careful: don't over stretch. Don't pack to a point where you feel pain.
Now exhale. The next breath you take naturally will be more than before you packed: the capacity will have increased, and your lungs will hold more air.

A more advanced technique is to pack your lungs about 25% of what you are capable of (say you can pack 20 times max: pack only 5 times) then do some streches of your ribcage, side stretches, all directions with your breath held so that your intercostals and other muscles loosen up more. Then repeat with 10 packs. This will really open you up and get you ready for diving.

Further to this, you can use packing for actual dives. Once you're warmed up after a few dives, pack at the surface as much as you can, then dive. One advantage might be that you can increase bottom time. Another is that maybe you want to dive deeper and change the depth of your neutral buoyancy....IE, you are weighted perfectly for 20', but now you want to dive to 45' without being so negatively buoyant that you can't hover at that depth. So you experiment with the extra air to change that neutral depth. Conversely, you may dive with less air in your lungs to do a shallower dive ( I do this a lot). The last advantage that comes to mind is that you will have more air available for equalising if you start diving past 100', at which point it can become difficult. But most of us don't hunt that deep, so it's not too relevant.

The dangers:
1 I have heard of 1 case where someone hurt themselves while over-packing. Take your time: you wont do the splits the first day in Karate class either....use common sense


2 When you are in the midst of packing, you may get dizzy as the carotid artery gets squeezed by the lungs: if that happens, just stop packing, hold your breath, then continue packing when your head clears. You can pass out if you don't pay attention to this, so don't do it when your driving, etc.

3 When you return to the surface at the end of your dive (a dive that you packed for), the risk of shallow water blackout is increased AT THE SURFACE. The easy way to combat that is to open your E valve and mouth about 3' below the surface as you ascend. DONT force the air out, there is already extra pressure from your packed lungs. When you break the surface, IMMEDIATELY take a quick big breath and exhale under pressure through tightly pursed lips or tongue (you shouldnt have your snorkel in your mouth anyway). Do this 3 or 4 times. What it does is immediately supply fresh O2 to your brain. This is exactly the same thing that pilots do to combat blackout under hi G-forces. It works! It's a good idea to do this a few times after any dive you do- most blackouts are at the surface and could be avoided this way.

4 You will look like an idiot
People will look at you like you are insane, and may come and ask you if you are ok. It really looks funny doing it, so be discreet if you don't want the attention.

Cheers,
Erik Y.
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Old 03-01-2006, 09:56 PM   #8
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Re: technique questions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Bennett
I have a question as well. How do you guys train by "packing" breaths while in the water as opposed to outside the water? It is easy enough outside the water, but with the pressure on your lungs at the surface I find it hard to get a completely full breah in my breathe up.

BTW, I usually kick up until the last 15 or 20 feet when I am really positive and glide the rest of the way.

Steve
I only pack several breaths in the water. Every time I tried doing it for static breathhold practice, it actually cut down my time. The pressure in my chest and epiglottis makes me tense up, and I just can't seem to relax as easily. In the water, I take 3 slow deep breaths, and then inhale on the 4th with packing and immediately dive. The air compresses pretty quickly in my lungs so the sensation of chest pressure decreases real fast, and I can relax.
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Old 03-01-2006, 10:16 PM   #9
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Re: technique questions

Our school principal demonstrated "packing" to an auditorium full of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students 45 years ago. He was a polio survivor who'd been taught the tecnique in order to supply air to the lungs in the event that his diaphram became paralyzed.

He stood up on the stage and made a long series of gulping motions, noisily exhaled the result, and continued process for several minutes till he had the whole auditorium trying to bypass their diaphrams.

I haven't had much success packing while diving. It seems like I'm hanging out at the surface too long for just a few more mouthfulls of air.
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Old 03-02-2006, 12:46 AM   #10
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Re: technique questions

In my limited/untrained understanding, hyperventilating is a bad technique as it raises your heart rate. Kicking before you turn to dive would do the same, if I understand your technique correctly. Relaxing and lowering your heart rate is usually considered key for longer dives. Slow, controlled breathing is what I usually see reommended to lower your heart rate and achieve higher O2 saturation. Something like breathing in about 80% of your capacity in around 6 seconds, and then holding it for one second, and then exhaling for the same or slightly longer period of time.
As for the forceful exhaling, I've heard that called "purging". It is supposed to purge more of the CO2 from the nooks and crannies of your lungs. It is a double-edge sword if you're not careful though. Purging CO2 makes more room for fresh O2 on the next breath, but it will also put off your bodies desire to breathe until you are a little closer to swb. This is because your bodys need to breathe, that urge you feel, is NOT because of needing fresh O2. It IS because your body wants to get rid of CO2. So purging can be very useful, but personally I don't practice purging when diving alone. That's just one of my safety margins I try to leave when diving alone, even if it's a marginal benefit.

Another thing you can practice with is the static apnea training tables that can be found on the internet. It employs 2 different types of breathing exercises to train for BOTH efficient use of O2 AND also CO2 tolerance. One set of practices you do increasingly longer breatholds with the same length of rest period in between. The other set you do the same length breatholds with a decreasing length of recovery in between. The program is totally customizable, you can set the time periods for whatever you want. I'll try to find the link, or, I actually have the program I downloaded back when it was a free download. It's the same one you'll find online. Any interested parties can pm me and I'll pass it along.

All of what I have written above comes from what I have gleaned from others and then used myself, but I'm no pro by any means. So please do more research! But I guess that's what you're doing now. I hope if I have misstated anything that someone will correct me.
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Old 03-02-2006, 11:39 AM   #11
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Re: technique questions

from everything I've heard, static practices don't seem to do much for a spearo's bottom time.

Aerobic excersizes seem to be where its at. Getting your resting heart rate down.

I have recently started running every day in hopes of lowering my h.r.

Will post results as the season progresses.
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Old 03-02-2006, 01:36 PM   #12
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Re: technique questions

There is a video of a guy doing a dive on this website http://www.freedivingimages.co.uk/
It looks like he kicks all the way up. His kicks have a lot more snap to them then mine.

They seem to be gliding down.

Last edited by seahunter; 03-02-2006 at 01:54 PM.
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Old 03-03-2006, 05:50 PM   #13
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Re: technique questions

Statics aren't going to increase your fitness level, but will train your body as far as how it reacts during a breathold. You will learn a little more about you own limits as well. For dynamic training, any exercise done while holding your breath is great practice. Walking, jogging, just about anything will help. I like running up a set of stairs while holding my breath. There was mention in another thread that Tiger Woods said he sometimes holds his breath while walking around the golf course, to train himself for freediving. He has taken one of the Performance Freediving clinics! Remember that next time you see him at a tournament. He's out there sinking putts, while training for spearing!
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Old 03-03-2006, 09:48 PM   #14
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Re: technique questions

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaKahuna
I like running up a set of stairs while holding my breath.
Part of my dynamic apnea training is the daily poop scoop of the dog pen.
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Old 03-04-2006, 12:26 AM   #15
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Re: technique questions

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stretcharmstrng
Aerobic excersizes seem to be where its at. Getting your resting heart rate down.

I have recently started running every day in hopes of lowering my h.r.

Will post results as the season progresses.
I've been running and cycling for decades, and my resting heart rate is 39, even though my mileage has dropped way off. My breath hold sucks.

I can't begin to explain this, and I may be an unfortunate anomaly, but I just thought I'd mention it as evidence that there must be something more than low heart rate at work.
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