Hello there!
Hope you all are well. Today’s topic is part one of two on improving breath hold time specifically as it relates to freediving performance. Enjoy!
TL;DR: If you want to hold your breath longer, focus on Co2 tolerance training, specifically something like the Wonka table. In addition, adding yogic breathing into your daily routine can help you relax, stretch your diaphragm and rib cage, and improve your breath control. Breath training is not just useful for freedivers. It can help relieve stress, endure harsh exposure, and even improve asthmatic symptoms.
Coronavirus be damned, next week I’m heading to Mexico for a week of vacation with some friends. One of our group activities will be a 3-day beginner’s freediving course. Though I’m a "certified" freediver, I haven’t practiced since July 2017 so I’m excited to get back in the water.
Freediving can be a very dangerous sport.* When people picture freediving they often picture adrenaline-addicted athletes strapped to a lead sled careening towards the seabed. This picture represents a very small subset of freediving (no-limits apnea). Many of the risks associated with freediving can be mitigated by never diving alone, diving with trained professionals, and not engaging in competitive dives.
My first taste of feeding was a few years ago on the small island of Utila off the coast of Honduras. I was roaming the street (there is really only one in Utila) enjoying the afternoon sunshine when I stumbled upon a freediving shop with a sign out front. The sign detailed their beginner’s course and claimed they could have me diving to over 20m (65 ft) in 3 days! My interest was peaked but I was skeptical. Even though I had been scuba diving for weeks and was quite comfortable in the water the idea of descending to 65 feet on a single breath of air was bonkers to me. Who were these instructors? Was this some sort of boot camp where my limits would be pushed further than I thought possible?
I ducked into the shop and was greeted by the instructor for the beginner’s course, Maria. She wasn’t the drill sergeant I expected. She was tall and thin, with a gentle smile, and calm eyes. She laid out the format for the course and reassured me a 20m dive was totally achievable for a beginner. She said there would be no pushing or straining. Freediving is all about maintaining complete relaxation. Only then can you equalize and properly conserve oxygen to sustain the dive. I signed up on the spot.
The next few days were game-changers for me. Never had I encountered a sport the more I wanted it, the more I wanted to push my limits, the harder it was. The course taught me safety skills, the breathing and relaxation process, and proper diving form. On the final day I hit 20m, but not because I pushed for it. It just happened.
I may not be able to control the outcome of the dive but surely there are things I can do to improve my performance outside of the water. In preparation for my upcoming trip, I asked myself the question: What can I be working on now? I slid into the DMs of some professional divers and instructors**. They gave me some great advice and pointed me to helpful resources for beginner divers.
Below I’ve outlined some of my key findings. I encourage you to try out some of these at home (in a controlled environment). We often don’t think of breathing as something to improve upon. We spend our lives hunched over, with our jaws tight, taking short, rapid breaths. Learning to control your breath will improve your meditation practice, allow you to stay mindful in stressful situations, and help you endure harsh environments (like ice baths).
*I know my love of diving is a little hypocritical given my sermons about risk, luckily humans are able to live just fine holding two contradictory beliefs at once. Also, I mitigate my risk by never pushing myself and always diving with a professional.
**there is currently no money in freediving, so experts are remarkably accessible.
Breath Training
Note: Only engage in breath training if you are on dry land, laying on a bed or couch. Blackout is always a possibility.
If you’ve tried to increase your breath-hold time you’ve likely heard of Co2 and O2 tables. The traditional Co2 table looks like this:
The goal of a Co2 table is to increase the amount of Co2 in the body in order to develop higher physical and mental tolerance. What most people don’t realize is that your urge to breathe is not triggered solely by low O2. Your urge to breathe, especially as an untrained free diver, is predominately driven by high Co2 levels in the blood. The table above decreases the amount of time you have to flush the Co2 from your system before your next breath-hold, resulting in higher levels by the end of the table.
The main criticism with the traditional CO2 table is that the breathe up phase protocol is poorly structured. For example, if I’m on the last breathe up and have only 15 seconds to recover, I’m going to be sucking in air and possibly hyperventilating. This would flush the Co2 from my body and work counter to my goal. Many divers have instead opted for a variation of the One-Breath table. Essentially replacing the decreasing recovery phase with a single exhale and inhale. This practice keeps you out of hypoxia yet builds your Co2 quickly. Richard Wonka developed his own version of this table that focuses on getting you to contraction state (diaphragm contractions from high Co2) as quickly as possible. The Wonka Table looks like this:
This table has been adapted further by other divers, you can read a bit about the variants here. The Wonka table is much more effective than the traditional Co2 table at exposing the diver to increasing levels of Co2 and training them to be comfortable with contractions.
The traditional O2 table is as follows:
The idea here is that you allow for full recovery in-between holds and simply increase your hold time. This, in theory, will adapt you to the lower oxygen levels experienced during a long hold. The general consensus is that O2 tables are much less important for beginner and intermediate freedivers. Your limiting factors will be your Co2 levels, growing comfortable with contractions, and equalization. Until you can hold your breath long enough until you could potentially blackout, I wouldn’t worry about O2 tables.
Yogic Breathing
Pranayamas are breath control techniques practiced in Yoga. These techniques lower stress and anxiety and have been shown to improve asthma symptoms. Many freedivers use these techniques before a dive to lower stress, stretch the diaphragm and rib cage, and increase breath control. Significant increases in apnea time have been observed in divers who practiced pranayamas.
Part of the pranayamas is learning the Bandas or “body locks” from Hatha Yoga. The 3 bandas are the Mula Bandha (contraction of the perineum), Uddiyana bandha (contraction of the abdomen into the rib cage), Jalandhara Bandha (tucking the chin close to the chest). These can all be done seated cross-legged. Here is a quick video of how to do each.
There are many different pranayamas, but I’ll just outline two here. Kapalabhati or “skull shining” and Samavritti or “square breathing”.
Kapalabhati breaths are forceful exhales through the nose, and then allowing the lungs to fill again without any effort. The entire routine consists of 3 rounds of the following: 2 normal breaths, followed by 60 Kapalabhati breaths, 2 normal breaths, and then a breath-hold up to one minute. During the hold, you will apply Jalandhara and Mula bandhas.
The Samavritti pranayama is the breathing cycle divided into four parts. Breathe in for 6 seconds, retain for 6 seconds, exhale for 6 seconds, and retain with your empty lungs for 6 seconds. Whenever you are retaining apply Jalandhara and Mula bandhas.
Diet
Always dive on an empty stomach. Avoid caffeine, alcohol, or supplements that will increase your metabolic rate. Most divers recommending eating light and healthy, lots of fruits and vegetables. Make sure you are getting enough calories to recover. Diving, especially in cold water, can burn an enormous amount of calories so crucial you are feeding yourself properly during multi-day dives. An emerging topic in the freediving community is if the ketogenic diet or fasting (pre-dive) could improve dive times by lowering metabolic demand.
On paper this makes sense but in practice, it isn’t so simple. I ended up spending some time exploring the relationship between freediving and fasting. The investigation, experimentation, and summary got a bit long so I’m saving that for a part II.