Not sure where to put this so this is as good as any I think.
My swimming pond is 7 metres long and can only safely be entered and climbed out of at one end. Although I can pause holding on to a strap at the far end, whenever I swim I am committed to at least 14 metres.
I can’t breath while doing so, the water being wild, is murky with lots of bits and bobs in it, not to mention the animals, so the traditional half submerged side breathing with a front crawl is not an option. So what I do is simply hold my breath and take a couple at each end when turning, obviously this is only possible for a while before a break out of the water has to be taken or a longish hanging on at one end or the other.
The method I always use is to take a deep breath and hold with cheeks puffed out. For no particular reason to day I compressed my cheeks hard against my teeth so that all the breath presumably is in my lungs, not between them and my lips.
I couldn’t, and still can’t, understand it but I discovered that I needed less time to ‘recover at each end’, 42 metres (6 lengths) with hardly a pause. Can this be right? Does anyone have an explanation for this phenomenon? Can it simply be that I am compressing more air where it is needed, ie, the lungs, or what?
I’ll try it again later and see if I can replicate it. Be very handy not just for cooling off but for exercise and health reasons too.
In general, the more you practice holding your breath and remaining underwater, and/or swimming while doing so, the better you get at holding it (obviously there is a plateau at some point), and the better your muscles get at using the available oxygen.
So, it could just be that you are seeing the benefit of your previous efforts finally starting to take effect? Perhaps also, you have become better at managing the brain’s stress induced sensation of running out of air?
When I was much younger, I trained to be lifeguard. Some of that training, whether muscle memory or some other benefit, still survives today, despite my no longer being a regular swimmer. When underwater, I find I can still relax, and hold my breath for a significantly longer time than I would have thought possible, despite the lack of training.
Jason Momoa on steroids, or whatever the sea kingdom equivalent is, thrown in with some CGI a 6-pack to defy all 6-packs (and we’re not talking beer). Think, the “Man from Atlantis” aka Patrick Duffy after some nice animator has glossed him over with a digital airbrush and lots of wavy long hair to give him that tousled look.
Are yes of course, that’s me, just cleverly covered up a bit that’s all.
Just done another 28m using the tight mouth technique again. I can’t believe it, 4 lengths very quick with just one exhale and one intake at the turnarounds.
The extraordinary Tanya Streeter, who I photographed in Turks & Caicos in 2010.
She used to be the World Freediving Champion and in 2002 held a record for the deepest dive on one breath of air (beating both the previous men’s and women’s records) with a dive to a depth of 525 feet (160 m) - which is still the women’s freediving depth record.
Laughing away at the exchange a few months ago I saw a fascinating documentary on netflix about, I think it was freediving - phenomenal but a bit of a sad ending
It’s a very dangerous sport. Risks include barotrauma (damage due to pressure), nitrogen narcosis, decompression sickness - and of course the most basic one of running out of breath!
I’m a qualified scuba diver and have dived in the Red Sea and Caribbean, down to 30m (100ft) but you would never catch me trying freediving!
I may have posted on this subject some years agon but if that was the case, please excuse an elderly failing mind. About twenty years ago i learned from a colleague who was a diving instructor that there had been a gnome garden deep in Wastwater, England’s deepest lake. Howeve,r the gnomes were removed by police divers in order to avoid gnome related diving accidents.
My source told me that the gnome garden was subsequently reinstated but at a depth below that which the police were authorised to dive…
a few months ago I saw a fascinating documentary on netflix about, I think it was freediving - phenomenal but a bit of a sad ending
