Got a tip on how to breathe so you don't go through your air?

[Z Gear]

My wife recently told me she has been using her yoga breathing to help her relax and has subsequently noticed she is a lot better on her air consumption rate.

She usually blows through her air but I have noticed recently that she has been remarkably better. I even had to check my gear to see if I had leaks because I couldn't understand it. She told me that her yoga breathing involves long slow inhale and exhale breaths. Typically she breathing through nose for yoga but she substituted that by using her mouth for diving and it really worked for her.

I have not really figured out exactly what I do but just that I naturally breathe really slow and therefore my air consumption is usually pretty good when compared to other dive buddies.

Are you still trying to figure out what to do to improve your breathing technique, if you have time check out yoga breathing see if this helps you, it definitely helped my wife (favorite dive buddy).

Frank G
www.zgearinc.com

 

[camkole]

That's a really good tip! I have noticed I use more air than normal and it's mostly from getting excited. Maybe if I slow my breathing down using that technique I can conserve air!

 

[agilis]

Slow down period. Many divers, especially new (though not exclusively) divers are like frisky panting puppy dogs, overexcited and doing everything, including breathing, too fast.

Yoga is, among many other things, designed to induce calm and relaxation. Yoga breathing techniques are especially meant to bring about calm and relaxation. It is the calm and quiet relaxation that reduces excessive air consumption. Yoga is one way to attain this state of being.

 

[tomfcrist]

IN my experience, a sure way to increase my RMV is to think about how I'm breathing. I don't concentrate on breathing as much as just finding my happy place and chilling out.
Slow is smooth, smooth is sexy(or efficient).

 

[John A Lewis]

Yoga/meditation seems to work best for many I have known.

agilis pointed out something else that worked for me: learn to control your excitement and you won't move as fast, lowering your consumption.

 

[knotical]

CO2 is what triggers us to breathe. Off-gassing CO2 better by more complete exhalations (reducing dead air space) invariably reduces gas consumption.
Simpler than yoga.

 

[Dish]

CO2 is what triggers us to breathe. Off-gassing CO2 better by more complete exhalations (reducing dead air space) invariably reduces gas consumption.
Simpler than yoga.

Agreed! That's precisely what pranayama breathing does... complete exhalations to clear out CO2. Ancillary benefit is most certainly better breath control and, perhaps, some calming effects.

I find this form of breathing to help reduce my air consumption, but I'm primarily focused on clearing out the lungs of CO2, just as you recommend.

 

[Nemrod]

Physical fitness. N

 

[Nasser]

So much of it is a state of mind. Fitness level aside, if you are relaxed in the water and "in the moment" this tends to allow for a more relaxed breathing rate. As such... being trained in yoga, meditation, martial arts or any number of techniques that emphasize attention to breathing will also reinforce your ability to relax underwater and reduce your breathing rate.

 

[Kairoos]

I draw out my inhale and exhalation cycles as long as possible. Constantly inhaling or exhaling, but as slow as possible. The air we exhale still has somewhere around 14-16% oxygen left in it, so we're wasting oxygen when we exhale it under water.