Beginner Breathing for Buoyancy

[aquaticj10]

Hi,

Hopefully my last post here for a few days I've been asking alot of questions

At the moment I am inhaling/exhaling around 50-70% of lung capacity which is causing me to ascend or descent around 1 metre at a time. My instructor noticed this and said I was a "top of the lung" breather and should work on doing more diaphragm breathing.

Question: Can I do really small inhale/exhales like I would do at complete rest on land? Say sitting at a desk etc. kind of breathing. Whenever I watch dive videos on youtube etc. I notice that breaths are taken approx once every 10 seconds. Would it be a disadvantage to complete a full breathing cycle every 5 seconds if it was very shallow as this is the most comfortable/natural way of breathing for me? Or should I work on this and try what my instructor suggested? Thanks!

 

[BlueTrin]

Out of curiosity, did you do a weight check?

Normally you should be able to find a point where you are on average neutrally buoyant at depth.

 

[Tassie_Rohan]

Just take slow deep breaths when diving, usually with a pause at the end of the exhale. This is the most efficient breathing pattern in terms of air consumption and helps you relax.

Breathing faster and shallower like on land makes buoyancy adjustments through breathing more difficult: there is a time delay between changing your breathing pattern and the change in buoyancy: you need to slow down your breathing, and breath more deeply, compared to when at surface to get the time and volume changes required to change your buoyancy.

To adjust your buoyancy: lengthen the time to exhale and pause, and shorten your time to inhale, to become slightly negative. Do the opposite (longer deeper inhale and faster exhale) to become slightly positive.

For 'Oh Sh*t' moments a more dramatic change can be had by fully exhaling then doing rapid shallower breaths with your lungs feeling empty to sink, or inhaling fully and rapid shallow breathing with your lungs feeling full to rise. This is usually done in conjunction with a rapid grab for your inflator/exhaust hose... Do resist the urge to hold your breath.

I wouldn't worry about this too much - breathing for buoyancy seems to come naturally to divers after a while. As BlueTrin mentions the above advice isn't that useful if you haven't already nailed your weight.

Cheers,
Rohan.

 

[kaylee_ann]

Slow (not super slow as you'll see in my next point) and continual breathing. If you inhale and pause, you'll start to rise; if you exhale and pause, you'll start to descend.
Holding your breath also just sucks because it'll give you a nasty headache as hyperventilation will, due to carbon dioxide buildup I believe. Also you'll learn never to do that while ascending because you can get an air embolism or a lung overexpansion injury. Miserable at best, deadly at the worst.

Breathe like you're relaxed, basically. Which is what you should be anyways, since bad anxiety underwater can turn nasty. At the very least, create a very un-enjoyable dive. Eta- the last dive I did was miserable because I was so focused on skill perfection. It sucked

 

[johndiver999]

Excessively shallow breathing will give you a headache and elevate co2 and it is dangerous. Does not really matter if you are breathing From top or bottom of lungs, it is an inefficient way to breathe. You can do it for short periods of time to make minor, temporary fine tuning of buoyancy, but you want to use air efficiently.

That means trying to breathe relatively normally, with maybe a very minor attempt to exhale a little more fully than you would normally. Trying too hard to consciously manipulate your breathing pattern is a bad idea for several reasons. Small swings in buoyancy associated with the breathing cycle are generally inconsequential, and will be of reduced amplitude, the deeper you dive.

 

[VikingDives]

Hi,

Hopefully my last post here for a few days I've been asking alot of questions

At the moment I am inhaling/exhaling around 50-70% of lung capacity which is causing me to ascend or descent around 1 metre at a time. My instructor noticed this and said I was a "top of the lung" breather and should work on doing more diaphragm breathing.

Question: Can I do really small inhale/exhales like I would do at complete rest on land? Say sitting at a desk etc. kind of breathing. Whenever I watch dive videos on youtube etc. I notice that breaths are taken approx once every 10 seconds. Would it be a disadvantage to complete a full breathing cycle every 5 seconds if it was very shallow as this is the most comfortable/natural way of breathing for me? Or should I work on this and try what my instructor suggested? Thanks!

You should be comfortable, and everyone has a different rate. That said, 5 second breaths seem really fast, and your instructor is, I'd guess, spot on.

Don't work on speed though, work on diaphragmatic breathing. Just work on how you're breathing, and your rate will change naturally.

If you are only breathing with the top of your lungs, you leave a lot of lung capacity unused. Breathing requires the work of muscles, so if you can slow your rate of breathing, you will by extension, do less work and have longer dives.

 

[GreggS]

Breathing under water is not natural to us land based humans. It takes practice to get used to it, and at first, you will have to consciously be aware of your breathing pattern. You've been given some good advice so far so I won't repeat it. Just follow the advice given and within a short period of time, it will start to be natural to you.

I was a heavy breather when I first started with a RMV in the .70 range. Like you, I was up and down in the water constantly. Now I'm in the low .40 range which is rather good for a guy my size. I can easily hold my position in the water with very little up and down motion. Oh, and has been suggested, make sure your weighting is right. Too much weight will affect your ability to maintain proper buoyancy dramatically.

So don't worry, with practice, you'll get it right.

 

[Doctorfish]

I think the above recommendations are a bit too technical. Don't focus on your breathing. Just breath. Over time, as you relax, your body will adjust.

 

[NorCalDM]

Just breathe normal. Your going to hear all kinds of ways to breathe but when somebody asks me my answer is just breathe how you normally do. Once you are comfortable breathing underwater you will figure out how to use your breathing for fine tuning your buoyancy but in the beginning nothing special just breathe.

 

[Valerii Vakshul]

Привет,

Надеюсь, мой последний пост здесь за несколько дней, я задавал много вопросов

На данный момент я вдыхаю/выдыхаю около 50-70% объема легких, что заставляет меня подниматься или опускаться примерно на 1 метр за раз. Мой инструктор заметил это и сказал, что я дышу «верхней частью легкого» и должен работать над тем, чтобы больше дышать диафрагмой.

Вопрос: Могу ли я делать очень маленькие вдохи/выдохи, как если бы я находился в полном покое на земле? Скажем, сидя за столом и т. д. вроде дыхания. Всякий раз, когда я смотрю видео о погружениях на YouTube и т. д., я замечаю, что вдохи делаются примерно раз в 10 секунд. Было бы недостатком завершать полный дыхательный цикл каждые 5 секунд, если бы он был очень поверхностным, поскольку для меня это самый удобный/естественный способ дыхания? Или мне следует поработать над этим и попробовать то, что предложил мой инструктор? Спасибо!