Breathing Rate (Again)

[dkatchalov]

Ok, I have read all the other threads on the topic, but wanted to ask the question anyway.

I'm a tall, young male. Don't smoke. Not overweight. 6'6" tall and 87kg. According to my dive doctor I have a huge lung capacity and really good breathing rate. I am fit (i.e. run, cycle and swim regularly) but could be fitter.

So I have 21 dives under my belt and suck air down like there's no tomorrow. There's generally a 40-50 bar difference between my buddy and I at any point.

I know - I have to relax, work less, fin less, be weighted correctly, etc. I am working on all those aspects with each dive. I also know that I need to take long, deep (but not to deep) breaths and nice long exhales to get rid of the CO2. This is what I'm not doing at the moment - my breaths out are long but my breaths in are shallower, hence I suck more air down.

When I practise at home, with one hand pinching my nose shut, I can easily do less than three breaths a minute. I could even do two if I really tried. This is much slower than what I breath underwater.

Given the above, would it be beneficial for me to basically put on my mask at home, sit on the couch and focus on getting 2 to 3 breaths a minute (i.e. 2 to 3 breaths in) and then aim to replicate same underwater?? I have almost tuned in my weight, my gear is streamlined - I haven't got anything hanging off my harness, my smb, shears and light are in my drysuit pockets, all my hoses and SPG (spg only, no console) are clipped off to my harness, so the only thing that I need to do (apart from practise) is just get my breathing rate in check.

I know that more dives, expereicned and more relaxed state will get me beter breathing but I am not happy taking this passive approach and want to try and improve my breathing during my long-ish surface intervals (2 boat dives every two weeks).

Thanks.

 

[Rick Inman]

When I dive with newer divers, I notice how busy most of them are and don't even know it. Hands sculling, feet always in motion, busy, busy, busy. If your trim isn't right you'll be constantly making adjustments. If your buoyancy isn't right, you'll be constantly swimming to stay off the bottom. That takes energy.

If you've ever been underneath a class of OW divers on the surface and looked up at them, you'll see a bunch of very busy legs kicking and moving and hands sculling, when in truth all you need to do is relax and just float motionless. It's only natural when you're in the water to keep moving - even when scuba equipment makes it so you don't have to.

Busy, busy, busy.

A good test is to stop dead in the water during the dive and see what happens. Do you sink down? Do you float up? Does your head or feet drop? If any of these things are happening when you are dead still, then you are putting energy into adjusting for it while you're swimming.

Which is why the best way to lower your sac is to make a bunch of dives. As you dive, your skills improve and your swimming automatically becomes more efficient.

Weighting, trim, buoyancy, experience. That's about all you can do, other than have a mentor critique your technique to help you improve.

 

[battles2a5]

Sounds like you are moving in the right direction. Streamlining your gear won't do squat unless YOU are streamlined in the water (e.g. good trim). You want to cut as small a hole in the water as possible and to do that you need to be horizontal. The big things that cut my air consumption down were good trim, using a frog kick as my primary kick, and crossing my arms. Once you get in the habit of not using your arms then you can do what you want with them. Being properly weighted and getting nuetral will help you get horizontal (sounds like you are already working on that).

Next you want to work on your actual breathing technique. Personally, I don't think wearing a mask around the house will help you too much. But if you think this is a contributor, maybe start wearing your mask and snorkel while you are swimming? With scuba, you need to be conscious of how you breathe, when you breathe, and how much you breathe. Try to "sip" air from your regulator. I keep my lungs between say 70% full on an inhale and 35% full when I exhale. And I take slow, deliberate breaths when I do it. This way, I have sufficient volume to make bouyancy adjustments and I still get a decent tidal volume to clear out the dead space of CO2. Just relax, relax, relax. I try to breathe out any stress and tension with each breath. When I started doing this my air consumption got a lot better.

Hope this helps. If you do happen to sit around the house wearing your mask be sure to post a pic so we can call you a dork and laugh at you . Good luck.

 

[TSandM]

You've read it before, and I'll say it again, because it's true: Reducing your gas consumption is NOT done by changing your breathing. It is not only putting your energy in the wrong place to play with your breathing pattern, it is potentially dangerous. You have a NEED for a certain amount of volume to move in and out of your lungs per minute to keep the CO2 in your blood at a normal level. You can learn to breathe less than that, and to tolerate high CO2 levels, but they potentiate narcosis and can contribute to oxygen toxicity.

Rick is right -- efficiency and relaxation are what reduce gas consumption. Every movement you make contributes to CO2 production, and therefore to ventilation needs. Learn to be as passive in the water as you can (move only when it's necessary) and you minimize your gas requirements.

At 6'6", you ARE going to have an obligatory higher consumption than most people, simply because you have more body mass to provide oxygen for and remove CO2 from. The answer for you may simply be to acquire a bigger tank, if you want to match bottom time with smaller divers.

 

[solensdotter]

Agree with the previous posters. Probably the most important thing that you can do is to dive, dive, dive. The more comfortable you get with it, the better your SAC.

You do have one disadvantage that you can't really do anything about - you're a big guy, and hence probably have a very large lung volume. You will not be able to fully compensate for that, although being fit certainly helps.

One thing to keep in mind as you practice breathing - it sounds like you are really slowing down your breathing rate to 2-3 breaths/minute. Make sure that you're not skip breathing, which long run is inefficient - and can be dangerous. Just keep a nice, slow, steady breathing rate. Someone once recommended trying to emulate your breathing just before falling asleep. I like the comparison.

Good luck!

 

[1_T_Submariner]

Slow Just remember everything in water happens slow wether you want it to or not. If you try to fight this and make things happen fast it will be wasted work.

Talk about sucking a tank down I tried to cut a tree trunk under water one time. Saw dust in the water working etc... I had about 2000 PSI in my 120 I think it lasted like 15 minutes.

 

[Rick Inman]

Talk about sucking a tank down I tried to cut a tree trunk under water one time. Saw dust in the water working etc... I had about 2000 PSI in my 120 I think it lasted like 15 minutes.

Yesterday's dive: Hacksawing through conduit to remove a light cage from a wreck. My arm feels like rubber today. Talk about air consumption!

 

[coldsmoke]

Was that the second light in the tug?

 

[tedwhiteva]

When I dive with newer divers, I notice how busy most of them are and don't even know it. Hands sculling, feet always in motion, busy, busy, busy. If your trim isn't right you'll be constantly making adjustments. If your buoyancy isn't right, you'll be constantly swimming to stay off the bottom. That takes energy.

If you've ever been underneath a class of OW divers on the surface and looked up at them, you'll see a bunch of very busy legs kicking and moving and hands sculling, when in truth all you need to do is relax and just float motionless. It's only natural when you're in the water to keep moving - even when scuba equipment makes it so you don't have to.

Busy, busy, busy.

A good test is to stop dead in the water during the dive and see what happens. Do you sink down? Do you float up? Does your head or feet drop? If any of these things are happening when you are dead still, then you are putting energy into adjusting for it while you're swimming.

Which is why the best way to lower your sac is to make a bunch of dives. As you dive, your skills improve and your swimming automatically becomes more efficient.

Weighting, trim, buoyancy, experience. That's about all you can do, other than have a mentor critique your technique to help you improve.

What Rick said - take it to heart

 

[dkatchalov]

Good points on relaxing. I am aware of having to relax more, but need to be more aware of it. I think a lot of my movements come from newbie nervousness, checking air every 2 minutes, etc. This prevents me from just relaxing (how ironic).