Breathing Techniques and Air Consumption

[RJP]

Does anyone have a similar or different technique?

TS&M will come along shortly with her standard answer, so I won't post details, but the best way to improve air consumption is to stop focusing on how you're breathing...and start focusing on how you're DIVING:

- get more comfortable in the water
- slow down, you're moving way too fast
- improve your buoyancy control
- slow down, you're still moving way too fast
- streamline your gear
- slow down some more
- get horizontal in the water
- slow down, you're still going too fast
- stop using your hands and arms
- slow down, really
- work on more efficient propulsion techniques
- slow down, just a little more, you're almost there

Breathe less, dive more.

:cool2:

 

[RJP]

You know, I thought the same thing too. My instructor said it was safe and a great way to regulate your breathing. I use the technique everytime I dive.

If that's the best advice he had to offer to improve your air consumption...you need a new instructor.

 

[Sas]

You know, I thought the same thing too. My instructor said it was safe and a great way to regulate your breathing. I use the technique everytime I dive.

It should not be necessary, to hold your breath that long, to reduce your air consumption or to regulate your breathing.

 

[Erock116]

If that's the best advice he had to offer to improve your air consumption...you need a new instructor.

It's not the best advice he ever gave me on air consumption, it's just something that I find works well for me.

 

[Erock116]

It should not be necessary, to hold your breath that long, to reduce your air consumption or to regulate your breathing.

You don't think so? What do you think the better technique is? Im down to listen to some new advice and give it a try.

 

[Sas]

You don't think so? What do you think the better technique is? Im down to listen to some new advice and give it a try.

Check out RJP's post, some good ideas there. The main thing is to get your weighting right, and slow down.

 

[k ellis]

It's not the best advice he ever gave me on air consumption, it's just something that I find works well for me.

If it works for you then keep doing it

 

[DA Aquamaster]

You want to be careful with excessive pauses when breathing as well as with picking an arbitrary number for the lenght of an inhale or exhale. If it is not sufficient to meet your metabolic needs, it can lead to increased CO2 retention.

As noted above, the key to good gas consumption is not in limiting respiration but rather in limiting the amount of O2 and in turn the amount of CO2 you produce. (1 liter O2 used = .8 liter CO2 produced.)

Large muscle movements equal increased O2 consumption and increased CO2 production, so in addition to limiting any uneccesary muscle movement (hand and arm movements) you want to minimize the use of large leg and trunk muscles. Good trim helps in terms of both reducing frontal area and improving streamlining, but also preventing the need to use back and torso muscles to lever yourself into good trim.

Also, the more streamlined you are, the less thrust you need to produce a given amount of speed, so better streamlining means you can maintain the same speed with far less energy expended and means less O2 used and less CO2 produced. Similarly, choosing to swim slower takes much less energy as well. Drag rises as the square of the velocity, so doubling your speed in the water will take 4 times the thrust and in that regard speed, all other things being equal, is in direct opposition to good air consumption.

In short, there are a whole lot of things to focus on that have a bigger payoff than reducing respiration rates without the potential downsides. It is true that you do want to breathe slowly and pause at the top of the exhalation, but you don't want to do so at the expense of adequately ventilating to prevent elevated CO2 levels.

 

[TSandM]

It has been shown that there are some people who, while diving, tolerate significantly elevated carbon dioxide levels. This is dangerous because CO2 is more narcotic than nitrogen, and retaining CO2 acutely changes your blood pH as well.

One way to evaluate your breathing pattern while on scuba is to try it on land. Breathe in, hold your breath for five seconds, and breathe out, hold for five seconds. I can almost guarantee you that, in short order, you will feel short of breath.

It is, however, true that excessive use of the breath for buoyancy control has a negative effect on your SAC rate. This was something I learned when I was whining about the reel requiring its own tank. My friend KMD pointed out to me that I was using my breath to control my buoyancy while putting in ties, and suggested I use the wing instead -- doing that brought my gas consumption while running line down MUCH closer to my normal. So the OP really has a good point.

The three big determinants of gas consumption are degree of relaxation (which is related to breathing pattern, because tense people tend to breathe quickly and shallowly), efficiency (which includes trim and streamlining, as well as propulsion techniques), and speed.

 

[Ghanguss]

You don't think so? What do you think the better technique is? Im down to listen to some new advice and give it a try.

Instead of holding your breath try slowly exhaling for 10. Your air consumption probably wont improve, but its a safer alternative.

I use to hold as well. It did give me longer bottom times, but only on slow dives. If you need to do much finning, youll soon feel short of air, and hence now, I inhale normally, exhale long and slow and adjust the inhale and exhale length depending on my exertion level.

Also to adjust bouyancy I may breath deeper than usual to slow a decent.

The exhale can be ultra slow at first to get some lift or faster for the first half lungfull to get some decent followed by a slow finish to keep consumption down.

I use that breathing method to fine tune bouyance when stationary and trying to get in close to look at something which is only a few minutes at a time