Breathing Techniques and Air Consumption
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Scott L
Contributor
I have not read thread but has anyone discussed diaphram breathing?
I'm in agreement, but I don't think most people are intentionally saying that the idea is specifically "Tell people to relax" but rather "Teach people to dive in such a way that they are relaxed."
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dstrout
Registered
So how do you keep a steady depth during the long, relaxed breathing cycles? If I'm breathing deeply, I'm changing my displacement for a long-ish period of time. I try to breathe deeply & slowly, but I end up swimming an S-curve through a range of 3' or so. How do you manage the "hover 6" over a slit bottom" while breathing deeply?
When you walk, you lift your feet off the ground, alternately raising and lowering parts of your body, shifting weight from one side to the other, some limbs going one way, some the other, etc. Your position relative to other people, objects, location, etc changing from second to second. Right?
With all of that...how do you walk down the street without your head bobbing up and down +/- 2-3"? How do you avoiding swaying half-a-foot from side to side? Do you say to yourself "OK, lift left foot, lean slightly to right to compensate, hold on...lower head slightly to account for increased elevation of pelvis, lean forward, start moving left foot in direction of travel, carefully, about 18" or so...almost there...steady.... NOW! Put left foot down! Shift process to other side. Quick! Lower pelvis on opposite side, start raising right foot...now RAISE head to offset lowering of body as left foot comes down...prepare for impact...there it is, steady, almost there...OK. Good. Great job. OK, let's do it again...we have four more blocks to go!"
You don't think about these steps consciously, but your brain and body still manage to make thousands of adjustments every second so that your overall position in space and course of travel does not vary as you propel yourself forward. Watch someone walking down the street and see if the height of their head changes at all. It doesn't. In fact, if it did your eyes would obviously move up and down as you walked resulting in motion sickness, poor visual perception, you'd be crashing into things, your stomach would be churning, joints would be unduly strained, etc. Somehow you manage to avoid all of these things without thinking about it.
But you weren't born able to do this, were you? No. At first you learned how to do it clumsily, then as a toddler you...well...you "toddled" as you had the mechanics down but still had to think "left foot, right foot, don't tip..." You got better and better at it. As your skills and experience progressed, you got more and more comfortable doing it, and you gained confidence in your abilities. However, there was never a specific point in time where you said. "OK, I think I've got it! Starting tomorrow I'm turning management of propulsion over to my subconscious."
Diving is no different.
- At first you do it clumsily, zig-zagging, thinking "I'm crashing into the bottom..pull up. Oops, too much...now I'm heading for the surface. Swim down, down! Oh s**t I'm crashing into the bottom again..."
- Then you do it in an anticipatory but still conscious "Step 1, Step 2, Repeat" sort of cycle where you think "OK, I'm about to exhale now, which will make me negatively buoyant, so I need to ever-so-subtly correct my direction up...just a touch...to compensate. Good. Now, I'm about to inhale, so I need to ever-so-subtly correct my direction downward in order to compensate for increased buoyancy due to increase air in my lungs."
- Then you get to the point where there are really only certain times or situations where you need to consciously think about it, like when you're swimming along a reef and, looking about 20ft in front of you, think "Hmm. I'm approaching a coral head. I'd like to go over it. Therefore, in the next two kick cycles I'll need to lengthen my inhalation a touch longer and deeper than usual in order come about 2ft or so shallower in the water column to pass over the coral head..."
- Then all of a sudden it's four years later and you're reading ScubaBoard posts from newer divers and you realize "I have no idea when - or how - I got to the point where I never ever think about it. Ever. At all. I mean, like in years. That's really weird. Somehow it became as natural as walking down the street."
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Bubbletrubble
Contributor
@dstrout: To clarify, RJP is describing a method which doesn't require finning up or down in the water column to compensate for buoyancy changes throughout the breathing cycle. A diver taking full breaths should be able to maintain position in the water column very easily. Recall that there is a slight delay which occurs between inhaling and floating up (or exhaling and floating down). With proper execution, you can time things so that these subtle buoyancy changes essentially "cancel" each other out. This is the anticipation that he describes. Over time, this breathing pattern becomes second nature. I recommend that you give it a try the next time you go diving. Just hover and see if you can do it. I think you'll be surprised by the results.
Sort of like telling someone to learn how to walk by "just standing still" to see if they can do it.
:cool2:
fnfalman
Contributor
Like others have already posted: slow inhale, slow exhale. I try to match the rate of inhale to exhale such as a five seconds count in and a five seconds count out. Breath in deeply and breath out fully.
As far as keeping neutral buoyancy while breathing, that's easy: practice makes perfect.
Assuming that one knows the techniques to hover, to establish neutral buoyancy, then practice makes perfect. At first you'd have to think about it but after while, it's automatic reflex. I don't need to think that I need to flick my right fin a hair right now or my left fin a second later any more. When I get to a boulder and wanted to go up above it then descend below it, I used to have to think ahead about what steps I needed to take. Now it's automatic. I just go.
As far as keeping neutral buoyancy while breathing, that's easy: practice makes perfect.
Assuming that one knows the techniques to hover, to establish neutral buoyancy, then practice makes perfect. At first you'd have to think about it but after while, it's automatic reflex. I don't need to think that I need to flick my right fin a hair right now or my left fin a second later any more. When I get to a boulder and wanted to go up above it then descend below it, I used to have to think ahead about what steps I needed to take. Now it's automatic. I just go.
Bubbletrubble
Contributor
Sort of like explaining to someone how to do something...when they've asked how to do it. :cool2:
I discussed breathing cycles during a hover because it directly addressed dstrout's question. From his post, I got the impression that he was unable to maintain neutral position in the water column (within a few inches) while taking normal-sized breaths...but I could be wrong.
If he can do it while hovering, then, based on the same technique, he should be able to do it while moving at a constant depth.
elan
Contributor
I doubt anyone can maintain depth hovering doing deep breaths and those long 5 inhale 5 hold 5 exhale cycles. 10 seconds is enough to throw you off balance unless you breath very shallow, no matter how you learn it physics is physics
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