How should I breathe?

[King_of_All_Tyrants]

All-

I've heard many times that I should breathe deeply. Does that mean fill up my lungs as much as I can, then expel as much of the air from my lungs as I can, and repeat for the rest of the dive? Or does it mean something less?

I ask because I've noticed that there's a pretty dramatic change in buoyancy when this happens.

Thanks!

KoAT

 

[H2Andy]

you bet there will be bouyancy changes

breathe from the diaphragm, hold the air in for a few beats (but keep your airway open at all times) and then exhale ... you should breathe slowly and regularly

if your diaphragm is moving, you are breathing deep enough (don't breathe shallow with just your mouth and throat)

 

[Mako Mark]

slow, smooth and regular.

 

[SNorman]

All-

I've heard many times that I should breathe deeply. Does that mean fill up my lungs as much as I can, then expel as much of the air from my lungs as I can, and repeat for the rest of the dive? Or does it mean something less?

I ask because I've noticed that there's a pretty dramatic change in buoyancy when this happens.

Thanks!

KoAT

Yeah, I learned quickly after hitting the water that "breathe deep and slow" is a bunch of BS (well, sort of). Breathe as deeply and slowly *as possible* within the limits of your buoyancy changes. You will find sometimes you will have to leave more air in your lungs and other times leave less air in your lungs as you exhale (and not inhale as much) to stay where you want to be.

Don't be afraid to exhale forcefully if you start to rise up too fast or take a quick breath in if you start to sink too fast from where you are trying to hover.

 

[RonFrank]

This is a difficult question to answer as no one can really tell how anyone else breaths UW, and what is important is that each individual needs to breath in a way that provides O2 in adequate amounts for their needs.

It maybe better to ask how NOT to breath as there are some ways that are going to result in problems.

Do NOT hyperventilate.

Fast shallow breathing is a no no, which is similar to hyperventilating.

Holding your breath is a NoNo, but if you keep the airway open, a failure to always to be inhaling or exhaling is not necessarily dangerous.

Personally I breath more as my buoyancy dictates vs. about anything else. IOW's, as someone who is often with a camera in hand, I breath in such a way where my buoyancy is maintained. That may mean shallower breathing than if I want to attempt to maximize air consumption.

In general I breath in and out VERY slowly. My instructor who was a very experienced diver said about 4 seconds in, and then 4 or more out. I don't really worry about if my in or out takes X amount of time, but I do breath slowly, and somewhat deeply.

Over time it's something that you just forget about. I used to concentrate on how I breath, but after about 75 dives, I stopped thinking about it much. If I'm on a deep dive, and want to conserve air, I do sometimes make an effort to breath slowly, but really not even in that situation much these days.

If you start to feel panic at depth, DO concentrate on breathing. Slow, deep breaths, and fill the lungs. Yes it may impact buoyancy to some degree, but it takes a few seconds for a full breath to start an ascent, and generally one can release a breath before it dramatically impacts buoyancy.

 

[fire_diver]

Yeah, I gotta call BS on the "deep and slow" thing too. What I found works for me is kinda like double breathing. I inhale fully, then exhale half way. Pause. Exhale all the way, then inhale half way. Pause. Inhale fully, repeat.

It's not skip breathing, becuase you aren't skipping any breath cycle. You are simply extending the breathing cylce, and adjusting for bouyancy shifts. Since you never hold your breath, you don't have to worry about hyper-capnia.

FD

 

[tceylan]

Breathe like you are in sleep (this is x seconds in, x seconds out type of
breathing), but use your diaphram. Practice this by watching your stomach,
it should expand/shrink. A slight pause after the inhale will also
maximize your lung efficiency (this doesn't mean hold your breath, keep your epiglottis open, just like when we are sleeping...)

And how deep depends on your buoyancy/depth/physical activity.
Deep slow breathing doesn't mean
you need to fill all your lung capacity.

Sometimes our lungs as our natural BC interfere
with our breathing rhythm. For example, you just realize that you
want to rise up little bit, but you are
exhaling at that moment. For this breathing cycle, your breathing may be shallow
since you might leave some air in your lungs to stop sinking and exhale more than usual air to rise up. But after you fix your buoyancy/depth,
you'll continue with good/deep
breathing in the next cycles. You'll get used to this in 10-20 dives and you won't
even have to think about it.

See Yogic/Mediational Breathing techniques also... Tao also describes how we
should breathe in real life. These have some applications in SCUBA/free diving.

 

[bottemdweller2]

inhale and then exhale

 

[RonFrank]

Yeah, I gotta call BS on the "deep and slow" thing too. What I found works for me is kinda like double breathing. I inhale fully, then exhale half way. Pause. Exhale all the way, then inhale half way. Pause. Inhale fully, repeat.

It's not skip breathing, becuase you aren't skipping any breath cycle. You are simply extending the breathing cylce, and adjusting for bouyancy shifts. Since you never hold your breath, you don't have to worry about hyper-capnia.

FD

Why do that? I know that answer, and it's buoyancy.

But are you suggesting that breathing deeply is worst than shallow breathing?

As I suggested, we all breath differently, so let's not call BS on what works for others, but rather explain what works for each of us, and let the OP decide on if that works for them.

What you are suggesting is breathing out, stopping, then breathing out some more and visa versa. That is not very different from just breathing out or in slowly, no?

 

[DandyDon]

Breathing is strongly recommended - you might even say required.

you bet there will be bouyancy changes

breathe from the diaphragm, hold the air in for a few beats (but keep your airway open at all times) and then exhale ... you should breathe slowly and regularly

if your diaphragm is moving, you are breathing deep enough (don't breathe shallow with just your mouth and throat)

This is the most popular way to extend time on a tank, except perhaps for one word misused there.

Hold = closing your airway

Pause = keeping air open

Andy meant Pause as you can see from the description. This method helped me a lot - until I started carrying a camera. Now, like Ron - altho my pics are nowhere as nice - I use lung volume to dictate finaly buoyancy, and request 100-130 cf tanks.

For the shallower dives, close your Venturi valve to lean, open to full for deeper.

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