Is my breathing pattern proper?

[scrane]

You might start by thinking about how you're breathing right now. You are probably making use of 2/3 of your lung's capacity with an occasional cleansing breath. Unless you are working hard, this is probably the best breathing pattern to emulate under water.
By not over extending your lung capacity you will also be moderating the normal up and down movement in your buoyancy once you learn to balance your weighting and air content in your BC.
And not fighting buoyancy is the most important aspect in air consumption, IMO.

 

[Aura]

however, if you are breathing in (open airway), and shooting to the surface uncontrollably, i am not sure if your lungs will vent while inhaling...i dont quite know the mechanism of the lungs well enough....but im going to go out on a limb and not recommend anyone try.

If the airways are open, they'll always vent if the air volume expands more than what the lungs are meant for. That's why it's not a problem to inhale while doing a controlled ascent, otherwise we'd have to be neutral while inhaling and only go up while exhaling. The trouble when doing an uncontrolled ascent is that the expanding air can't escape fast enough.

 

[GreggS]

You might start by thinking about how you're breathing right now. You are probably making use of 2/3 of your lung's capacity with an occasional cleansing breath. Unless you are working hard, this is probably the best breathing pattern to emulate under water.
By not over extending your lung capacity you will also be moderating the normal up and down movement in your buoyancy once you learn to balance your weighting and air content in your BC.
And not fighting buoyancy is the most important aspect in air consumption, IMO.

This is a very good point. I know that when I first started diving, I was grossly over-weighted and had to compensate by putting a lot of air into by BCD. This would cause me to rise in the water column more than I should. It also caused more drag and made me work harder. I worked on my weighting by incrementally using 2 lbs less of lead on dives until I found the amount I should be using. Overall, I have reduced the amount of lead I carry in fresh water by 10 lbs. I can now dive with just a minimal amount of air in my BCD and can stay almost perfectly still in the water. The best benefit of this is that my air consumption has dropped greatly.

 

[Nitrox_DiverNY]

You might start by thinking about how you're breathing right now. You are probably making use of 2/3 of your lung's capacity with an occasional cleansing breath. Unless you are working hard, this is probably the best breathing pattern to emulate under water.
By not over extending your lung capacity you will also be moderating the normal up and down movement in your buoyancy once you learn to balance your weighting and air content in your BC.
And not fighting buoyancy is the most important aspect in air consumption, IMO.

Il keep this in mind! Thanks for the help!

 

[gqllc007]

Where in NY are you? Don't forget to do a weight test with 500psi and be able to safely stay at the 15-20 foot range

 

[Nitrox_DiverNY]

This is a very good point. I know that when I first started diving, I was grossly over-weighted and had to compensate by putting a lot of air into by BCD. This would cause me to rise in the water column more than I should. It also caused more drag and made me work harder. I worked on my weighting by incrementally using 2 lbs less of lead on dives until I found the amount I should be using. Overall, I have reduced the amount of lead I carry in fresh water by 10 lbs. I can now dive with just a minimal amount of air in my BCD and can stay almost perfectly still in the water. The best benefit of this is that my air consumption has dropped greatly.

very true, my first few dives were grossly over weight aswell, and went from 22lbs to 16lbs. maybe the next pool session ill try figuring out how much I can take off

 

[Nitrox_DiverNY]

Where in NY are you? Don't forget to do a weight test with 500psi and be able to safely stay at the 15-20 foot range

im in rockaway queens, and great point dont want to blow past

 

[GreggS]

very true, my first few dives were grossly over weight aswell, and went from 22lbs to 16lbs. maybe the next pool session ill try figuring out how much I can take off

As someone asked earlier in the thread, you know how to do the weight check with 500 psi in your tank, don't you?

 

[Angelo Farina]

Hello all, I wanted to ask about my breathing pattern to see if I need to make any improvement to make my diving safer and more enjoyable. I have about 15 dives logged, and my typical breathing while on Scuba looks like this. (Long slow-medium inhale, 1-2 second pause, long slow-medium exhale, 1-2 second pause.)

Is that 2 second pause in breathing considered breath hold or skip breathing ? I find that without that pause I start to hyperventilate and that leads to some very mild anxiety. When making your ascent does that brief pause in breathing pose any risk to over expansion injuries?

I have not had any headaches after most of the dives so I assume that with my current breathing pattern I assume that I am not retaining co2.

Any tips on how to improve on my breathing and to eliminate any hyperventilation anxiety would be awesome, thanks all!

That is how I was trained during my first diving course, back in 1975.
At the time the Scuba system used for training was the ARO, a pendular CC pure oxygen rebreather.
The inspiratory pause was a bit longer than the expiratory one, up to 5 s.
When the diver was not anymore able to keep a 5s long pause, it was meaning that there was too much CO2, so it was recommended to slow down until breathing was again under control.
After 6 months of training, we got a perfect control over breathing, ensuring a pleasant and safe diving experience also when switching from the ARO to compressed-air OC systems
So do not worry, your breathing is just fine!
Those short pauses do not cause CO2 retention, they instead are useful for preventing it.

 

[mc42]

I might also add the quality of the breath is also important, not only the timing as discussed. Hyperventilation sensations could actually be a clue that you're retaining CO2 - perhaps not enough to cause headaches, but still enough to cause anxiety.

Being able to pull air deep and low into your lungs where the majority of the alveoli are using diaphragmatic breathing could help with better O2 and CO2 exchange compared to typical chest breathing. To do this, I focus on pushing out my stomach when I breathe in - whether I'm diving, sitting, or lying in bed.

I don't fixate on the breathing rate so much as breathing quality - I just breathe when I feel like I should; breathing rate will naturally slow if I'm relaxed and not exerting. Each breath doesn't have to be a big (quantity) one either as that can affect buoyancy, but enough to be satisfying. I fully believe that if you try to deny or cheat your body of something, it'll fight against you.

The good thing I find is that a smaller quantity inhaled more frequently doesn't really affect buoyancy as much as larger quantity inhaled less frequently as the swings in buoyancy are less. Overall air consumption is the same.

This is the "breathe fully but normally" suggestion by most here - just wanted to sound out what I do and in particular what "breath fully" means to me. I improved how often I get headaches by doing this compared to the longer breaths I used to do.