Never hold your breath, except...

[Wookie]

I'll sometimes hold my breath when I'm doing video, especially if I am trying to get a close up shot.

Are you holding your breath, or are you actively just not breathing? The difference (to me anyway) is when you aren't breathing, your airway is open, but you aren't flexing your diaphragm. When holding your breath, you close the airway and relax your diaphragm. If I am maintaining buoyancy for video/lionfish stabbing, I may be breathing very shallowly or not breathing at all, but I'm not holding my breath. Semantics? Maybe, but I see a distinct difference.

---------- Post added February 13th, 2013 at 04:26 PM ----------

From what I've heard from folks who have suffered lung overexpansion injuries, the first thing you feel is the doctor asking you how you feel some number of days later. Stretching a lung is nothing to fool around with.

 

[nimoh]

I hold my breath when I shoot a dsmb.

If I am neutral, fill my lungs half full and hold my breath, I am still neutral. Then I transfer most of that gas into the dsmb, and am still neutral. I then put the regulator back in my mouth, but still holding my breath (other than the exhale into the dsmb) I take one last look up to be sure it is safe to let go of the dsmb.

Once I let go of the dsmb, I start breathing again.

 

[261311]

Yikes, sucks that there's no way to tell if you're in danger while breathing normally. I guess that's the point, breathing normally is the "low danger" part of it all. Didn't intend to hold my breath, the constant reminder just nails that belief in further

 

[nimoh]

Yikes, sucks that there's no way to tell if you're in danger while breathing normally. I guess that's the point, breathing normally is the "low danger" part of it all. Didn't intend to hold my breath, the constant reminder just nails that belief in further

not sure what you mean by this, I am guessing sarcasm was intended, but I don't get it.

 

[FlyingSquid]

I ask this because PADI literature (unsure about others) say to exhale at a rate that sounds like "ahhh" through your regulator. If you're as confused at what that rate is as I am, then good. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!? My "ahh" isn't the same as the writers. How poorly written.

Agree. If I'm going up OOA I want to keep as much remaining air as possible. It seems unwise to start aaaaah-ing the air away. But I don't want the air to be entrapped either, nor a pressure buildup in my lungs.

So the wise thing seems to be to overextend your neck (which you already do by looking up) and keeping your airways open to allow air to escape as the pressure builds up. Of course, this sounds sophisticated to teach in an OW course, and teaching the "aaaaahh" rule is less risky to the average student.

 

[flots am]

One thing I've always wondered, personally- is lung over expansion something you feel immediately (like a pop and you're screwed)

AFAIK, you would only notice the "I'm screwed" part.

Lungs aren't balloons. "Over expanding" then causes rips and damage and allows compressed air to enter places where it shouldn't be, like your chest cavity and your blood

flots.

 

[261311]

not sure what you mean by this, I am guessing sarcasm was intended, but I don't get it.

No sarcasm, I meant that for example with equalizing, the deeper you go, the more uncomfortable you become as pressure squeezes on your ears until you equalize. It would be neat that if while breathing normally (and it wasn't an acceptable norm [ie. ignorance]) you could tell that your lungs were becoming increasingly larger so you could mentally go "ok I need to exhale deeper, this isn't comfortable". Clearly not the case though I guess as per others

@FlyingSquid, fair enough. I just think there should be some way to give a more precise measurement. Given everyone has non-identically sized lungs, experiences, volumes, and air spaces this would probably be hard to nail down. I still do want to talk to other divers about this just to be on the safe side.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I've screwed up and held by breath on ascent two times, that I can recall distinctly. Each time i began to feel excess pressure and discomfort and was able to open my airway, exhale and i suffered no obvious injuries. I know the first time, I was sore and had a little cough for a day or so, but hey I was 14, solo diving and screwing around jumping off the bottom. The fact that I was also used to holding my breath on ascent when snorkeling, probably didn't help.

However, many people have embolized for no apparent reason. The key is to NOT lock your throat, if the pressure builds, it will come out. As for how fast to exhale when you say ahhhh... the answer is whatever... whatever is required to come out will come out if you are healthy and have the airway open and your ascent is less than some ridiculous number.

 

[spectrum]

The "never hold your breath" mantra is a simplistic way of getting students to never close their airway thus preventing lung expansion injuries.Remember that scuba is now taught to people that don't have time to learn anything so something that goes directly for the end result is the way to go. If you are moving air in and out of your mouth your airway must be open.

The real objective is to never close your airway. You can stop breathing to hold a position, take a picture or even rise over a ledge. At all times your airway must remain open so should you ascend intentionally or not the excess pressure will harmlessly escape. Think about it, even while ascending you inhale, expanding your lungs but between the functionality of the regulator and your open airway you remain pressure neutral.

When I was starting out I didn't quite trust myself walking this line. When I wanted to pause my breathing I'd exhale very slowly with an audible groan. If I could hear myself groan I knew I was exhaling and my lungs were free to equalize.

Pete

 

[Akimbo]

…From day 1, I thought that not holding your breath, period, was a safe way to make new divers lose this habit without thinking much. So, just NEVER do it. Easy to remember it like this, without exceptions...

I suppose everyone is wired differently, but it appears that the rule is not all that well remembered. I don’t ever recall hearing of an air embolism in the 60s and 70s. It is all too common now — granted there are a lot more divers.

Actually, the entire quote from my instructor was:

Never hold your breath while ascending in SCUBA or your lungs will explode in your chest and you will die a horrible death.

Maybe it’s just me, but that is memorable.