Proper breathing techniques

[STITCH]

Excuse me for one second while I raise my newbie flag....Salute and were good.
O.k. I have found my self skip breathing a lot while diving. This of course is not healthy and is giving me a headache from the co2. One of my friends that has quite a few years experience diving told me to breath deep shallow breaths, now to me that means that I would burn thru a tank quicker because I am taking more breaths. She tried to explain the theory to me that long deep breaths use up air slower. Im just going to be blunt, I need this in guy terms. I am not doubting her at all because she is a woman I just want to better understand the concept. Ladies please don't take offence I find it easer to explain or have some things explained to me mono e mono.

 

[The Kraken]

OK,
Let's say you fill your lungs with each breath "X" cubic feet of air.

If you take one long breath "X" x1.15 every 10 seconds, that's 6.9 what evers per minute.

If you take one short breath every 6 seconds, that 10.0 what evers per minute.

Try this . . . inhale evenly and slowly for a three count, stop for just a split second and then exhale for a six count.

You want to make sure you pump out as much CO2 as possible on each exhalation.

the K

 

[TheRedHead]

I need this in guy terms. I am not doubting her at all because she is a woman I just want to better understand the concept. Ladies please don't take offence I find it easer to explain or have some things explained to me mono e mono.

That's the silliest comment I've read in ages.......she is not talking about your pee-vavle. :lol:

 

[lowwall]

First off, it's mano a mano. Mono e mono would mean something like "one to one" so gender wouldn't come into it. Second "mano a mano" actually means hand-to-hand, not man-to-man. As in hand-to-hand combat. Sorry, bout the digression, it's one of my pet peeves.

Back to the original question. How can you "breath deep shallow breaths"?

My suggestion is that you breathe deeply and slowly. Concentrate on slowly exhaling, you want to hear a continuous, but small stream of bubbles. A long exhale guarantees the subsequent inhalation will be full. Remember that you are getting a whole lot more oxygen molecules per breath than you get at sea level, so your only real enemy is CO2 buildup, hence the full exhales.

If I'm not working too hard, I only take 3 or 4 breaths per minute and I'm never holding my breath. At that rate, a tank lasts a long time.

Fiinally, how do you define skip-breathing?

 

[Diver0001]

.... told me to breath deep shallow breaths, .....

Deep and shallow breathing..... hmmmm.... How would you do that?

I'm not sure what you're after. Are you looking for someone to explain proper breathing to you or to explain what "deep and shallow breathing is" or are you looking for someone to explain how you can stop skip breathing without a big jump in your air consumption?

R..

 

[dsteding]

"Mono" is actually Spanish for "monkey" . . .

 

[HappyFunBoater]

For me, breathing in for a count of 2 and then breating out for a count of 3 works great. I get in a nice steady and deep rhythm. My count is probably more than a second. It's just a way for me to mentally time myself until it got to a point of being second nature.

Shallow breaths will leave too much CO2 in your lungs and will make you feel out of breath, and breathing too deep can make you feel like you're hyperventilating.

 

[lowwall]

"Mono" is actually Spanish for "monkey" . . .

Por supuesto! A male monkey at that. I take it all back, "mono a mono" it is.

:mfight: :cwmddd: :mfight:

 

[Mako Mark]

First off, it's mano a mano. Mono e mono would mean something like "one to one" so gender wouldn't come into it.

perhaps it isnt a mistake...:lol:


(back on topic)
Whenever I hear of people skip breathing, I have to say.

GO FIX YOUR BOUYANCY

In my humble experience, skip breathing is often caused by overweighting.

You are possibly overinflating your lungs to compensate for being negatively bouyant. you can fix this by having less lead weight, or a little air in your BC.

Hope that helps.

 

[TSandM]

You have to move a certain amount of air in and out of your lungs per minute to keep your CO2 level in your blood normal. Because this is part of your pH control system, the body is quite determined to keep that level where it should be.

The only part of the gas you breathe in and out that participates in gas exchange is the part that gets to the actual air sacs in the lung. Above that, in the large airways, no gas exchange takes place. This is called your "physiologic dead space". When you breathe out, this space gets filled with low O2/high CO2 gas from your exhalation, and when you inhale, you re-inhale that gas.

Now, suppose you breathe 10L/min, and have a 500 cc physiologic dead space (random numbers). If you breath ten times, you have a 1L tidal volume, of which half is dead space. So half of your total breathing is effective gas exchange. On the other hand, if you breathe five times at 2L, you have 2.5L dead space, so you've increased your gas exchange by 50%.

This is the reason that slow, deep breathing is the most efficient way to breathe on scuba.

How large the actual tidal volume should be IS going to vary a little from person to person. If you find that you are having large buoyancy changes with full inhalation and exhalation, then you may want breathe a slightly smaller volume centered around the middle. But you always want to exchange the amount of air necessary to regulate your CO2, because CO2 buildup leads to anxiety and increases narcosis.