Swimming Laps to improve SAC rate

[FishWatcher747]

So I am a first year diver and hog a lot of air in my dives. In the winter I swim laps. Normally I breath every 2 strokes, that is on the same side. One of our life guards is an old navy diver and suggested I work on breathing less often to improve my SAC rate.

I successfully switched to breathing every third stroke without difficulty. I am experimenting with breathing every fourth stroke.

Has anyone tried this and is it helpful in improving SAC rate?

 

[rhwestfall]

Hey fellow New Yorker!

Honestly, from my experiences, SAC is going to be impacted by comfort in the water, proper weighting, no unnecessary movement (hand swimming is bad), and some, but to a lesser extent to "advanced" conditioning.

Breath hold and skip breathing are bad for many reasons....

Curious the responses from others...

 

[TMHeimer]

When I needed to refine my lost swimming technique (from decades ago on HS swim team), I spent quite a few months doing regular laps. Had to get my time down for the DM course 400 meter swim test. I have never experienced any noticeable difference in my SAC rate/ air consumption diving. Before those swim months and after the test I have done no swimming at all.

 

[BoltSnap]

Best exercise for scuba is to swim with fins, mask, snorkel on in addition to whatever scuba gear the pool guards allow you to use in the pool. Do not try to "hold" your breath longer thinking that you are actually improving your SAC/RMV rates. Mask on, snorkel in place, face in water breathing from snorkel and kicking with fins while looking down at a 45Degee angle with hands on your sides. Kick with your hips and try to minimize kneed bending.

 

[dewdropsonrosa]

To a certain extent, your SAC is what it is because of your metabolic needs. You can't go any lower than what you need to survive. (Think of this as your "ideal SAC," consuming no more than the bare minimum.)

Swimming helps your actual SAC approach the ideal SAC. Fit people generally cope better with exertion and may not need to breathe as hard to meet their body's oxygen needs. They're less strained by the same amount of effort.

Skip-breathing is not necessarily helpful because your metabolism needs what it needs, even if you're skipping breaths.

You'll see more benefit from continuing to swim in ways that are comfortable and natural to build fitness and strength for moving through water.

Source: swim 3-4x/week, my long swim is 5k.

 

[ontdiver]

While someone has probably examined the correlation between fitness and SAC, it really boils down to the basics, as noted by @rhwestfall. Confidence in the water and becoming more consistent with gas management from dive to dive will be its own reward.

 

[scubadada]

I have been diving since I was 16 years old. My RMV has always been quite low. With no direct evidence, I attribute, as least some of that, to having been a competitive swimmer since the age of 4. Part of it may have been fitness and comfort in the water. I believe part of if was controlled breathing, in some ways, similar to diving.

@FishWatcher747 I still swim quite a bit. When I am swimming freestyle at a good rate, I alternate breathing on both sides every stroke and a half. I have done this for long time, best way to keep track of your competition on both sides

 

[Streydog]

Cardio helps if you are finning a lot, like fighting a current. In my experience, just diving helped with my excessive gas consumption. Somewhere around 70-80 dives my SAC lowered quite a bit. At first I was taking 10-12 breaths per minute, now it is around 5-6. I found this out while watching/ listening to Gopro footage.

 

[FishWatcher747]

I love the suggestion of swimming with fins, mask and snorkel with arms at side. I have never done this in a pool. Not sure how in these Covid times the lifeguards will allow personal gear like mask and snorkel. We have to use pool equipment right now like kick boards, fins. However they have recently allowed personal hand paddles so hopefully things are loosening up.

 

[loosenit2]

what @rhwestfall is correct. SAC is more a function of being calm in the water rather than conditioning. I have a buddy I dive with occasionally; he is a little taller than me but we have the same build; when he is in the water he is moving constantly, bicycle kicking and moving hands - he goes through an HP120 in the same amount of time it takes me to use 1/2 of an AL80. The difference between us is I am calm in the water, and frog kick for propulsion allowing the kick to move me more steadily before kicking again (and we move in the water at the same rate). As a reference I am 6 ft 190 lbs and my RMV is between .48 and .60 cuft/min, and sometimes lower when I am especially calm. Over the last two years I have had periods of being in great physical condition and periods of only mediocre physical condition, my SAC has not changed as a result of conditioning unless I am exerting myself a great deal underwater, that is where conditioning comes into play.