What to do about air consumption?

[spectrum]

RDRINK25,

You may be what you may be but your description of the need to immediately exhale and repeat sounds like a poor breathing pattern. Given your running activity it is safe to assume you are probably not a cardio-vascular wreck. You need to reprogram your breathing pattern. You may be prescribed patterns to try but in the end it needs to be natural for you. Hence training, not coaching is a more surefire remedy.

Sacrifice a few runs per week and go to a big local swimming pool with your mask, snorkel and fins. Do end for end laps for 20-30 minutes, cruising a comfortable speed pushing yourself ever so slightly as you go. The dead air of the snorkel will pretty much force you to take long deep breaths, huffing and puffing like a freight train. Eventually you will be cruising the 25m length in well under 10 breaths. No arms, just focus on a nice dead true flutter kick.

Towards the end if you want to mix it up do some lengths including your upper body (arms) in the swimming.

Once you have completed the day's laps take 5-10 minutes in the water to totally mellow out then work on swimming the length underwater, holding your breath if this is not already a slam dunk for you. You will find that with relaxation and exposure your tolerance will grow and you will make it end to end. Do a few of those and call it a day.

All of this activity will make it instinctive to breath deeply when you have a mouthpiece in your mouth and no bottom time is wasted. It will also tone your legs to be cramp proof and fine tune the directional control of your fin swimming.

Also... Silly as it sounds start singing in the car to music you enjoy, long loud windshield smashing notes preferably. This will tone your diaphragm and bust lots of stress in addition to reinforcing the deep breathing skill.

More here

Pete

 

[Steve_C]

On slowing down. Water provides a lot of resistance to speed, but on the flip side a little push goes a long way before you stop. When going slow a kick, glide, kick, glide pattern will move you almost as fast with a lot less effort the kick, kick, kick, and it is more relaxing. This is true whatever kick style you use.

 

[danvolker]

Some great suggestions so far. One additional suggestion: when you jump in, get to the bottom, then spend litterally a whole minute dead still at the bottom, trying to "Zen out", pulling your heart rate down from what is likely 120 or so( from what you described) to more like 70 or lower.....Try to slow your system down, to relax all your muscles...make everything limp.
The more muscular you are, the more critical it is to learn to shut down contractions in all muscles not needed for propulsion. While a muscular diver has a lot of muscle they "can" blow oxygen through, they don't have to....Fit muscles can pull very little blood O2 if they are really shut down and quiet. And, if you shut down all your muscles optimally, except for propulsion muscles, and are at neutral buoyancy, then powerful muscles need barely contract to push you forward---much less contraction ( as a percentage of total possible) than for a average or weak diver. When you finish the one minute getting your heart rate to dead lowest you can, then play with your inflator and dump valve to reach absolute dead deutral about one foot off the bottom....get stable there, then begin the dive....you should then be able to do great with a lower SAC Rate if you stick to this...
If you don't know how to pull heart rate down, you will need to play with a heart rate monitor for a few days, and work on the biofeedback of relaxation, and lower heart rate.
Clearly you need to let your buddy know ahead of time that you will need to do this for a few dives.....after a few of these, the relaxation time in the beginning of the dive, at the bottom, can get shorter and shorter untill it is less than 10 seconds long.

 

[RDRINK25]

How tall are you and what is your weight and lung size? How much lead are you caring? Slow down is the first thing that comes to mind and check your cumberbun and weight belt position.

5'10 215lbs not usually having any weight with steel tanks.

---------- Post added February 6th, 2013 at 02:57 PM ----------

Thx everyone a lot of great ideas! I have done some yoga classes but has been awhile ago so I will try that some more. I do have a pool at the gym so more laps are needed as well. Most of all I think the 12345678910 in 12345678910 out I am going to try the most. I have tried to concentrate solely on my breathing and I get to a point where I feel like I am out of breath and that is what I am afraid of. Thanks again for all the suggestions!

---------- Post added February 6th, 2013 at 02:59 PM ----------

Some great suggestions so far. One additional suggestion: when you jump in, get to the bottom, then spend litterally a whole minute dead still at the bottom, trying to "Zen out", pulling your heart rate down from what is likely 120 or so( from what you described) to more like 70 or lower.....Try to slow your system down, to relax all your muscles...make everything limp.
The more muscular you are, the more critical it is to learn to shut down contractions in all muscles not needed for propulsion. While a muscular diver has a lot of muscle they "can" blow oxygen through, they don't have to....Fit muscles can pull very little blood O2 if they are really shut down and quiet. And, if you shut down all your muscles optimally, except for propulsion muscles, and are at neutral buoyancy, then powerful muscles need barely contract to push you forward---much less contraction ( as a percentage of total possible) than for a average or weak diver. When you finish the one minute getting your heart rate to dead lowest you can, then play with your inflator and dump valve to reach absolute dead deutral about one foot off the bottom....get stable there, then begin the dive....you should then be able to do great with a lower SAC Rate if you stick to this...
If you don't know how to pull heart rate down, you will need to play with a heart rate monitor for a few days, and work on the biofeedback of relaxation, and lower heart rate.
Clearly you need to let your buddy know ahead of time that you will need to do this for a few dives.....after a few of these, the relaxation time in the beginning of the dive, at the bottom, can get shorter and shorter untill it is less than 10 seconds long.

Lately I have instead of on the bottom but descend on a line to usually the safety stop and stop and breathe for a min or so and get relaxed and that has helped as well.

 

[Midge907]

I would also suggest like others to get into the breathing type patterns of doing Yoga. Back when I was in highschool, and as an adult I have been a competitive shooter of both 3-position rifle, and archery and the breathing techniques for those helped me out a bunch. When helping out others I really like to push the whole "ZEN" part, especially when doing skills that can freak a person out the first few times.

 

[DevonDiver]

I would love to extend my air consumption and if there is anything that my help as far as techniques I would love to hear them.

It's not a 'technique', but the best advice I can give is to simply stop worrying about your air consumption. That, in itself, will probably have the most noticeable beneficial effect

I hit a 'plateau' with my air consumption when I was at a similar experience level to you. It bugged me on every dive - and I tried every technique and strategy under the sun - to little effect. After many frustrating dives, I simply gave up on it... and accepted it. Guess what? My air consumption improved again! LOL

Relax, enjoy your dives. Stop thinking about it...

 

[DivemasterDennis]

In a brief article I did for scubadiverlife.com ( check it out, its free!) I put the question this way: Will I Always be an Air Sucker? Taking a few pieces from that article, let me share this. Variations among divers in gender, body size, body type, activity in the water, and experience as a diver all impact air consumption rates. Some divers wonder if they will always be an air sucker. The answer is, not so much as when you start out, but some people, by reason of their body size, particularly lung capacity, will breathe through their air faster than others, no matter how experienced they are. Not everyone uses up their air at the same rate, but some air suckage is correctable. You can, through good diving practices, reduce your air consumption. Here are some tips to help you do that and increase your bottom time.

1) Check your weighting. If you go through air faster than everyone else, there is a real good chance you are over-weighted or under-weighted. Properly weighted, you will exert less effort during a dive, you will maintain neutral buoyancy with less adjustment of air in and out of your bcd or wing, and you will use less air.
2) Trim your buoyancy often through adding or venting air from your bcd or wing in tiny increments. I often observe other divers and see that they cannot hover. To remain at a certain depth, they are kicking or moving their arms to maintain that depth. Those movements burn air. Use your low pressure inflater/ deflater- that is what it is there for. Maintain neutral buoyancy and you will use a lot less air. Remember that variations in depth during a dive will cause the air in your bcd or wing to compress or expand, impacting buoyancy. If you are overweighted and carrying a lot of air in your bcd or wing, then the effect is more pronounced. Once you are properly weighted, still trim your buoyancy often.
3) Move less. You will move less if you are properly weighted and trim your buoyancy often. But you will still burn air if you are swimming from place to place and back again, chasing fish you will never catch, or lagging behind the group and speeding to catch up. This tip is simple: move less. Stop and smell the coral. Look for pretty little things under ledges. Don’t be in constant motion. The less you move, the more you will see, and the less air you will breathe.
4) Monitor your depth regularly. Even depth variations of a couple of meters can impact air consumption substantially. Remember your training. If you are 10 meters deep, it takes twice as much air to fill your lungs as it does at the surface. If you are 20 meters down, it takes three times as much, and at 30 meters, four times as much. Dive planning involves planning a profile concerning depth and time at depth. Often divers are distracted by something they see and do not pay attention to their depth. A dive planned to 80 feet is shortened when the inattentive diver is suddenly at 95 feet , or even deeper. Whether due to distraction or poor buoyancy control, descending deeper than planned will cause more rapid air depletion. Monitor your depth and maintain the planned profile.
5) Stay (or move to) a few meters above the rest of the group. If during a dive you notice that you are going through air quicker than the others on the dive, consider ascending a couple of meters. As noted above, it can make a measurable difference in your air consumption.

Basic stuff but true.
DivemasterDennis

DivemasterDennis

 

[Nemrod]

You could skip breath.


But, the "breath normally" thing gets to me. Most people pant like a hot dog. Take long, slow, deep controlled breaths. There is an interval between each breath, where there is no inhalation or exhalation. Sitting here, I notice, my heart rate is 44 BPM and I have not taken a breath in over 30 seconds. So, my point is, at what point does my normal breathing become skip breathing? I think when the intention to extend a breath enters the process. Long---slow---normal breaths.

N

 

[spectrum]

So, my point is, at what point does my normal breathing become skip breathing?

I notice that especially on calmly paced deeper dives my breathing will naturally slow to a surprising slow rate. I'm not doing anything other than breathing deeply and steadily. No stress, no headaches just zen and low air usage.

Aside from self awareness I never try to manage my breathing, I just breathe well and let by body set the rate.

 

[Mantra]

The important stuff has already been said, but I got two great tips from a Swiss commando recently that helped me move to another level. I will throw them in on the off chance they are useful to someone else too.

He encouraged using the time on the boat before a dive to relax - to remind yourself that you are about to enter a peaceful world and to get peaceful yourself. Then to repeat this (if conditions allow) at the surface before going down. The moments waiting for others to jump in or whatever can be a really great relaxation moment to consciously take.

He also encouraged me to neither over-inhale or to over-exhale underwater in usual conditions (to find the point where you naturally exhale to on the surface when breathing normally as a good indicator as to the fullness your lungs should reach) and then to try and breathe quietly underwater. He was all about being quiet and zen underwater. And what I found was when listening to my bubbles I could tell when I was exhaling too forcefully. It shifted my awareness from the physical sensations of breathing (which perhaps I was over-focusing on) to listening. This in turn resulted in my body slowing my breathing down. Quiet bubbles. It's a neat trick I hadn't heard before.