Breathing Techniques

[snagel]

After reading through several recent posts there has been comments made, "after learning some breathing techniques from my instructor" my buoyancy is better or I'm feeling more comfortable, etc.

Obviously, we all know "Don't Hold Your Breath"....but, what are all these techniques people are talking about. Since there are so many new divers on the forum, this might be a good topic to touch on.

Anybody have any good input here?

Snagel

[Aquatrax]

Maybe it's something like yoga breathing to help them relax. I used the inhale for 4 seconds, pause, exhale for 4 seconds, now I don't even think about it.

[Tassie Diver]

Long, slow breaths are not something we do automatically. It's even harder to do this and relax at the same time! But long, slow breathing is the optimal technique for scuba.

[Tekdivr]

There are differernt types of "breath" holding. Obviously you don't want to hold your breath while makng an ascent. Holding your breath, for a couple of seconds, while swiming horizontally along a reef is the easiest way to change your depth by a few feet and allow you to clear an obstacle without finning or touching your inflator. Once you clear the obstacle, let out your air and you'll start to drop back to where you started. Being properly weighted will help you achieve this. There should only be a couple of pops of air in your bc, once you hit depth, to become neutral. The more you add and dump air, from your bc, the shorter your dive will be. This may be one of the "techniques" they're referring to.

[Lulubelle]

Originally Posted by Tekdivr

There are differernt types of "breath" holding. Obviously you don't want to hold your breath while makng an ascent. Holding your breath, for a couple of seconds, while swiming horizontally along a reef is the easiest way to change your depth by a few feet and allow you to clear an obstacle without finning or touching your inflator. Once you clear the obstacle, let out your air and you'll start to drop back to where you started. Being properly weighted will help you achieve this. There should only be a couple of pops of air in your bc, once you hit depth, to become neutral. The more you add and dump air, from your bc, the shorter your dive will be. This may be one of the "techniques" they're referring to.

Hey, I didn't know I was using a "technique". I don't use any air in my bc and love being able to control my depth with just my breath.

While we are on the topic of breathing techniques...sometimes I have a headache when I get back on board. Someone said that this might be related to the way I breathe and CO2 buildup? I don't EVER hold my breath but will often take deeper or shallower breaths as needed to keep myself at the desired depth for my safety stops. Anything I might be missing or is the headache thing normal for some people?

[Tekdivr]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

Hey, I didn't know I was using a "technique". I don't use any air in my bc and love being able to control my depth with just my breath.

While we are on the topic of breathing techniques...sometimes I have a headache when I get back on board. Someone said that this might be related to the way I breathe and CO2 buildup? I don't EVER hold my breath but will often take deeper or shallower breaths as needed to keep myself at the desired depth for my safety stops. Anything I might be missing or is the headache thing normal for some people?

By golly you are using a "technique" since they don't really teach it in OW,AOW or rescue. I dive the same way as you're descibing and have never experienced a headache afterwards. Do you suffer with any sinus issues or slight reverse block when ascending??

[Lulubelle]

Originally Posted by Tekdivr

By golly you are using a "technique" since they don't really teach it in OW,AOW or rescue. I dive the same way as you're descibing and have never experienced a headache afterwards. Do you suffer with any sinus issues or slight reverse block when ascending??

No sinus or reverse block issues. I am just wondering if I might be a tad underweighted and may be breathing too shallow when I am at my safety stop. I am using steel tanks now and am neutral without air in my BC with the weight I carry (4 pounds in the ocean). But I am also prone to headaches.

[Smashee]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

While we are on the topic of breathing techniques...sometimes I have a headache when I get back on board. Someone said that this might be related to the way I breathe and CO2 buildup? I don't EVER hold my breath but will often take deeper or shallower breaths as needed to keep myself at the desired depth for my safety stops. Anything I might be missing or is the headache thing normal for some people?

Could be CO2. Could be your mask is too tight. Could be anything.
FWIW, I used to get headaches after long dives deeper than 30-35m, probably related to CO2. Switching to Nitrox solved that issue for me.

[Tekdivr]

Originally Posted by Lulubelle

No sinus or reverse block issues. I am just wondering if I might be a tad underweighted and may be breathing too shallow when I am at my safety stop. I am using steel tanks now and am neutral without air in my BC with the weight I carry (4 pounds in the ocean). But I am also prone to headaches.

A couple more pounds may allow you to take deeper breaths during your safety stop and possibly help with that. If your prone to headaches anyhow, it may have no effect on it whatsover. I doubt it's a CO2 issue though.

[Lulubelle]

Originally Posted by Smashee

Could be CO2. Could be your mask is too tight. Could be anything.
FWIW, I used to get headaches after long dives deeper than 30-35m, probably related to CO2. Switching to Nitrox solved that issue for me.

The headaches are definitely much better since I started using Nitrox. I did my first deep dive here on 21% and enjoyed my 11 minutes of bottom time so much that I got my nitrox card immediately!

Originally Posted by Tekdivr

A couple more pounds may allow you to take deeper breaths during your safety stop and possibly help with that. If your prone to headaches anyhow, it may have no effect on it whatsover. I doubt it's a CO2 issue though.

I'll have to play around with it a bit then. I wonder if the headache thing is just related to the dive profiles we do here? Deep. And I always hit my NDL first.