FIVE TIPS TO INCREASE LUNG

CAPACITY FOR FREEDIVING

Disclaimer: this information does not constitute training and must be taught and
practiced first under the supervision of an instructor.
When people talk about lung capacity, most think size — the sheer volume of air in
your chest. Increasing lung volume does help (it puts more gas in the tank).
However, freedivers should also be interested in how effectively and efficiently
their lungs work. This article covers five tips which can help you increase your lung
volume and efficiency.

1. Segmented Breathing
Segmented breathing is a process in which freedivers separate individual muscle
groups used for breathing to maximize their potential. Most new and many
untrained freedivers will breathe from their chest when asked to take the biggest
breath they can. Unfortunately, this may feel natural, but it is entirely backward.
Think of filling your lungs like a pitcher of lemonade. You start at the bottom and
fill to the top. You perform this exercise by breathing through pursed lips. Doing so
helps isolate your muscle groups and creates a breathing pattern which maximizes
the intake of air.
The diaphragm is a layer of muscle which separates the abdominal and chest
cavities. It is also the most efficient muscle used in breathing. When you draw
down on your diaphragm and out on your stomach, it draws air into your lungs, all
the way to the bottom. This, coincidentally, is where two-thirds of the blood in your
lungs reside.
You’ll want to inhale until you can’t inhale any farther while only using your
diaphragm. If your chest starts to fill, you went too far. Do this four times, inhaling
to the maximum. Then pause and relax for a second. Next, slowly exhale, holding
the air back with just your tongue pressed against the roof of your mouth. Don’t
use your diaphragm or chest to hold the air back. They should be completely
relaxed.
Now you start working your intercostal muscles. These surround your ribs. There
are outer and inner intercostal muscles you use to inhale and exhale respectively.
These are the muscles most people breathe with day-to-day. Chest out, stomach
in, right?
While we might be accustomed to using them, the intercostal muscles aren’t as
efficient as the diaphragm. This is for two reasons:
 More muscles mass uses more oxygen.
 You’re flexing your ribs which are bone. This takes effort.
The second part of segmented breathing is expanding your chest wall as much as
you can. This takes time and practice. You start with your lower ribs and work your
way up.
After you have done your four diaphragmatic inhalations:
 Do inhalations which start with inhaling as much as you can using just the
diaphragm.
 Pause and relax.
  Then use your intercostal muscles to add on top of the diaphragmatic
breath.
Once you’ve inhaled as much as you can, pause and relax. Then exhale slowly,
again using the tongue against the roof of your mouth to slow the escaping air.
You’ll want to repeat that process four times as well.
The final part of segmented breathing is using your shoulders. Yes, your shoulders.
The tops of your lungs are just under the bottom of your shoulder, if you lift your
shoulders, you lift the top of your lungs drawing in even more air.
The key here is don’t lift your shoulders and hold them up. Simply lift them towards
your ears as you open your epiglottis, allowing air to go past. Then close your
epiglottis and immediately relax and drop your shoulders. Now:
 Perform the diaphragmatic inhalation, pause and relax.
 Then chest, pause and relax.
 Then shoulders, pause and relax.
 Then slowly exhale just like before, repeating four times.
Taking the five minutes to perform segmented breathing as little as three or four
times a week helps develop larger and more efficient inhalations. The more air you
can get in, and the more comfortably you can do it, the deep and longer you can
go.

2. Inhalation or Packing Stretches

Inhalation stretches are also known as packing stretches. (And, no, we aren’t
getting into “packing” here.) You use inhalation stretches to increase your lung
volume. This exercise uses the steps covered in segmented breathing to help
stretch muscle and bone out of the way of our lungs.
 Start by getting into a comfortable kneeling or sitting position, low to the
ground. Relax for a minute, just breathing.
 Then perform a diaphragmatic breath, lock off your epiglottis, then with
your right arm pointing up, lean to the left, so your right arm goes over you to
the left.
 Hold this position for ten seconds, then switch so your left arm is up and
over while leaning to the right, holding this position for the same time.
 After this, put both arms above your head and lean forward arching your
back, again holding for ten seconds.
 Then put both arms behind you either one hand grabbing the other, or both
hands on the ground behind you if you aren’t yet this flexible.
 Now press your sternum towards the sky for ten seconds.
If you can’t get through all four positions on one breath, don’t fret, with practice
you will. It’s okay to break it up in manageable parts.
After those four positions on a diaphragmatic inhalation, you’ll do the same
process with the diaphragm and chest. Then diaphragm, chest and shoulders. This
way, you are allowing your muscles to warm up and get a progressively deeper
stretch.
Something to remember, if at any point you feel an uncomfortable tightness in
your chest, or a tickle in your throat, back off on how much you are inhaling. Then
take some time stretching with less air until this no longer happens. It could take
months, depending on your flexibility.
You can also experience lightheadedness as you increase the amount you inhale.
This is due to the lungs applying pressure to the circulatory system, momentarily
disrupting blood flow to the brain. Should you feel this, slowly exhale some and
take a quick break. Then as you try again, don’t inhale quite as much. Work your
way up to and eventually past that point.

3. Exhalation Stretches
You may be asking how exhaling deeper and deeper will increase your lung
capacity. This is an example of when lung capacity and a larger volume aren’t
always the same.
We all have what we call residual capacity. This is when you exhale, pushing as
much air out of your lungs as you can. You still have some left and this is your
residual capacity. The more flexible your chest and diaphragm are, the more you
can draw from this as you equalize on your descent.
“Well, I don’t like going deep. I like to stay in the 10-20 m/33-66 ft range.” Great,
exhalation stretches will help with this. Within your respiratory muscles, you have
what we call stretch receptors. These are the little guys that make a yawn feel so
good, and a full exhalation so uncomfortable.
Stretch receptors signal the brain, telling it how much air your lungs are moving. If
you could get flexible enough to be comfortable in the 50 m/165 ft+ range,
imagine how comfortable you would be in shallower water. More comfort equates
to longer bottom time.
To perform an exhalation stretch, you will again want a comfortable kneeling or
seated position low to the ground.
 The first stretch will essentially be a big sigh. Exhale until you would have to
push from your stomach, then stop.
 Close off your epiglottis, then while leaning forward, try to draw a breath in
against your closed epiglottis. This will draw your abdomen in and up,
stretching your diaphragm.
 Hold that position for three to six seconds, then relax for a second or two,
and repeat. You will want to perform the stretch three to four times, then
breathe again.
If trying this for the first time, you may get the urge to breathe. Just relax through
it. You’re teaching your body that compression is okay.
 After you do that three to four times, you will then perform a deeper
exhalation, a relaxed sigh.
 Then push everything you can out with your stomach, but don’t bend over.
 Next, close off your epiglottis, lean over and perform the same series of
stretches.
After you have done this, exhale even further — relaxed sigh, push everything out
with your stomach, then bend over while trying to exhale — close off your
epiglottis and perform the series of stretches.
Some freedivers like to perform the inhalation and exhalation stretches together:
Inhale stretch, exhale stretch, deeper inhale stretch, deeper exhale stretch and so
on. If at any time you get a tickle or cough lighten up on how much you are
exhaling.

4. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Hypoxia (O2) tables.

There is a way you can use oxygen more efficiently and increase what people
frequently consider lung capacity. This is to make your body handle oxygen and
carbon dioxide more efficiently. You can train for this using Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
and Hypoxia (O2) tables.
Carbon dioxide is a byproduct of metabolism. As our cells use oxygen, they
produce carbon dioxide. The blood transports this back to our lungs where we
exhale it.
When we hold our breath, CO2 builds up because we aren’t exhaling. The cerebral
chemoreceptors in the brain are measuring pH and, in that way, measure how
much CO2 we have in our system. Typically, the urge to get rid of CO2 is what
drives us to breathe. We can build up a tolerance for lower levels of pH, which
result from higher levels of CO2. We do this by slowly and systematically
performing a series of breath holds.
Perform six to eight (static) breath holds, each for the same length in time.
Progressively decrease the interval (vent) between breath holds. This way, you
slowly build up the CO2 in your system. Given time and practice (and after
completing the table on which you are working) you will increase the static times
while decreasing the vent times, going up a table if you will.
Hypoxia tables (commonly called O2 tables) are the opposite of CO2 tables. The
statics gradually increase while the vents remain constant. This decreases the
available O2 in your system, forcing your body to adapt to hypoxic conditions. Just
like the CO2 tables, when you can complete one table, you bump up a table.
Two notes on tables. These are breath holds which you should never perform in the
water without formal training and a trained buddy. You also don’t want to work the
tables any time a loss of motor control or blackout could cause harm to you or
someone else. In other words, no tables while stuck in rush hour traffic.
Also, it is normal to be on different CO2 and O2 tables. You might, for example, be
on the level 10 CO2 table while also on the level 6 O2 table. Remember, if the table
you are working is easy, you need to bump up. Just like in the gym, you don’t lift
the easy weights to get better, you lift what’s hard.

5. Apnea Walks
Apnea walks help further develop tolerance to high CO2. Rather than discuss them
here, we have an entire article devoted to just this one exercise.
The five steps outlined here will help you:
 Increase your lung capacity
 Develop larger lung volume
 Give you more flexibility to allow you to equalize deeper
 Make your body more efficient in how it deals with hypoxia and elevated
CO2
Remember to always freedive with a buddy and continue your training. And, before
you hold your breath for any reason, ask, “If I blackout now, could I hurt myself or
someone else?” If the answer is yes, either pick another time or place or get a
buddy to safety for you.
WHAT IS AN APNEA WALK, AND
HOW WILL IT HELP MY BREATH
HOLD?
So, you have just completed your freediving course, or you have been freediving or
spearfishing for some time, and you are looking to gain more bottom time.
Hopefully, you went over some training exercises in your class, but one which often
gets underrated is the apnea walk.
What is an apnea walk?
An apnea walk is a training exercise used to develop higher tolerances to carbon
dioxide. It also increases comfort when working through contractions. You do this
exercise on dry land. It is useful when you cannot get into the water.
By performing apnea walks, you improve your breath-hold because while moving,
your body produces more CO2 and other waste products than it does when merely
holding your breath. The more you expose your body to these factors, the higher
your tolerance will build before making you uncomfortable. Your body will learn to
deal with the elevated levels of CO2 more efficiently.
It’s also a very effective tool for your psychology. This is because you get to work
through the discomfort of contractions to see what you can truly tolerate without
having water over your head. This makes it a little easier to push yourself without
worrying. Then once in the water, you’ll have a better understanding of what is
going on within your body.
Safety first
Apnea walks are not something you should do alone. The object of an apnea walk
is to push yourself. Then you will push yourself even farther. The chance for a
blackout is real. This means getting with a buddy and make a training session out
of it. Especially if the water is too rough that day!
Also, make sure that if you were to have a blackout, the surface on which you
would fall won’t hurt you. In other words, a soft grassy field, sandy beach, etc. This
is not something you want to do walking next to a freeway.
Now that you have your buddy and have found a nice field to practice,
here are the steps to performing an apnea walk.
1. In a sitting position, start your breathe up. Two to three minutes is plenty,
enough to get your heart rate down and oxygenate your blood.
2. Once the timer hits zero, take a peak inhalation and hold your breath.
3. Keep holding your breath until you get diaphragmatic contractions.
4. Some like to start on their first contraction; others prefer to wait. The key is
to always start at the same point. Once you’ve hit your established contraction
marker, stand up and walk at a normal pace.
5. Continue to walk until you absolutely must breathe again.
6. Perform your recovery breathing.
7. Put something on the ground at the point you stopped walking to mark the
distance.
8. Return to the starting point and repeat. During the next walk, try going
farther than you did the time before.
9. Try to get six to eight repetitions before calling it a day.
What’s your buddy doing while you are going on your
walk?
Your buddy should be walking beside you, breathing and watching you. If you have
a problem, your buddy can help break your fall. I don’t recommend trying to catch
the person as you can injure your back. Better to just slow their descent to a softer
landing.
Your buddy should also watch you as you breathe up. If you’re breathing too
deeply, an outside set of eyes can often help uncover such issues. While freediving
performances may be individual, freediving is a team sport. Have the first person
do their six to eight walks, then switch roles.
There are modifications you can use in apnea walks.
 Start walking immediately. This will build up even more CO2, but you’ll need
more room.
 Another option is to perform walks on a relaxed exhalation. Think a big sigh.
We all have stretch receptors in our diaphragm and intercostal muscles which
signal the brain when our lungs are full or empty. When you haven’t been
breathing on an exhalation vs. an inhalation, the urge to breathe is a much
stronger kick in the gut.
Now you have a better understanding of what apnea walks are and what they can
do for your breath holding ability. Get a buddy and go work on it. Remember to
always go freediving with at least one other trained freediver. If you have no
formalized training start thinking about getting some. Training greatly reduces the
risks for injury, improves technique, increases bottom time and teaches you how to
properly rescue your buddy in a hypoxic situation.
Train safe!