Any Swimming/ Diving Instructors Here?

Hello, all. I was wondering if there is a set technique to increasing the period in which you are able to hold your breath below water. I would like to get pretty darned good at swimming and such before I depart to the military. :P (Oct.) Thanks in advance for any/all replies.

Best wishes,

Well the best thing to do is keep on swimming and holding your breathe.
Like anything in life the more you practice it the better it will become.
I remember I used to not be able to hold my breathe for long and then I went away to South Africa for a month to stay with family and I noticed after swimming everyday I could swim further under water than I could before.
So in my honest opinion there is no special technique, just practice. And if there is a technique then we would all be Olympic swimmers by now.
So train hard and keep on swimming a lot

I'm not an instructor, but I have done some freediving in my time and have pretty good apnea times.

The main thing you need to do is practise holding your breath. Practise with empty lungs and with full lungs, and try it while swimming or while still.

Expanding your chest will allow you to get more air into your lungs. Do breathing squats, weighted side-bends and unweighted side bends to stretch the intercostal muscles.

Increase your VO2 max. The best way to do this is high-intensity interval training.

Try this exercise to learn how to control thoracic contractions. (Thoracic contractions are what cause the craving for breath when you reach you hold your breath and carbon dioxide builds up in your blood. Obviously, don't be too macho by forcing your way through more than a few thoracic contractions; they are a sign to stop and even well conditioned divers can only take a few before passing out.)

Your lungs have stretch receptors and can be stretched just like muscles. Inhale as deeply as you can and then take a few more sips of air to pack your lungs to capacity. Again, go easy with this as it can be dangerous.

Kapalabhati is a breathing technique a lot of freedivers use. I don't know the physiology of it, but it seems to work. In short, rather than inhaling deliberately, and letting your air escape passively, practise focusing on the exhalation and allowing the inhalation to happen by itself.

And above all: relax! Apnea is mostly psychological.

As a swimmer in HS & college teams and a SCUBA instructor (PADI), I'd like to first advise you to seek a qualified instructor.

That said here are a few things you can do w/o hurting yourself (drowning). Start by swimming free-style & breathe by turning your head w/ the stroke (not lifting it face-forward). When you get this skill down, see how many strokes you can do w/o breathing. Start w/ 4 (R-L-R-L = 4 strokes) & increase. The more laps you do, the more winded you'll become so decrease to 3 & then 2. Stop here.

As you lung capasity increases, try some "Wind-sprints" (take in a lung full of air & swimm as fast as you can toward the other end of the pool w/o breathing). Breathe when you need to.

When you get more comfortable, try some breath-holding exercises. But a word of caution, train w/ a friend. As was mentioned before, people have been known to black-out in the water & the water on the face won't automatically revive you. This is how people drown.

Good luck.

Quote:

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As a swimmer in HS & college teams and a SCUBA instructor (PADI), I'd like to first advise you to seek a qualified instructor.

That said here are a few things you can do w/o hurting yourself (drowning). Start by swimming free-style & breathe by turning your head w/ the stroke (not lifting it face-forward). When you get this skill down, see how many strokes you can do w/o breathing. Start w/ 4 (R-L-R-L = 4 strokes) & increase. The more laps you do, the more winded you'll become so decrease to 3 & then 2. Stop here.

As you lung capasity increases, try some "Wind-sprints" (take in a lung full of air & swimm as fast as you can toward the other end of the pool w/o breathing). Breathe when you need to.

When you get more comfortable, try some breath-holding exercises. But a word of caution, train w/ a friend. As was mentioned before, people have been known to black-out in the water & the water on the face won't automatically revive you. This is how people drown.

Good luck.

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I've done swim team, lifeguarding, swimming instruction etc.. and hedkikr seems to have a good idea of what you should do.

another thing would be hold your breath underwater, wait until you have to come up, take a deep breath, and go back under quickly, do that 2-3 times in a row.

Also make sure to have someone with you.