To Breathe or Not to Breathe?

The Cold Hard Truth About Hyperventilation in the Sport of Freediving

It’s time to clear the air once and for all. Breath. Is the single most important thing that is happening in life as you sit here reading this. As you sit, stand, lie, or even dive anywhere on this planet. Go ahead. Come up with something more fundamental to life that is happening right now. Inhalation. Exhalation. Inhalation. Exhalation. If one of those exhalations does not ebb back into an inhalation. Simply put. You die.

There are obviously MORE things happening in life than breath. But not a single one of which, is more foundational than the breathing processes. Once one resonates with this. The simple act of breathing can become so sweet. So delicate. So ephemeral. And in freediving, you will spend more time focusing on the breath than you likely ever have up to this point.

Breath is so intrinsically linked to how we are. And therefore, how we perform. Performance in other sports can absolutely benefit from an increased awareness and acuity of the breathing process; however, in freediving. There simply is no sport without it. If one does not cultivate a deeply integrated sense of how breathing before each dive affects every single aspect of the time spent beneath the blue. They will never know the exhilaration and tranquility. The intensity. Yet ease. That can come from a freedive prepared for perfectly.

Now. Time to settle the confusion surrounding hyperventilation once and for all. If you are new to freediving. You won’t have any idea how charged this topic can be. And even if you are an instructor level diver yourself. Odds are at the very least you don’t have the complete picture. It is not that anyone is being intentionally dishonest in this conversion per se. It’s that most people only have part of the picture in their vision. They may have some the of details in sight, but are lacking the perspective of the complete Birds Eye view on this. And what’s more. Almost everyone is guilty of not understanding just how important the how is, in how we discuss this topic. Especially when speaking to newcomers of the sport. And this can lead to a tremendous amount of confusion.

The definition of hyperventilation is, breathing more than is metabolically necessary. So. Whenever you have zero awareness of your breathing. Say when you are watching a movie and you are completely focused on the film. You are not hyperventilating. You are breathing autonomically. This next point is crucial. As soon as you begin to bring awareness to the breath and breathe with any kind of increased breath rate (breaths per minute), pressure, volume, or modulate your breathing pattern in ANY way. You are. By definition. Hyperventilating.

The problem with using the word hyperventilation. And saying that hyperventilation is “bad” to do before a dive. Is not that it’s wrong. It’s that it is an extraordinarily lazy and shallow description. And an embarrassingly bereft direction to give. Imagine if the entire athletic performance and training industry’s mantra around preventing injuries was. To not get injured during exercise or sport… just don’t do it hard!” … We can do better than this guys.

Any dedicated time to breathing and modulated breathing pattern done before a dive. Is by definition, hyperventilation. The reason we take time to focus and relax through breathing before our dives in the first place, is that it incites physiological changes within our system. Changes which allow us to foster a more relaxed and focused state during our dives. As well as hold our breaths longer and more comfortably. And that relaxed state achieved, after even the most mild form of tidal breathing (a conservative pre-dive breathing approach taught by some freediving schools); is inextricably linked to those physiological changes manifested in the chemistry of our bodies. As a result of the modulated breathing.

To all you non-hyper ventilators out there. Even tidal breathing decreases carbon dioxide concentration in the blood stream and modulates our bodies physiology. Or else we would just jump in the water and dive immediately with no breathe up whatsoever and achieve maximum performance. The point of clarity here is that even tidal breathing, is in fact influencing the molecules within our blood and body. The real importance lies in; to what extent.

The purpose and affect of this article will be to banish the word hyperventilation from our collective freediving vernacular. And replace it with the guiding light and direction that the most optimal form of breathing to do before a dive. Is “the method that does not result in too exaggerated of a hypocapnic state (low carbon dioxide), that allows for blood oxygen levels to drop below the critical threshold, that a blackout occurs.” Much more precise. And it actually describes the current reality in the freediving world. Every agency teaches pre-dive breathing at the very least slightly different. If not at the most. Very differently. And every world class level freediver does their pre-dive breathing again, at the least, slightly different.

Because the truth is. One cadence/pressure/volume exchange of breathing may be optimal for one person. And completely counterproductive for another. Factors such as blood pressure and other relative physiological characteristics will determine this. This software update to the language surrounding the conversation of breathing before dives allows for titration between coach and athlete. Athlete and self. A titration that is already the current reality of freediving.

So okay, with all of this being said. How should pre-dive breathing be taught to newcomers to the sport then? The most prudent baseline to give to beginners would be to simply breathe with what has been mentioned before as, “tidal breathing”. This is an increased focus on the breath. But, it is not an increase in breath rate or breath pressure. It is simply bringing an awareness to the invigoration of the inhalation and the relaxation of the exhalation. This is more of a meditative focus than a mechanical one. Which is the point. Total volume of air per minute will increase here. That is it.

But again, here lies a critical point; pertaining to the how behind our speech about breathing. To all the anti-hyperventilators out there… again, tidal breathing is hyperventilation.

It is however without a doubt the most conservative and sagacious baseline to establish for beginners. Though, a key point here is that, this does not mean an approach gradating towards a higher breath rate and breath pressure may not, in fact, be effective for some athletes. In some cases. There are many top level freedivers that breathe with an increased intensity before deeper dives. But divers should only start to consider titrating their breathing from this baseline if they really have achieved a level in the sport that merits it.

I myself. Even on my deepest dives. Have only used a very graceful and delicate ebb and flow of tidal breathing. Through nasal breathing actually. When I first started diving, I used to think that I needed to move huge volumes of air with high breath pressure to reach the state of optimal preparedness before a dive. Now. I never blacked out on any of those dives. Never even came close. It seems my physiology was adequately tuned up for that kind of breathing. But what I learned as I continued progressing through the discipline of freediving was; just because I felt like I was preparing myself optimally before a dive. Didn't mean that I actually was optimally prepared.

But don’t just take my word for it. Consider that the greatest of all time in the sport of freediving. Alexey Molchanov. Even down to his world record dive to 136 meters (446 feet) with a monofin. Still breathes with a very delicate and soft tidal breathing before diving.

The truth is that breathing through the mouth, with an increased breath rate, breath pressure, and therefore total volume of air moved will allow you to hold your breath longer. Compared to no pre-dive breathing at all. But that does not mean that you will be in the most optimized physiological state to hold your breath for the longest! To say nothing of being in the most optimized state for relaxation, performance, and focus. An increased breathing rate and breath pressure, especially through the mouth, is intrinsically stressful. Again, even though it does allow for a longer breath hold compared to no intentional breathing at all. It will not result in the optimal state of relaxation and focus needed to achieve the highest potential possible on a dive.

After reading this, my hope is that detail and increased resolution has been added to the way you understand breathing before freediving. If it was necessary, this article hopefully neutralized you into a place of clear understanding about the importance of how we speak about breathing before dives in freediving. And hopefully it shed light on the fact that a conservative approach to pre-dive breathing intensity is not misguided at all. And actually quite shrewd. But that the denial that any modulation from that baseline is “hyperventilation” is not only misguided but self defeating.

As you have read, after all of my time and experience in the sport. I elect to administer a very conservative and delicate approach to breathing with my athletes. So the goal of this article was less to shatter any scientific convention with any new what behind the conversation. But rather it was to raise the level of precision and grace with which how we as a collective speak about breathing before our dives. To remove all of the unnecessary confusion and fog from the sport surrounding this.

And most importantly, to present all newcomers to the sport with very clear, balanced, and upfront guidance. To spare them from entering the world with the one team verses another team circus. And rather, bring them into a wiser and clearer unified space of knowledge and professionalism.