Q&A

There have been some questions posted in the visitors’ comments that I have not yet had the time to answer properly. So here comes:

Major barriers that I have broken that have helped me to increase my PB on quantum leaps have been the following:

– Sprinting in the end: Numerous other divers had told me that it would be wise to maintain a constant speed till the end of the dive, and possibly even slow it down in the end. This had felt terrible to me and I was not able to dives beyond 100m using this strategy. Then I tried springing close to my max speed after 75m, and I was able to push my PB to 125 almost instantly, and it didn’t even feel as challenging as 100m with constant speed. I guess that I’m more used to dealing with lactic acids than apnea, so I still use this approach. I know that this is not something for everyone, and majority of divers reach their best performance with constant speed.

– Equipment: Previously I dived without a pool suit and with a 1^st generation monofin (simple and soft foot pockets attached to a relatively soft blade). By upgrading into a 2^nd generation Leaderfins’ Hyper (better foot pockets, stabilizing wings and stronger blade) and to a 1,5mm Elios pool suit I was able to increase my speed, especially on sprints, and to standardize my performance by avoiding the hypothermia that prevented me to do proper warm-ups (or actually relaxation-downs) and forced me to dive in minute-perfect schedule to avoid shivering. These equipment investments helped me to reach 150+ mark.

– Nutrition: Traditionally the guideline for freediving has been to avoid eating for as long as possible to drive the body into a low consumption mode. This is fine for static, but in dynamic you really need some energy as well. I started drinking some protein before going into the water, but the price was exposing myself to stomach problems. This nonetheless helped me to achieve the 175+ mark. Apparently this problem can be solved with other means as well, and I think I’ll be attempting to replace the last-hour protein simply by shorter starvation before dynamic.

Warmth has been a delicate balance for a long time. Before I got my pool suit the dives required minute-perfect schedules to do warm-ups and avoid shivering hypothermia before start. The idea was, and to some extent still is, that cool temperature causes vasocontraction (=less blood flowing on skin), which strengthens dive reflex (more blood to brains and other more important organs). The problem was, that if I got too cold and started shivering the game was over: all the muscles on the skin and abdomen started contracting in an uncontrolled way to generate heat, which is very counter-productive if you want to minimize your non-essential oxygen consumption during the actual dive. As my last 150+ DYN proved this is not as important as I had assumed, but still I prefer to be on the cool side rather than warm side before start.

Hydration has been yet another area where I’ve been using somewhat eccentric approach. Traditionally it’s been advised to ensure hydration to maintain blood pressure to reduce the risk of packing blackout as the deep inhale lowers blood pressure. But I’ve been using the slight dizziness caused by max packing to relax during the first 10-15 meters of the dynamic. A bit over a year ago however I got 2 packing blackouts (not the least bit dangerous, but still extremely destructive to performances' standardization as the air from lungs is released), and I decided it was a time to change my preparation. Since then I’ve been adding some sea salt to the protein I’ve been drinking before dives and anaerobic trainings and drunken more mineral water before dives. These measures have resulted in avoiding any dizziness and packing blackouts since then. A couple of months ago I went to my employer’s bi-annual health check and the only indicator that was out of recommended ranges was my blood pressure. Since then I’ve stopped adding salt to everything, and still I haven’t had any problems with out-blown dizziness caused by max packing. Possibly as my blood pressure normalizes I’ll need to start using salt again, but this time more conservatively.