How long can you hold your breath?

[BearClaw Bigsby]

I have started swimming a lot for the first time in my life and practicing long distance subsurface swims and was just wondering how long an average person can hold their breath.

Is being able to hold your breath for a long amount of time a reflection of you cardiovascular or aerobic fitness?

My record sitting on the couch is 2:18 but it is a lot less underwater. My furthest sub surface swim has been about 40meters

[BCmJUnKie]

Its all conditioning.

WHo was that one lady that was a free diver, she could hold her breath for around 4 minutes or something.

The more you do it the better you get.

I cant remember the term exactly, but its basically "Loading" or "Charging" your lungs by taking around ten deep breaths right before you go under

[zacii]

I dunno about swimming, but in singing there are exercises that one can do to increase their lung capacity. The more oxygen that you can store, the longer you can go between breaths.

[KevinC]

Free divers condition their lungs for long breath holds. There are certain exercises you can do.

Me... back in my free diving days I could go down around the 30ft. mark and hold my breath for about 2min.

KevinC

[ST911]

I dunno about swimming, but in singing there are exercises that one can do to increase their lung capacity. The more oxygen that you can store, the longer you can go between breaths.

Is it an actual increase in capacity, or in utilized space? Development of deliberate diaphragmatic breathing techniques will drop the diaphragm farther than most breathe normally, but does not make the lungs any bigger.

I do know that when I played wind instruments regularly, I could hold my breath longer in the water and out.

[zacii]

Is it an actual increase in capacity, or in utilized space?

No, it doesn't make your lungs bigger, but it does increase utilized space. Which in turn increases your oxygen capacity.

I honestly don't know exactly what's biologically happening. That's just the way my singing instructor explained it.

[J8127]

I work with a lot of pararescue washouts (lol) and they all say the same thing, it's mental. You have plenty of oxygen in your body, you just have to fight that urge to surface.

[Heavy Metal]

The urge is the body's response to a build-up of CO2 in the bloodstream, not a lack of Oxygen.

One way to extend your breath hold is to pre-breathe several rapid breaths to lower your blood CO2 level.

The can be DANGEROUS if done for diving underwater by an untrained individual as you can black-out and drown. You will run out of O2 before you crave another breath.

[iGun]

Heavy Metal is correct. Respiratory drive is largely a function of CO2 and blood pH, not O2. Hyperventilation causes an increase in blood pH, temporarily blunting respiratory drive. But high blood pH causes vasoconstriction of blood vessels in the brain, and can cause dizziness and loss of consciousness.

[DavyJones]

There is a big difference in holding your breath underwater and holding your breath over water. Underwater you got pressure on your lungs.