Ability to hold breath longer

Do you hold your breath when you run or bike?

See...no point.

kenail - 2007-11-20 2:15 PM You could, but AdventureBear might beat you with a stick... And BTW, if you want to hold your breath longer just for the hell of it, hyperventilate for several minutes first. You'll be amazed at how much longer you can hold it for.

That's the same technique a guy at my pool used just before he died when trying to hold his breath. I wouldn't recommend it.

LaurenSU02 - 2007-11-20 11:34 AM

kenail - 2007-11-20 2:15 PM You could, but AdventureBear might beat you with a stick... And BTW, if you want to hold your breath longer just for the hell of it, hyperventilate for several minutes first. You'll be amazed at how much longer you can hold it for.

That's the same technique a guy at my pool used just before he died when trying to hold his breath. I wouldn't recommend it.

Well, that's the technique that competetive breath holders use (yes, there is a competition, several types, in fact) in competitions.  It decreases the perceived need to expel CO2 (which is why you feel the need to breathe, not to get more O2 in), and yes, doing it alone or without supervision is just stupid and asking to get hurt

Well for skin diving, it would be beneficial.  So you would practice diving and holding your breath as long as you can.   Eventually you would train your body to let you hold your breath for a long time.  What's the record, like 6 minutes?  Anyway what good would this do in a race?  Say you are a freak and you swim for 3 minutes straight with no breath and gain maybe 30 seconds but then you need a 3 minute recovery to catch your breath. 

You may find benefit moving from every 4th stroke (which would always be same side) to every 3rd or 5th so you can do bilateral breathing.

No.  Breathe.

I think holding your breath for as long as you can serves no purpose. Starving your body of oxygen by doing some hypoxic sets (breathing every 5 or 7 or 9 strokes) in a workout can help your body learn to "appreciate" oxygen more. I don't think there is any question about this. After just a few workouts you can see a huge difference in how you feel during these sets and how much longer you can hold your breath. This practice probably helps sprinters more than endurance athletes because you are training your body to perform while in oxygen debt.

That being said, when you are doing an aerobic activity oxygen is generally a good thing! I breathe every stroke on my left side unless I have some big waves coming at me on that side in which case I breathe every stroke on my right side. Alternate side breathing is very good for keeping your stroke balanced and probably does help in overuse injuries because there is slightly more strain on your non-breathing arm when you breathe.  Had I learned how to swim later or been born later I probably would bilateral breathe but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks and it's just not comfortable to me.

Breathing every 4 or more strokes is just putting yourself in oxygen debt after every breath, why put your body through that?  

AdventureBear - 2007-11-21 8:26 PM

rstocks3 - 2007-11-21 6:18 PM

Starving your body of oxygen by doing some hypoxic sets (breathing every 5 or 7 or 9 strokes) in a workout can help your body learn to "appreciate" oxygen more. I don't think there is any question about this. After just a few workouts you can see a huge difference in how you feel during these sets and how much longer you can hold your breath. This practice probably helps sprinters more than endurance athletes because you are training your body to perform while in oxygen debt.

I hate to be harsh here, but this is absolutely false. Holding your breath repeatedly teaches your body how to tolerate CO2 buildup. "Hypoxic sets" are a misnomer, can be dangerous, and provide no benefit to a triathlete. Just because it's been done traditionally by high school & collegiate swim coaches does not mean that the underlying "theory" is true, nor that it helps endurance athletes. If a triathlete finds that they are having to breath often, and thinks they should be able to go longer without breathing, it is almost always going to be due to poor swim technique, resulting in the use of significantly more muscle mass to try to stay on top of the water, and therefore requiring more oxygen to swim in addition to generating more waste products to expel. The answer to this problem is to learn better technique, not to hold your breath. I discuss this in more detail in the thread referenced above. To the previous poster, I agree with everything else that you posted. I'm just trying to stay on top of the myth busting here.

 I completely agree with you that these hypoxic sets are of no benefit to triathletes. I did say  "This practice probably helps sprinters more than endurance athletes because you are training your body to perform while in oxygen debt." Let's get back to the important point that oxygen is a good thing and you shouldn't deprive your body of it by holding your breath at all.

Hypoxic breathing sets are still used in every level of competitive swimming  but that can be another thread in itself.

Swim efficient and COUNT YOUR STROKES!!! Oh yea.......and BREATHE!!!  

http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/94/2/733

I stand corrected and recant what I said about hypoxic training being beneficial. The link above is a pretty convincing study.

Don't hold your breath!! 

Counting your strokes per length gives you direct feedback on how efficient you are swimming!!