"Don't hold your breath" is a mantra heard in virtually every scuba diving course every taught. You can easily damage your body during ascention by holding your breath during SCUBA diving. The expansion of the air can quickly cause damage regions with very few nerve endings to tell you that you're doing bad things to yourself. Today in SCUBA Theory, why breath holding is a valuable skill to practice.

That's not my weight belt

Hear me out before you start thinking about how buoyant I'd be with an extra fifty pounds of lead. The most dangerous thing a diver can experience under the water is panic. If you stick the average person under water, in about thirty seconds they're going to be getting worried about their next breath of air. Especially if they've been swimming. The truth is that the average person can be fully functional under water for a couple of minutes without any fresh air.

Feel the burn

Our brain tells us to exhale when the carbon dioxide level in our lungs reaches a certain threshold. After thirty seconds have passed, we really want to start breathing again because that threshold has been met, and likely surpassed. Keep at it long enough, and you'll really start to feel uncomfortable. The important consideration is that we decide to breath based on CO2 buildup rather than the lack of oxygen in our lungs.

Eternityschmernity

Thirty seconds is a relatively short period of time. If you experience an out of air situation, it'll will feel like an eternity. It's very likely to take you at least thirty seconds to determine if you need to get air from your buddy, to swim over to him in full gear, signal that you need air and receive assistance. In that situation, staying calm keeps you from making mistakes. Being comfortable under the water is important, especially when a diver is under duress.

Get skinny

Practicing skin diving skills that involve breath holding in the pool is a great way to increase your water comfort and confidence. You should NEVER hold your breath while scuba diving, but practicing it while skin diving is can help you become a better SCUBA diver. Increased water comfort means increased ability to handle duress under the water.

Go jump in a ... pool

I keep a set of skin diving gear - mask, snorkel, fins and weight belt just for pool work. This keeps the chlorine off my good diving gear and I just keep them ready to use in the back of my car.

Test yourself

Place your fins on the bottom of the pool and stick your weight belt on top of them. Now leave your mask next to them. On one breath of air, descend, put on your gear, clear your mask, and ascend. This little task can take a while. You'll float upward until you put on your belt, and when you pick it up your fins may try to escape. Try it in the shallow end first, but once you've got it down head to the deep end of the pool.

You loco?

If you're hurting to pull off the task above, my favorite workout designed to help is called the locomotive. Wearing a mask, fins and snorkel (hopefully a suit too) swim laps. Halfway down the lane, descend a bit and swim as much of the rest of the length underwater as you can. When you ascend, clear your snorkel and keep going. Using your arms to increase your oxygen burn can really increase the effectiveness. The locomotives will push you to deal with your CO2 tolerance threshold. Doing four to eight locomotive laps during three or four pool sessions will start to make a difference.