I'm up at BUD/s Prep right now and we have about 4 or 5 more weeks until we leave for california. One of the things I have struggled with is my breath holding. I have been working on it for the past 2 1/2 weeks without any improvement. The longest breath hold I've gotten is 1:20 and I felt like I was gonna die on the 25m underwater swim. Does anyone know if those powerlungs would help me out? Ive been using the breathold workout on here but obviously I cannot make it real far on it, any help would be appreciated.

Garrick- Shoot me a call when you get sec I can give you some good drills to help you with your breath holds. My static hold is close to 3:00 minutes right now. Look at my profile for my number. I will be out there in about a month.

Garrick,
Not sure what Nick A is going to have you do but if he has a static hold of 3mins it should be good. One thing that is KEY is to learn to relax. This is a must for underwater swimming, as the more stress you are the less efficient your mussels will be. If you’re slightly uncomfortable underwater it will show up when trying to due the underwater swim.

There is nothing like holding ones breath under water, so practice in the bathtub or swimming pool. (Try not to have freezing cold water as it will be much more difficult to hold your breath in that.)

If you want ideas for how else to train post here and I’ll post what I tend to do.

Joshua

i would stay away from the power lungs. if not used properly it can actually hurt you. there is alot more to the 50m swim than just holding your breath. alot has to do w/ the hydrodynamics of your body in the water column and being able to stay calm and glide through the water. the less energy you exert in the swim the longer your breath hold. try doing your 25m calm, slow, and steady and see what happens. you want to cut as mich drag as possible. another way to build your lungs is to do breath hold reps in the pool while you are swimming. example: while doing freestyle try doing 1 length of the pool while holding your breath and then on the way back breath normal. on lap 2 do the same thing until you cant anymore then go to holding your breath half length of the pool and then breath normal. you can also try sprints where you hold your breath and sprint then jog back breathing to the starting position, rest, then hold breath sprint, and repeat.

Thanks for the tips....i'm workin on it everyday. I'll be ready.