How NOT to hold your breath longer: Hyperventilation | ADRENO

So one point to talk here, and this is a safety point, and it's about hyperventilating. Hyperventilating, we hear it, don't hyperventilate, don't hyperventilate. What is hyperventilating? Hyperventilating is taking more air than your body is currently using. We're running around here, we've got about 96% oxygen-saturated blood. This is where we sit around, about 96, 98, everyone's slightly different. So to bring yourself up to 100%, probably one or two deep breaths is gonna bring you up to 100% oxygen-saturated. So, because I've got a relatively big lung size for my body size, that one breath is a bit too much air for how my body is working right now. So I'm already going into 100% and over, not that I can increase it, 100% is that's how much oxygen the body, the blood can take. So when you hyperventilate, let me tell you, that's hyperventilating, straight away. That's three quick consecutive breaths, hyperventilating. So, because I'm not working. So you've gotta understand that, you know, hyperventilating happens fairly quick. Some people go, ah, look, I gotta breathe up. You know, this is the saying we hear, I gotta breathe up, you know, I gotta do my breathe up. You'll probably find most people, when they breathe up, hyperventilate. There's some long-term practice of hyperventilation that have been passed down. And it's like back in the old days, they would sit there taking multiple breaths. Why did they do that? Because they found that it gave them a comfortable dive. So let's have a quick look at that. It's important to get this. This will be relegated also to the safety section of this course, but it's important to have a look early here because we're holding our breath now, all right? We don't want to get into bad practice right at the beginning. So the incorrect systems that have been passed down was that there's multiple breath holding before you dive. Now what it did, so we know that two or three breaths and you've got 100% oxygen saturation. So then anything after that, what's happening? You are getting rid of CO2. So you're taking your CO2 levels and you're dropping them. Your CO2 levels are dropping as you hyperventilate and dropping and dropping. So remember, at the beginning we mentioned that the CO2 is responsible for your urge to breathe. So you drop the CO2 out and your urge to breathe is not going to go. It's not going to be there so soon. Now where hyperventilation gets people in trouble time and time again is they hyperventilate, they dive, they're down underneath, they're looking at fish or they're doing whatever they're doing and they keep going and they're feeling great. It's comfortable. Oh, how good is this? Oh, it's such a good, I'm diving so long and blah, blah, blah. Next thing they go, oh, they start feeling the urge to breathe. Okay, they're down 15 metres, that's about a 15 second return to the surface and they haven't left enough oxygen because their safety systems have been destroyed, taken away, their CO2 is so low it didn't kick in until the oxygen was also low, too low. And then they come up, they hit that top 10 metres and there's a situation happens in that top 10 metres which we'll cover later and they black out. This is where hyperventilation gets into trouble. Now the free divers in their quest for the longest swims have proven hyperventilation actually doesn't make a longer dive, no matter how comfortable it is, it doesn't make a longer dive. In fact, the top divers get in the pool and they tidal breathe, tidal breathe, just normal breathing, just normal breathing and then they take one deep breath and go and do their underwater technique or whatever and that gets the longest swims. But they're not comfortable swims and part of the fortitude of a free diver is to be able to overcome the discomfort from the urge to breathe that happens very quickly because there's plenty of carbon dioxide in the system. Now in the safety section of this, we will cover what's going on in the system in regards to this carbon dioxide and what's happening in the blood so you get a bit more of an understanding. But for now, don't hyperventilate, don't get used to it. If you're going out to dive, three or four slow deep breaths is the most you should do. Thanks for watching guys. If you'd like to see more, we have loads of content on our YouTube channel so be sure to check it out. Also, if you enjoyed this video, don't forget to like and subscribe and be sure to check out our stores or you can shop online at www.spearfishing.com.au.