You can become a better scuba diver if you can control your breathing underwater. Breathing interconnects with buoyancy control and propulsion trim. Poor breathing will result in decreased buoyancy.
Poor-fitting will result in poor breathing. This is going to affect your body’s propulsion trim in your body position underwater. Slower and controlled breathing can make underwater scuba diving a more enjoyable experience for divers.
If you want to breathe better underwater, you need to train your respiratory system and make your inspiratory and expiratory muscles stronger.
1. Diagrammatic Breathing
You need to master diaphragmatic breathing. Diaphragmatic breathing transfers oxygen from the lungs to the blood. Follow these steps:
- Lay down on your back, bend your knees, and put one of your hands on your chest and the other one on your stomach just below the ribcage. This will allow you to feel the diaphragm when you inhale oxygen and exhale oxygen.
- Through your nose, draw a slow breath. You need to concentrate on your breathing through your diaphragm. You will feel your stomach pushing against your hand, whereas your check will show little to zero movements.
- You need to tense the stomach muscles to exhale, drawing them toward the spine. This will push the oxygen out of the lungs. Your chest should remain motionless with little to zero movement.
You can practice diaphragmatic breathing by lying down on the floor until you have become an expert at it. Once you feel you have got the hang of this breathing technique, you can try it in a sitting position and then a standing position. Lastly, you should be doing it while swimming.
Why Diaphragmatic Breathing?
Diaphragmatic breathing improves gas consumption in a short time. When you use your diaphragm to inhale oxygen, you draw air into your lungs’ most efficient part. Therefore, there’s no need to inhale large amounts of oxygen to transfer an equal amount of oxygen.
Diaphragmatic breathing also decreases your heart rate and helps you relax. For the diaphragmatic breathing technique, you use the sheet of muscle shaped like a dome that separates your heart and lungs from your abdomen. Instead of using your chest muscles, the technique teaches you how to use your inhale oxygen into your lungs and then force it out through them.
Learning how to control the muscle allows you to breathe less more often and reserve your oxygen, as you’re receiving increased gas exchange. You’ll have to build your new muscle memory, and that can only be done through practice.
2. Save Air by Swimming Slowly
Did you know water is 800 times heavier than air? Your swimming speed is proportionate to the square of the energy that it needs to generate it. When you’re swimming in a swimming pool, for instance, you know it’s difficult to wade across it even when you’re swimming slowly.
If you double your swimming speed, your body utilizes energy four times more than it normally does. The better option is to swim, turn, and reach the end slowly. Although many changes to your usual swimming routine will reserve air and energy, swimming slowly will reserve more air.
You should move your hands, head, arms, and torso in slow motion as you swim. When you’re underwater, you need to pay attention to how fast you’re moving under the water. Otherwise, you’ll be moving at normal speeds, which will be too fast for underwater scuba diving.
Other Tips to Swim Slowly
- You need to duck current as they’re weaker along the wall or at the bottom.
- You need to use your hands by pulling yourself rock to rock and hand over hand across the bottom.
- You need to wear a beanie or hood to stay warm. Your body consumes oxygen and burns calories to produce heat, so conserve it.
- You need to keep your strokes short and fin slowly. Wide fin strokes can move large amounts of water but don’t give you a lot of propulsion.
- You need to invest in better fins. The more efficient they are, the better they’re at translating muscle power while swimming.
- You’ll need to work out and be physically fit, as it’ll make you more air-efficient and energy-efficient.
Do you want a faster way to improve your breathing underwater? If you do, this next solution is for you!
3. Respiratory Training Device
Have you heard about the Orygen Dual Valve? The Orygen Dual Valve is an extraordinary device that helps you make your inspiratory and expiratory muscles stronger. Within a week, you’ll notice a difference in your breathing.
It’s an affordable respiratory training device that can help you breathe better underwater. It’s really easy to use, and you only have to do it four to five days each week and two times each day. You can use it morning and night but be consistent. You can try all three methods, but the last one is the fastest way to help you breathe better when you’re discovering the world under the sea.