What Can We Learn From The World’s Greatest Freedivers

Following physical exercise, cool down by walking for 3 to 5 minutes, performing the following small breath holds: • Exhale as normal through the nose. • Pinch your nose with your fingers to hold the breath for 2 to 5 seconds. • Breathe normally through the nose for 10 seconds. • Repeat the first 3 steps throughout your cooldown. • Resume regular b

The freedivers told me they’d previously been “most people.” Their transformation was a matter of training;

breath holding tests that focus on the maximum time you can hold an inhalation are unreliable because they can be subject to differences in lung volume and even to personality traits like competitiveness. On the other hand, breath holding after exhaling ensures a more consistent lung volume, both for the individual and measured across a group of in

It turns out that when breathing at a normal rate, our lungs will absorb only about a quarter of the available oxygen in the air. The majority of that oxygen is exhaled back out. By taking longer breaths, we allow our lungs to soak up more in fewer breaths. “If, with training and patience, you can perform the same exercise workload with only 14 bre