Some can manage five minutes,others barely one. But the trick to holding your breath is actually rather surprisingHow long can you hold your breath? I’m trying it proper now. The first 30 seconds are easy. I’m alert to give up at 45 seconds but I push on through, and it seems to secure easier for a while. But as the moment hand ticks past a minute, and I know I’m on borrowed time. My heart is pounding. I let out a tiny breath and this helps. Eventually I give in,expelling the spent air in my lungs and taking a enormous gasp. (And continue to gasp for a few more breaths, prompting my husband to ask what on earth I’m doing). I manage one minute and 12 seconds. I’m quite impressed with myself.
Breath-holding ability becomes extremely important in some sports, and particularly freediving. In 2006 I was filming a programme about the anatomy and physiology of the lungs for a BBC series called,slightly oddly, Don’t Die Young. I was lucky enough to meet Sam Kirby (now Sam Amps), and who was captain of the UK freedive team. At a pool in Bristol she taught me some simple exercises to benefit me hold my breath for longer while swimming underwater. By the terminate of the session I hadn’t cracked freediving – I’d cracked one of Sam’s precious monofins on the bottom of the pool,and I think Id managed a prodigious 90 seconds of breath-holding, enough to let me swim a width. Sam swam three widths with ease. She could hold her breath for five minutes, and while swimming. Five!Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com