| Breathing is easy, isn't it? We do it all the time. Good | | | | fancy names depending on which discipline is using it, |
| air in, bad air out. Simple, and easy, right? Wrong! In | | | | like in martial arts where it is referred to as Ki or Chi |
| scuba diving, breathing properly serves three major | | | | Breathing. |
| purposes, and missing out on knowing how to | | | | To practise diaphragm breathing, either stand or sit |
| breathe properly can lead to a messed up dive. | | | | up straight (your choice), and just breathe in. Don't |
| Why should your learn a different way to breathe | | | | slouch. Observe how you take the air in. Most people |
| for diving? Well, the technique that will be given here | | | | will have their chests expand when they take a |
| isn't just for diving, it's meant to increase the | | | | breath. This is normal, regular lung breathing. In |
| efficiency at which your body processes oxygen in | | | | diaphragm breathing, the lower stomach expands |
| general, and will benefit every aspect of your life | | | | instead of the chest. |
| that requires physical activity. | | | | To do this properly, the biggest key is to relax. Your |
| First off, proper breathing helps you to control your | | | | abdominal muscles will actually instinctively tighten up |
| buoyancy. If your scuba instructor tells you to hold | | | | when you take a breath and try to focus on your |
| your breath while adjusting your regulator to control | | | | gut. Don't focus on your gut, just relax and breath in, |
| your dive depth, you'll quickly wind up blue in the | | | | but make a point of actually relaxing your navel area |
| face. Definitely not a pleasant experience. Instead of | | | | when you inhale. Most people get diaphragm |
| holding your breath and relying on the weights and | | | | breathing wrong because they tense up the muscles |
| regulator to adjust buoyancy, breathing properly can | | | | in their gut in an effort to send their breath there. |
| cause subtle shifts in your floatation. | | | | Tensing up these muscles actually causes them to |
| Secondly, proper breathing on a dive extends your air | | | | contract, which keeps air from going that deeply. |
| time. The breathing technique given here helps the | | | | That's all there is to this form of breathing, really. It's |
| body process more oxygen, sending it to the body | | | | simple, once you get the hang of it. |
| with greater efficiency and maximizing the amount of | | | | It's also important to keep your breathing rhythm |
| oxygen that gets introduced into the blood stream. | | | | deep, slow, and even when you're practising this |
| You won't use your air up as quickly, and can extend | | | | method, inhaling as far as you can go, holding the air |
| your time underwater. | | | | in your lungs for just a few seconds, then exhaling |
| Lastly, proper breathing combined with good control | | | | the air slowly and evenly. Shallow, rapid breathing, as |
| over your descent and ascent rate helps to minimize | | | | most medical practitioners know, is a very, very bad |
| decompression sickness, which is a problem that hits | | | | thing, which leads to asphyxiation, a state where not |
| divers when the sudden changes in external pressure | | | | enough oxygen gets cycled through the body. |
| on the body trigger collections of air pockets in the | | | | By the way, the air, of course, isn't really going into |
| blood stream, heart, and sinuses. Those little air | | | | your stomach. It just expands because the |
| pockets cause a condition that divers refer to as | | | | diaphragm is positioned right above it in the body. |
| The Bends, which can be anything from merely | | | | Basic anatomy lesson here: the diaphragm is a |
| painful and annoying, to outright fatal by leading to a | | | | membrane which controls the expansion of the lungs, |
| stroke or brain damage. | | | | which causes the inhalation and exhalation of air. |
| That said and done, let's get into the actual breathing | | | | Basically, what this form of breathing achieves is to |
| method to use. | | | | strengthen your diaphragm itself, as well as increasing |
| Speaking from personal experience, the breathing | | | | the capacity of your lungs. Keep practising this |
| technique that should be employed in diving are | | | | method until it becomes automatic and natural, and |
| related to that used by martial artists, singers, yoga | | | | you'll be surprised at the results. Not just in your |
| practitioners, and gymnasts. This is a method called | | | | scuba diving, but in your overall physical condition. |
| diaphragm breathing, and goes by many different | | | | |