The Ultimate Guide To Training For Freediving

Key Points:

• While the best way to improve your freediving is to get practical experience, there are many things you can do to train for freediving outside the sea.
• Breathing exercises like CO2 or O2 training tables can help you push your limits and help your body adjust to underwater conditions.
• Dry walking, HIIT and other land-based training can help improve your fitness and breath-hold. 
• You can also train in swimming pools, improving your movement and tolerance to CO2 while keeping fit.
• Not all training for freediving is physical. Make sure you’re relaxed and mentally prepared for freediving, as remaining calm is one of the most important factors in a good freedive.

Before you freedive, you should mentally and physically prepare yourself for the sensations you will experience under the water. Preparation for this can include researching freediving terms and swimming techniques, visualising dives and improving your breath hold. 

Regular training can also be useful if you don’t live near the sea and are trying to keep yourself sharp for freediving without having easy access to the ocean. 

There are many methods freedivers use to train for freediving. This article doesn’t include every method, but it does include an array of options that can prepare you for freediving. 

Freediving Breathing Exercises

Carbon Dioxide And Oxygen Training Tables

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Oxygen (O2) training tables are breathing exercises you can use to improve your breath-hold and adjust your body to optimise its ability to operate in areas with high CO2 and low O2. 

The exercise is fairly simple and easy to do. You can do training tables anywhere, but the best places to do them are while lying on a comfortable surface, like a bed, sofa or yoga mat. Don’t do them anywhere near water, as it can be dangerous to do so. 

CO2 tables are an exercise comprising eight cycles of holding your breath for a period of time and then breathing. For each cycle, the breath-holding time remains the same, but the recovery time diminishes. Your breath-holding time for a CO2 table should be around 60% of your maximum breath-hold.

The O2 table is a similar breathing exercise to the CO2 table but with a slight difference: the recovery time remains the same, but the breath-hold time increases with each cycle. Your max breath-holding time during an O2 table should be around 85% of your maximum breath-hold. 

If you’re unsure what your maximum breath hold is, you can discover it by either working with instructors or simply holding your breath on your own and timing the maximum amount of time you can hold it for. Be careful when holding your breath, as you can blackout from doing it.

Take special care not to over-breathe during the recovery periods, as doing so can defeat the purpose of the training tables. Limit yourself to just one table a day. Don’t push yourself to your limit too frequently. Overexertion can negatively affect your breath-hold.

There is no exact training table that all freedivers must adhere to. Each diver’s table will look different depending on their maximum breath hold. Many apps exist that can help plan a training table for you. Most training tables will look like the ones below.

CO2 Table With Max Breath Hold Of 1 Minute 30 Seconds

Stopwatch Time	Activity	Hold Time	Breathing Time
0:00 – 2:00	Breathing		2 Minutes
2:00 – 3:30	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 30 Seconds
3:30 – 5:15	Breathing		1 Minute, 45 Seconds
5:15 – 6:45	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 30 Seconds
6:45 – 8:15	Breathing		1 Minute, 30 Seconds
8:15 – 9:45	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 30 Seconds
9:45 – 11:00	Breathing		1 Minute, 15 Seconds
11:00 – 12:30	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 30 Seconds
12:30 – 13:30	Breathing		1 Minute
13:30 – 15:00	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 30 Seconds
15:00 – 15:45	Breathing		45 Seconds
15:45 – 17:15	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 30 Seconds
17:15 – 17:45	Breathing		30 Seconds
17:45 – 19:15	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 30 Seconds
19:15 – 19:30	Breathing		15 Seconds
19:30 – 21:00	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 30 Seconds

O2 Table With Max Breath Hold Of 2 Minute 30 Seconds

Stopwatch Time	Activity	Hold Time	Breathing Time
0:00 – 2:00	Breathing		2 Minutes
2:00 – 2:45	Holding Breath	45 Seconds
2:45 – 4:45	Breathing		2 Minutes
4:45 – 5:45	Holding Breath	1 Minute
5:45  – 7:45	Breathing		2 Minutes
7:45 – 9:00	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 15 Seconds
9:00 – 11:00	Breathing		2 Minutes
11:00 – 12:30	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 30 Seconds
12:30 – 14:30	Breathing		2 Minutes
14:30 – 16:15	Holding Breath	1 Minute, 45 Seconds
16:15 – 18:15	Breathing		2 Minutes
18:15 – 20:15	Holding Breath	2 Minutes
20:15 – 22:15	Breathing		2 Minutes
22:15 – 24:30	Holding Breath	2 Minutes, 15 Seconds
24:30 – 26:30	Breathing		2 Minutes
26:30 – 29:00	Holding Breath	2 Minutes, 30 Seconds

Dry Walking

Dry walking is an easy-to-do training exercise that can help prepare you for freediving. To dry walk, you must walk at a fast pace until you’re panting and then inhale (preferably through your nose) for four steps. Hold that breath for four to eight steps, and then exhale again.

That is one dry walking exercise. Rinse and repeat for around 10 minutes. If you dry walk, often you can improve your breath-hold, and you’ll soon acclimatise to high CO2, low O2 conditions. 

You can dry walk outside or on a treadmill. Both work well and can help you train. Be careful not to push yourself too hard; slow down your pace and take a break if you feel dizzy. 

Other Dry Training That Can Help Train You For Freediving

You can do many training exercises on land that can improve your freediving ability and prepare you for going underwater. Other popular exercises freedivers use are dry apnea training, HIIT and many more. 

Dry Apnea Training

Dry apnea training is a breath-holding exercise that can help prepare you for being underwater and freediving. You can do this training in the comfort of your home; no movement is involved. 

To do the exercise, sit in a comfortable position, put on relaxing music, set a timer for how long you want to hold your breath and then take as deep a breath as you can. Then concentrate hard on visualising being underwater. 

If you’ve dived in the past, try to remember what it was like, imagine the feeling of the water coursing around you, and immerse yourself in that moment. 

When your alarm goes off, imagine swimming to the surface and, as you emerge, slowly exhale. This training can improve your breath-holding and familiarise you with breath-holding techniques. 

It’s a relatively safe exercise, but be sure to be comfortable, as there is a risk of blacking out. If done correctly, dry apnea training can help simulate the circumstances of a real freedive and thus prepare you for what it will be like. 

HIIT

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a cardio exercise where you combine high-intensity training with equal or longer periods of recovery time. An example of HIIT would be making a 1-minute sprint and following it up with 2 minutes of recovery. Repeat this workout-recovery cycle ten times for a full HIIT workout.

If you do it correctly, HIIT can improve your fitness, breath hold and respiratory muscle strength and make you healthier. While cardio is very important for freediving, make sure to include some strength training now and then.

Training In A Pool

While dry training can help prepare you for freediving, there’s nothing like training in the water. If you don’t live close to the sea, then training in a pool might be the only way you can do regular water training to keep yourself sharp and develop vital skills for freediving.

When training in a pool, be sure to have a companion who can help teach you, train with you and keep you safe; this can be either an instructor or an experienced friend. If you’re swimming with a friend, you can test each other’s limits and play games together, making it fun to train in the pool. 

You can train for freediving in a pool by working on your breath hold and doing static apnea training, which can teach you how to move correctly in the water and prepare you for freediving. 

If you don’t have access to instructors or any experienced friends, you can always do light swimming training, such as holding your breath while doing laps. Swimming can help improve your fitness and movement and your tolerance to high levels of CO2. 

If you don’t have a friend or coach with you, don’t hold your breath underwater in case you black out. Similarly, stop and rest if you feel light-headed while in the pool. There is no point in pushing yourself to your limits. 

Octopush & Other Underwater Games

Training in the pool doesn’t have to be dull. There are many fun ways to train in the water; one of the most popular ways is by partaking in underwater games such as Octopush. Octopush is an underwater hockey game played at the bottom of the pool. Two teams compete to get a puck into the other team’s goal with a hockey stick. 

Octopush is a fast-paced game that requires participants to be skilled underwater and good at breath-holding – skills required for freediving. There are thousands of Octopush clubs across the world, so there may be a club nearby that you can join. 

If there isn’t an Octopush club nearby, there are many other underwater sports, like underwater rugby, which can help improve your movement and prepare you for freediving. 

Mental Training For Freediving

Physical conditioning can help you prepare for freediving. Still, some freedivers would argue that mental preparation is just as (if not more) important, as it can keep you in a good state while underwater and stop you from panicking, which could lead to mistakes and unnecessarily short dives.

Yoga

Many freedivers incorporate yoga into their routines to help increase flexibility, body awareness and strength. Regular stretching can help you relax and increase your mental fortitude. Yoga helps you stay calm while underwater, allowing you to maintain good oxygen efficiency. 

Stretched muscles consume less oxygen, and flexibility is very important for freediving. Be sure to do yoga regularly to see its benefits, but do not perform yoga while doing breath training. Thoroughly research postures to ensure you are doing the right poses.

Psychological Preparation

Being mentally prepared for freediving is vital. You can improve your mental state in many ways, such as visualisation and meditation. Psychological preparation can help you deal with problems succinctly and allow you to enjoy long dives.

Mental training can be tricky to do, as it can be time-consuming. 

Visualisation is a great way to prepare for freedives mentally. Visualisation can train you to be calm in stressful situations if they arise without putting yourself at any unnecessary risk.

Recovery

While it might be tempting to exercise all the time, don’t push your body too far, as this can adversely affect your fitness. Give yourself enough time to recover from any training you do, whether that’s mental training or physical training. 

Stay hydrated, develop a good diet and get enough sleep (seven to nine hours), and you’ll be mentally prepared to go diving. If you overwork yourself in training, you might get burnt out and lose the passion for freediving, which is never good, as freediving should be a hobby, not a chore.

Introducing Agulhas

If you incorporate mental and physical training into your routine, you will be better prepared for your next freedive. Obviously, nothing is quite like the real thing, so it’s best to freedive as much as possible to ensure you can push your limits. However, training can still help you become better at freediving.

Remember that safety is crucial, so know your limits. Rest when your body tells you it needs some time, and work with instructors who can coach you to become a better freediver. 

Training can make you a better freediver, but as you become better, you might find yourself limited by your freediving equipment. If this is the case, you should get the best possible gear.

At Agulhas, our freediving equipment is designed by freedivers for freedivers, whether you’re exploring the depths or shallows. Our gear is stylish and environmentally friendly. We make our wetsuits out of limestone neoprene, an ecologically friendly alternative to petrochemical wetsuits. 

Limestone neoprene wetsuits are waterproof, insulated, buoyant and ideal for freedivers who want to level up their freediving experience. Limestone neoprene has historically been considered a premium variant, but thanks to our business model, it is now priced similarly to classic wetsuits. 

If you’re interested in getting the best freediving equipment in the world, you should check out our gear.

FAQs