Freediving training when you cant go freediving!

If a global pandemic has taught us anything, its how much we take our liberty for granted. Being able to travel to far flung places to freedive or even just to the next county has been a part of my life for years, and now its been taken away, albeit for the short term, has been really hard. Now i know these are classic first world problems, but we shouldn’t diminish our own issues just because they aren’t as serious as others may be.

Anyway, if you are struggling to come to some kind of regime to keep your freediving on point, but you cant get to a pool or to the ocean… then read on.

Here are some ideas to keep you busy.

1: Apnea walks: Its an oldie, but a goodie. Don’t waste your next government sanctioned exercise break by walking like a normal human being… breathing all the time. Pepper it with some breath holds.

2: TV apnea: Who hasn’t done this? Breath holding whilst watching the tv is a staple of all free divers! Try to breath hold the advert break.

3: Hill running apnea: This ones a bit of a tricky one, but it really pushes you. Find a grass hill (or a sand dune). Walk up it holding your breath and stop when you cant manage any more. Mark that point with a stick or something. Now walk back down (breathing). At the bottom, turn around and walk quickly back, whilst breath holding … aiming to get to your stick. Then walk quickly back down (breathing/recovering). Keep repeating this until you reach a steady pace,  close to a jog up and jog down.  Its a progressive exercise that will push you capacity and give you a marker of progress generally. Id do this for a time rather than an amount of repetitions. Half an hour perhaps? Whatever suits your fitness level and available time.

4: Rope apnea: Get a length of rope, the longer the better, say 30m . Tie a weight to the end (this could be anything), something which provides steady resistance and is appropriate to your strength level. Then lay it out in a straight line, sit down and start to pull whilst breath holding. This one is particularly good for those who enjoy free immersion  dives. Repeat until youve had enough!

5: Rope puzzle: I did this one with Joey Essex and Ben Hanlin on Love and Deadly and its harder than it looks. Now that you have your rope ready from the previous exercise, tie a row of overhand knots in the rope, at even intervals. I cant say how many exactly , but do plenty. Then sit at one end, hold your breath and try to undo as many as possible. The goal is not to panic under pressure, to try to pace yourself to complete the series. Its all about judgement and relaxation.

Ok, that’ll do for now. Stay safe out there and we hope to see you soon!