Scuba Breathing Techniques Experienced Divers Should Outgrow
Totty / Japan Scuba Diving
3,597 views
If you've got 100+ dives and still can't shake that 'a bit too fast' feeling at depth, this is why: the breathing habit that got you through your first 50 dives is the exact habit blocking you from your next 50. From the human-physiology skill-up method I teach in my private online diving school.
I'm Totty, owner of BIGHOLIDAY, a fun-diving shop on Miyako Island, Okinawa — 20,000+ logged dives, 60,000+ divers guided.
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THE CORE IDEA
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Most intermediate divers breathe with a quick inhale and a long exhale — it's the first breathing method everyone learns, and it works fine at easy sites. But long exhales make you sink at depth, which triggers reflexive fin kicks, which raises your exertion, which shortens your exhale even further — a spiral you can't feel happening from the inside.
The fix: stop lengthening your exhale. Start lengthening your inhale instead. Humans can't sense when they're hyperventilating, but we're extremely sensitive to not being able to inhale fully — so a long-inhale habit makes the problem impossible to miss.
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CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro — skills based on human physiology
1:33 The habit to graduate from: long-exhale breathing
3:31 Why long exhales make you sink at depth
4:52 Why you can dive for years without noticing
6:42 The fix: lengthen your inhale, not your exhale
9:40 How to practice: flip your inhale/exhale ratio
11:39 The feeling of suffocation is normal — push through it
13:23 What changes once you get this right
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WATCH THESE NEXT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The technique this builds on, and where the habit comes from:
Scuba Breathing Techniques That Actually Save Air
→ Scuba Breathing Techniques That Actually S...
The Real Reason Your Scuba Breathing Speeds Up Underwater
→ The Real Reason Your Scuba Breathing Speed...
5 Scuba Tips to Save Air (It Changes Everything)
→ 5 Scuba Tips to Save Air (It Changes Every...
Want more of these human-physiology skill breakdowns? Let me know in the comments.
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DIVE WITH ME IN JAPAN
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BIGHOLIDAY — Miyakojima, Okinawa, Japan
→ https://bigholiday-miyakojima.com/en/
Business inquiries: see the email on my channel's About page.
#scubadiving #airconsumption #scubabreathing #miyakojima #japandiving
8 Comments
Lengthening inhalation stimulates sympathetic nervous system-increases heart rate, the fight and flight response.
Now under water sympathetic system is also stimulated by vasoconstriction.
In addition, incomplete exhale can cause CO2 buildup ( hypercapnia), which will trigger air hunger and urges to breathe faster (primordial response). Also, the brain interprets a prolonged inhale coupled with incomplete exhalation as a state of exertion or stress, releasing mild amounts of cortisol and adrenaline. Overall, inverting the inhale/exhale ratio creates a safety risk. 4 second inhale and 1 second exhale creates a severe 80/20 inhalation bias, pushing the central and autonomic nervous systems directly into an acute sympathetic ("fight or flight") shock state. You will feel an immediate tightness in your chest, a rapid heart rate, and an intense urge to blow off built-up air within just 2 to 3 breath cycles. What are I missing?
Scuba Breathing Techniques Experienced Divers Should Outgrow
Totty / Japan Scuba Diving
3,597 views
If you've got 100+ dives and still can't shake that 'a bit too fast' feeling at depth, this is why: the breathing habit that got you through your first 50 dives is the exact habit blocking you from your next 50. From the human-physiology skill-up method I teach in my private online diving school.
I'm Totty, owner of BIGHOLIDAY, a fun-diving shop on Miyako Island, Okinawa — 20,000+ logged dives, 60,000+ divers guided.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
THE CORE IDEA
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Most intermediate divers breathe with a quick inhale and a long exhale — it's the first breathing method everyone learns, and it works fine at easy sites. But long exhales make you sink at depth, which triggers reflexive fin kicks, which raises your exertion, which shortens your exhale even further — a spiral you can't feel happening from the inside.
The fix: stop lengthening your exhale. Start lengthening your inhale instead. Humans can't sense when they're hyperventilating, but we're extremely sensitive to not being able to inhale fully — so a long-inhale habit makes the problem impossible to miss.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
CHAPTERS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
0:00 Intro — skills based on human physiology
1:33 The habit to graduate from: long-exhale breathing
3:31 Why long exhales make you sink at depth
4:52 Why you can dive for years without noticing
6:42 The fix: lengthen your inhale, not your exhale
9:40 How to practice: flip your inhale/exhale ratio
11:39 The feeling of suffocation is normal — push through it
13:23 What changes once you get this right
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WATCH THESE NEXT
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The technique this builds on, and where the habit comes from:
Scuba Breathing Techniques That Actually Save Air
→ Scuba Breathing Techniques That Actually S...
The Real Reason Your Scuba Breathing Speeds Up Underwater
→ The Real Reason Your Scuba Breathing Speed...
5 Scuba Tips to Save Air (It Changes Everything)
→ 5 Scuba Tips to Save Air (It Changes Every...
Want more of these human-physiology skill breakdowns? Let me know in the comments.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
DIVE WITH ME IN JAPAN
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
BIGHOLIDAY — Miyakojima, Okinawa, Japan
→ https://bigholiday-miyakojima.com/en/
Business inquiries: see the email on my channel's About page.
#scubadiving #airconsumption #scubabreathing #miyakojima #japandiving
My Japanese channel → https://www.youtube.com/@Totty_diving