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Forty minutes, 3½-minute breath hold
A trip to Greece
The trip began as a paycheck. An editor at Outside offered a freelance journalist a couple of weeks in Greece to cover the world free diving championship, and he said yes for the money. The athletes there could hold their breath for 8, 9, or 10 minutes at a time.
Yoga and CO2 tolerance
Their training is mostly yoga, and mostly pranayama: ancient breathing techniques that humans have used for thousands of years. The techniques open up the lungs so they inflate properly and teach the body to tolerate more carbon dioxide comfortably. Tolerating CO2 is the main thing.
Room to improve
Holding his breath for 3½ minutes after 40 minutes of instruction raised the question of what a few weeks or a few years of practice could do. CO2 tolerance is something everyone can improve, and almost nobody ever thinks about it, which leaves massive room for improvement.
How does training raise CO2 tolerance?
Sensors in the brainstem and in the carotid arteries monitor CO2 and the acidity it creates, and they drive the urge to breathe. Repeated breath holds blunt how strongly those sensors respond. Studies of elite breath-hold divers have found a smaller breathing response to CO2 than in untrained people.
What happens in the body during a long breath hold?
The mammalian dive reflex slows the heart and narrows blood vessels in the arms and legs, which sends blood toward the heart and brain. Cold water on the face triggers it most strongly. The reflex lets the body get more use from the oxygen in the blood and lungs. It appears in seals, whales, and humans alike.
How far back does pranayama go?
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, compiled roughly between 200 BCE and 400 CE, list breath control as one of the eight limbs of yoga. The 15th-century Hatha Yoga Pradipika devotes a full chapter to breathing techniques. The word combines the Sanskrit prana, meaning breath or life force, and ayama, meaning extension or control. Earlier Vedic and Upanishadic texts also describe disciplined breathing.
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