How long can you hold your breath?

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underwater or just holding your breath?

oh and anyone that says you need to puff out your cheeks to breath longer or that if you dont puff out your cheeks your not holding your breath is an absolute pillock. :p
 
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nikebee said:
underwater or just holding your breath?

oh and anyone that says you need to puff out your cheeks to breath longer or that if you dont puff out your cheeks your not holding your breath is an absolute pillock. :p

Either :)

and i can't say i've heard anyone say that before but yeah i agree!
 
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Grrrrr said:
Either :)

and i can't say i've heard anyone say that before but yeah i agree!
it was a thing as kids, used to have contests and because i never made that stupid puffy cheeks thing "you're not holding your breath!!!" :confused:

not trying now, got a job interview in 6ish hours :eek: will try tomorrow night in the pub... loser buys the next round :D
 
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Grrrrr said:
A very unfit me just managed a little over 2mins. So how long can you lot do it for? Also mention how fit you would consider yourself

:)


lung capacity at idle is very different from oxygen retention during physical exertion, hence its not really a good way of measuring fitness as everyones lung capacity differs. unless your a smoker in which case your lung capacity is probably much below par which would reflect in these results. still fun though, 1 minutes 12 seconds, then i start to see sparklys and feel unwell. ;)
 
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3m 45s, but now that I don't exercise and being rather unfit can't do more than 3m 30s. Still I know if I eat well and practice loads I should be able to do 5mins, maybe 6. Hell you can take a random guy who can't hold their breath for more than a couple of mintes and with the proper training they can do 4mins easy.

Anyway, here's a way to increase your times. Please don't do this in a swimming pool or you can die :D

First of all body possition matters, lay down on your bed facing up and relax, wear loose clothes that don't restrict your chest. Now start breathing deeply, try to fill up with air but don't push too hard. A good way to do this is to drag air with your diaphragm. You do this by pushing your belly out, but before that you need to exhale good. Start breathing out and go as much as you possibly can, pushing your belly in can help, when there's nothing left, push your belly out and breath in. This way you fill up the lower part of your lungs, now open your arms and try to fill up as much as possible. Note that if it takes you 10second to breath in air, it should take at least 20s to breath out, this will help you relax and drop your heart rate a bit.
Keep on doing this till you feel relaxed, you might end up feeling a bit light headed but breathing wont kill you! Now to start holding your breath. As you doing your relaxation breathing, start breathing normally, like you would do when you sit down on your pc. Now take three fast breaths (you can take more than that, i.e. hyperventilate but this has been fatal in diving, so it's best to avoid the whole concept alltogether. Although I am still here lol) and do one deep breath, now start holding.
Get a timer, a clock, or a stopwatch if you can. You will at some point feel your stomach moving, trying to make you breathe, do breathe when this happens but also note the time. If you have done, say, 1 minute, relax for one minute and do the same minute again. Each time you hold take 10 seconds off the time, so, first hold is 60s with 60s rest, second hold 50s rest, etc. till you reach 10 seconds. After the 10 seconds rest time start holding for as long as you can. If you have done this good you should be able to hold for maybe 2 minutes as your body gets used to CO2
Also note that it is not the lack of oxygen that makes you want to breath, it's the presence of CO2, if you manage to tolerate the urge to breath, then you will be able to hold for a much longer time.

Just a word of warning, this is perfectly safe in your bedroom, or anywhere else in dry land, but please don't try this in the pool if you are not experienced, you might hold for much longer than you should. If that happens you will start to "dance" (an uncontrollable movement of your legs and arms called samba) before you black out and drown.
 
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Soldato
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Grrrrr said:
If true - wow!

Hahaha, dude that's nothing there are guys I know back in Greece that can do the same 7mins that Blaine did, without all the fancy equipment he had too :p
 
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1 minute 45 seconds with just air.


Lit a smoke and inhaled it and held my breath for 3 and 3.

When I was playing trumpet I was able to hold it for just shy of 5 minutes. Went over 6 with the aid of nicotene.
 

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Mickey_D said:
1 minute 45 seconds with just air.


Lit a smoke and inhaled it and held my breath for 3 and 3.

When I was playing trumpet I was able to hold it for just shy of 5 minutes. Went over 6 with the aid of nicotine.

Hows that work?
Is it because nicotine relaxes the body?
 
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The only time that I timed myself was when my mates challenged me to hold my breath for 4 mins, once i hit 4 mins I started breathing again.
 
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Wryel said:
No its because you look cool when you're smoking.

Nothing cool about it. I sincerely wish I could quit. I started smoking at a stupidly young age (13) and thirty odd years later.........

I don't put too much priority on quitting though, as its the only "vice" I have. I don't drink and have never done drugs.

As to the original question, I have no idea why.
 
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About 2:40 mins just sat here at my computer. I have quite a big thoracic capacity in general. I do a lot of snorkelling and deep diving (without air) so I'm quite used to pushing myself that way - but as said it's completely different if your exerting yourself physically. I often walk and hold my breath as much as I can - or hold my breath whilst running up steps for example - I'm constantly taking deep lung fulls. I'm not sure if it's healthy or a good idea to do it, but it's become one of my "ticks" that I do. A friend of mine can hold his breath easily for 4mins + but he's a proper deep sea diver.
 
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