Tabels again

[Rob Blok]

I have been lurking around this board for part of a month now. I downloaded static trainer and read about the tables. I have been doing them and increasing a bit.

I come to a max of 2:45 in the tables with 2 min rest and a 15 sec increase

and the other one 1:50 and 2:30 to start with and decreasing the rest by 15 seconds.

What i dont understand is that when i start my o2 table session i might have problems with the 1:30 and stil i can do the next step and the next.. Do you need time to adjust or what ????

My goal is just to improve my breathold during snorkling. I live in Thailand and do scubadiving (not in combination with freediving). But sometimes im just snorkling and then i want to stay under for a long while.. Not going really deep because Thailand is not a place where the waters are verry deep. I just want to be able to see the fish longer stay under longer even if it is at 2 meters.

I hope if i ever get at 4 minutes static that i can stay under 2 minutes active. I got a nice swimmingpool near me (if it is working) so i do some underwaterswimming there too.

How fast do people progress with the tables.. I do a lot of bodybuilding and cardio excercises too. So i might just do a bit too much because i read it is better not to do the tables at days that you have trained.. is that correct ?

An other question that i have is about safety. Because we are training our body to be accustomed to low o and high co2 are we cutting the safetymargin or are we moving the margin. I mean like say normaly there is a 1 min gap between dying and breathing (purely theoretical the number does not represent a thing but it is just to visualize) are we keeping that gap or are we bringing that gap to half a minute if we increase the time that we can do without oxigen.


*just added an extra question*

[devinjohnson7]

where is the static trainer?? that sounds good... mmmmm... tasty

[trux]

Originally Posted by devinjohnson7

where is the static trainer?? that sounds good... mmmmm... tasty

There is a bunch of them available. See the links here: tables @ APNEA.cz

Never train tables alone in water. When telling alone, I mean without someone standing close to you, and regularly "clicking" your hand or tapping you on shoulder to get a response from you, and if not getting it, pulling you out of water.

Also, when diving alone anywhere, never push your limits anywhere even remotely close to where you learn to do in tables. If you get to 4 minutes in statics, it does not mean you could or should do 2 minutes active dives without very close supervision. The progress in statics comes basically thanks to three aspects:
1) ability to push further through the suffering phase, getting closer to the real physiological limits, hence decreasing the safety margin
2) better breathing and oxygen saving technique
3) physiological adaptation - likely the slowest and probably the less important of all three

It means that a significant part of the apnea time comes thanks to reducing the safety margin, not because of higher physiological limits. So actually learning to push to the limits may have fatal consequences for someone who is not aware of the risk, and dives alone using the same body signals as in training for surfacing.

Doing tables after physical work-out is not a big problem - you will just achieve shorter times than you would do after rest. But since the purpose of a training is not breaking personal records, but rather learning technique, increasing physical and physiological tolerance, and helping the physiological adaptation, it does not matter at all if your times are shorter than they could be.