important stretches

[T2K]

if i were to do a few stretches every morning to improve my freediving, what would they be?

[Tony Babowicz]

cdavis taught me about diapragm stretches. I wish I had the discipline to do them everyday because they really improved my ability to equalize. I added almost 10mtrs to my previous max just by doing them for a couple of weeks. Any thoughts on how to teach these stretches online,Connor?

[Whopperhead]

I'm not sure where I read/saw/heard this but- If you are on your knees, exhale all of your air and lean forward, trying to touch your forhead to the top of your knees. Also streching your arms out in front of you. I do this along with common streches - Daily

[cdavis]

Hi Tony,

Diaphragm's stretches are pretty well described in several threads. Use the search function and get lots of info.

In general,make yourself look like a famine victim. Exhale fully, pull your diaphragm /stomach up and back. Some guys do a series on one breath, stretch, release, exhale some more, stretch, release, exhale some more, keep going as long as possible. If you are doing a good stretch, you should be able to reach into where your stomach used to be, under your rib cage and up. Show your significant other. He/she will think your are either nuts or are going to hurt yourself.

What this goofy activity does is make your diaphragm more flexible, so you can exhale further, effectively allowing you to have more air to equalize deeper. It has the nice side effect of allowing you to take more fresh air down with you with no positive buoyancy penalty, so you can not only dive a lot deeper, but a little bit longer.

Connor

[Tony Babowicz]

Great description Connor.

[salibandy]

I'd say stretching everywhere is important. A freediver should be flexible. This improves your performance. I think I read somewhere that being more flexible equates to more efficient oxygen comsumption in your muscles.

Of course if you don't want to do a whole series of stretches in the morning, diaphram and lung stretches are good enough, I guess.

[apneaboy]

Umbertos freedivig manual has loads of good stuff in it. You can get it from amazon

[Stuart]

A couple of areas you should really focus on are the flexibility of your back, and the shoulders - especially with the monofin - it will really help with your hydrodynamics in the water.