Reaching 5 Minutes Static

[Chi]

After the previous excellent help I received from my 40m thread I thought I would ask you to help on my next hurdle.

I have completed a 115m dynamic, 45.7m constant weight and the next hurdle is a 5 minute static. Our freediving club has a concept known as the 145 club which involves breaking a 100m dynamic, 40m dive and 5 minute static. I have overcome two of those hurdles and now it is the time for my final one.

I have only tried two wet statics, the first of which was 3m30s which left me on the verge of samba (still clean but I could feel it coming on) and a second three days later doing 4m05s which felt much much better. The longer static I had the guidance of a good friend who has done 7min+ statics before, hence the large increase in time.

Warmup was a 2min dry static, 2 min rest, 2m30s dry static then 3min rest dry then 2 min breathing up in the water. Then I attempted the max static.

To increase i've been doing a few tables, about one each day. What i'm after is tips on reducing my heartrate, breatheup and warmup techniques. In the first 1min I can feel my heart thumping away like mad, burning up my oxygen. First contractions occur at about 1m45s-2m.

Thanks in advance guys!

[Jonta]

Looks like you and me have about the same goal in static.
So far i have only done dry statics and are up at around 3:45(contractions at 1:50-2:10)
I have reached that after about 3-4weeks of traning.
So id like some help aswell.

[salibandy]

I don't train with tables, rather I do max attempts maybe twice a week or less. At first, like Jonta, it was easy to rise through the static timings. From my initial 45secs best, I attained 3.30 in 2 weeks, followed by a 30sec increase in each of the next 2 weeks, until I hit 4.30. From there on, my progress kinda halted. For maybe a month, my best time was a 4.45, with a 4 min average. Just last Sunday, I did my first 5min.

What I guess I am trying to say is, with proper practice, maybe with tables, I am sure you'll hit your 5 min static in no time. I have read your story about your Hawaii trip, and I believe you are capable of a 5. So, keep practicing.

[BennyB]

Hi Chi and others,

Have a good look around the forums, this is a question that pops up fairly regularly. Use the search function to scan for specific words such as 5 minutes, 5min, static, breathold etc, and if you start your search by limiting it to the Beginner section you should get a pretty good success rate. Then have a look at the General Freediving section for more info, and if that does not turn your eyes square then have a look in the Training and Techniques section.

There is a hell of a lot of information already there as well as people's actual experiences which I think are just as invaluable as the advice itself.

Happy hunting!

Cheers,
Ben

[rbsub]

I want to point you at Jome's excellent blog:

Static Apnea Challenge: October 2004

I think, you can learn a lot from it. OK - I wanted to reach a little more then 5 minutes

Again: Jome, thank you for sharing

[ADELENELYNCH]

Wow, Chi! 115m dynamic sounds amazing to me. I just did a 5:30 dry static today but I seem to be having trouble getting my dynamic w fins past 60m. Maybe you can share w me how you train for dynamic pls?

[e.m.p!]

Hi Adelenlynch,
We're in the same boat. Two hours ago I made 76m in dynamics w fins, but I'm not too shabby when it comes down to statics (PB 5.23 made 2 days ago). I have no idea why I spend so much oxygen and how I could improve on that (will try dolphin swim next time).
My recipe to increase statics: 1st I show up with an empty stomach, then a decent warm up and take some extra time for expanding the chest with breathing techniques, after that: hop in the pool and have a 2 min face down breathing with snorkel to slow down the heartrate, then I start with this table:
2min breath up, 1min hold
2min breath up, 2min hold
2min breath up, 3min hold
3min breath up and off you go for the max... works for me.

Now I need someone to tell me how to get some decent dynamics done. I think 115m dynamics is awesome, tell us how you get there!

Ups, I forgot to mention: I don't pack at all... feels odd

[Jonta]

Any progress Chi? Have you reached 5min yet?
Im wating for an uppdate...