Training - Breathing Through Straws

Breathing Through Straws
The following article will examine a training method of breathing through straws, its advantages and its affects on the freedivers body.

Introduction
The beauty of the exercise of breathing through straws (or any other airway constrictor) is that it can be done anywhere, and anytime; while driving, at the office or while doing house chores - which cant be done with breath hold practices.

Why Breathing Through Straws
Breathing through straws stretches and strengthens the intercostal muscles which is very good for freediving. Also, while breathing through an airway constrictor we limit the amount of CO2 that is being expelled from our body with each breath - thus building tolerance to higher then normal concentrations of CO2 in our system - also very good for freediving.

How To Do The Exercise
The cheapest and fastest way to start exercising breathing through an airway constrictor is to purchase a pack of house hold straws and breath through them. The advantages of using house hold straws are that they are very cheap and that they come in a wide range of diameters. The disadvantages are that they are ruined very quickly by the fraction with our teeth and that you cannot regulate the constriction of the air flowing through them very accurately. If you feel breathing through a straw is very easy for you, bend the end of it to allow less air to pass and be expelled with each breath.

Advanced Exercise
The more practical (and more expensive) alternative to straws is an instrument called "Powerlung". This instrument is basically a tube with a screw and a mouth piece. You canregulate the workload by adjusting the screw. The prices of this instrument range from 25 - 100 $ on the internet.

Conclusion
Breathing through straws is a great exercise that guarantees an improvement in breath hold ability in the long run. It is important not to do the exercise in areas with polluted air - while breathing through our moth, our body doesn't filter the air we inhale. Also, it is not recommended to perform the exercise in extreme temperatures, our body cant warm up/cool down the air the is being inhaled through our mouth. The exercise can be performed for as long as you wish as long as it doesn't exhaust you.

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