Freedive Fitness & Wellbeing whilst at sea
Freediving as you may or may not know demands a greater level of physical performance than your day to day snorkelling adventure, depending on where you are in your freediving journey. That physical performance is made possible via our mindset. The foundation for successful freediving, in my eyes, is a present, stable, strong mind. As we all know very well, this ‘stable mind’ naturally ebbs and flows from day to day. So remember to be gentle, don’t put pressure on yourself to perform, sometimes it’s just not your day.
Many of you are probably self-taught Freedivers, it simply comes hand in hand with the ocean dwelling lifestyle. Perhaps you can comfortably dive to 20m to check the anchor, or maybe you’re an avid spearfisherman/woman, this is awesome! However, let’s ensure you’re understanding the basics which is vital to your individual safety at depth. This is where we talk about the mindfulness element of freediving. Being aware of changes within our body is key to understanding our personal limits.
Our everyday realities naturally cause us intricate humans to overthink. Thoughts can be productive however they can also be destructive. Over time we can lose our ability to be still. To slow down our thoughts, and just be present. Activities or sports require a certain level of mental presence to perform, and in this case, freediving. Relaxation demands a slow calm mind, therefore the quicker we can learn to relax, and simply surrender, the more productive our Freedive journey will be.
Introduction to the Mind – Body Connection
This is where we begin to regain control of our complex mind. One of the easiest ways to introduce this skill is simply directing our thoughts and focus to areas of the body. Here we want to surface an awareness of spaces that may be tight or tense that we weren’t previously present with. This is a great way to relax, prepare your body for sleep or more excitingly your dive! Here is a little exercise you can do, wherever you are.
Body Scan Exercise:
Whether your laying on your bed, the sun drenched deck or floating on your tummy in the water preparing for a dive, begin to relax here. Bring your awareness to your body. How does it feel? Is it heavy, sore, light, energised?
Envision a bright yellow light hovering at the tip of your crown. Picture this light scanning down your forehead and brow. Releasing every muscle. Feeling the weight of your head increase as the light passes through.
Follow this light down over your eyes, your nose, your cheeks, your lips and your chin and your jaw.
Really bringing your attention to each area as the light scans down. Notice how areas of the face relax as you do so.
Introduction to mindful breathing
We can begin to explore the power and strength of our mind through breath work and meditation. Once we’ve established a basic understanding of how to channel our thoughts in particular directions in order to slow down, relax and just be. We can then bring our attention to the performance of our breath. There are endless benefits of breath work and meditation, you just have to try it for yourself! Benefits such as; decreased stress, endorphin release, improved immunity, digestion regulation, aids anti-inflammatory, increased creativity, memory and focus! The list goes on.
Meditation – mind, body awareness, establishing a conscience that we are not our thoughts, that we can change the way we think and inherently feel, this is the basis to empowering self awareness
Pranayama, and incredible tool for regaining control of our breath. As simple as it may sound, this exercise ignites so many positive shifts internally its pure magic! Aka the human body!!
The above exercises are great ways to regain control of your mind and develop a stronger awareness of your body and how it may feel or react to certain situations. This becomes really important when Freediving as those responses in our bodies at depth or as we are surfacing are indicating where we are at physically in our dive or breath hold. Remember everyone’s physical reactions to high levels of CO2 or low levels of O2, vary greatly between individual. It is up to you to work out your own limits and physical indicators that may be telling you it’s time to surface for air. Keeping in mind to always train with a buddy, never ever dive alone. Practice safely pushing your limits in a dry environment first, to see where your body is at with contractions.
Ways to maintain Freedive fitness in and out of the water:
Freedive! Ultimately, the best way to maintain your freediving fitness, is to Freedive! The more you adapt your body to depth (pressure), the more your mind realises that this environment isn’t threatening, the greater your mental and physical improvements will be.
Check the anchor! Many of you probably do this already, take the time to make it a relaxed, slow, controlled executed dive. Or maybe the hull needs an inspection or scrub, make it your challenge for the day to work on your carbon dioxide build up. Ensure you do your surface preparation, have a buddy keeping watch and communicate your goals to your buddy when freediving.
Dry static holds – improving your CO2 tolerance
Yoga – flexibility and intercostal muscle stretching
Cardio fitness! See that long empty beach on that uninhabited island, yes that’s yours to run wild and freee! Strengthening the respiratory system in any way is always beneficial to your overall freediving fitness. So get out there, get moving, get that blood pumping and that heart rate up!
