Ian Black's video: 5 Minute Breath Hold Personal Best

The breath hold occurs from 00:29 to 05:29 in this video. A five minute breath hold, or static apnea. Breath holding is commonly practised among navy seals, free divers, spear fisherman and the like. I am not a navy seal, nor do I engage in free diving or spear fishing. Breath holding for me is an extension of meditative and yogic practices. Although I am less involved with meditation and yoga than I used to be, the simultaneously tranquil and competitive nature of timed breath holding keeps me coming back for more. I regularly engage in breathing exercises, perform breath holds whenever I can, and recently explored O2 tables and CO2 tables for the first time - this is to say that I try to keep my carbon dioxide tolerance high as well as training my body to cope with low levels of oxygen... I anticipate the question "Why?", and to some extent I think the question holds the answer. The art is esoteric and therefore beautiful. This is the second time I have ever held my breath for 5 minutes straight; after the first, I was really eager to capture the feat on camera. It took a few weeks but I managed to replicate it. Today's first attempt only lasted 3:30 or something like that, so I'm pretty surprised to get the PB... it may be due to experimenting with a different technique. Previously, I would do the preparation phase (deep breathing) using only my mouth, partly as I find it more comfortable and partly because I have specifically heard this technique is favoured by the likes of David Blaine. But today (after a few attempts and a few technique switch-ups) I decided to go for the classic "in through the nose and out through the mouth" routine. And I just held my breath at the end of one such nasal inhalation.... and only got 3:30 for the third time today. So I started over, went through the preparation phase again with nasal inhalation and oral exhalation. Five minutes of this felt like it really worked to fill me to capacity with oxygen, I could feel my limbs and lips tingling (normal for this sort of activity). But this time I took two important breaths right before the breath hold; one full exhale through my mouth to purge as much CO2 as possible, and one deep inhale through my mouth to flood my lungs with oxygen reserves as quickly as possible. After this point, I really should be set for a good while as my bloodstream is already loaded with O2 from deep breathing in the prep phase. It's important to stay calm and keep your heart rate down, so I would say to do the deep breathing without straining yourself or trying to breathe 100% in and 100% out. Just keep it deep and steady (that's what she said). If anything, I think maybe the nasal inhalations, particularly as they're more gentle than the oral ones I'm used to, help to keep me serene and conserve energy... which is very important. My technique during the breath hold was actually kind of improvised - to some extent it's not that important what you do during a hold as long as you don't move around (wasting energy, burning O2) and try to stay calm (again, heart rate will burn O2). This time I went with the approach of repeating the word "calm" in my head every 5 seconds or so, and occasionally I would kind of mimic the act of breathing, slowly pulling my stomach in or pushing it out to give myself a kind of respiratory placebo effect... not sure how well it works, but it's an option. You can always tell that I'm getting uncomfortable when I open my eyes, which occurs at 4:12 (three minutes and forty-three seconds into the hold), and at 4:34 (four minutes and five seconds into the hold) I start to move my arms around and place my hands on my knees, which is always a sign that I'm actively struggling - O2 is basically done at this point and it's all willpower from here on out. I honestly thought I wasn't going to make it but I REALLY wanted to get a five minute hold on camera so I just powered through. I move around a lot toward the end because it's extremely uncomfortable and I'll take any distraction I can get. I would recommend breath holding to anyone as a meditative practice, with the usual caveats about not doing it around water unless you have someone there to observe you and step in if anything goes wrong. On dry land, in a comfortable place where you aren't going to fall and crack your head, it's perfectly safe. I would say that it gives me a sense of euphoria sometimes, calm at others, and achievement on days like this when I do something with my body that most people would consider to be impossible or mad. Not that my personal best is notable on a global scale or anything but... well, I'm happy with it :) If you've read this far then presumably you have some interest in the subject (or just consider me crazy for doing it and want to peer into the mind of a madman) so consult my previous static apnea video for more details, or leave a comment - I'm always happy to talk about breath holding. Peace and love to you and yours ^_^ Ian Xx