Freediving training during the winter
Would you?

Freediving training during the winter

Daylight savings in British Columbia starts in early November. The days are now too short to get out in the ocean in the late afternoon. The angle of incidence of the light ensures that most light is reflected off the water surface, rather than penetrating to the depths. The water temperature has steadily dropped over the past few months. As if those two things are not bad enough, the weather does not usually cooperate with diving plans either.

Winter is a wonderful season to repair gear, but you also want to stay in condition. Pool training is a great way to do this. If you have a thick wetsuit, you can still do an ocean dive if the weather cooperates. You will unfortunately be limited to midday because there is so little light in winter.

Cross training for freediving

If you don’t manage to do any wet training you can stay in condition during the winter time with cross training exercises. For me personally, static performance does not appear to decrease much even if I don’t practice it. My CO2 tolerance drops dramatically however, and this is also the limiting factor on my ocean dives. One of my favourite cross training exercises is about 30 minutes on the upright bike. The first 10 minutes I crank up my heart rate to about 100. After that I do a series of breathholds while cycling slowly keeping my power output steady. It’s great for CO2 training. Make sure to do a cooldown exercise for your legs afterwards. (They will accumulate a lot of lactic acid and hence get sore and tired edit 11/11: the idea that lactic acid is responsible for muscle soreness is a persistent myth, see the links submitted by Cesar L. in the comments below). If you have an oximeter or if the bike has a heart rate monitor, keep an eye on it and log your stats. I don’t suggest you do this on an actual bike outside, biking in traffic and holding your breath is not a good idea for obvious reasons.

Freediving training in winter
A spinning bike in the gym. Another good machine to use is the upright bike, which has a backrest

Adjust your diving style

Diving in winter time is different from summertime dives. The sun will not warm you up during your breatheups anymore, so that you will get cold even at the surface. If you want to do 3 min breatheups in total stillness you won’t be diving for very long, even in a 6 mm+ suit. With a more active style of diving your muscles will generate more heat but you won’t dive as long or deep.

Freediving training in winter
No wetsuit required here

I sure do miss the tropics sometimes. What do you do to keep in shape in winter?

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Jaap

Jaap is a geologist by trade and a freediver by passion. Jaap wrote the book Longer and Deeper in 2018. His book teaches how to train for freediving and spearfishing on land.

This Post Has 3 Comments

    1. Jaap

      Hey Cesar,

      Thanks for sending that link my way. You’ve given me a good idea on what to write about next too! I’ll look into it in more detail and will edit that in the main body of the text as well.

      best,
      Jaap

  1. Luca M.

    Very interesting, a complete myth debunked. That’s for teaching me something today!

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