How to Hold Your Breath for a Long Time

The ability to hold your breath for a long period of time is a skill that everyone loves. Holding your breath longer can help you stay underwater longer when diving or windsurfing, or maybe you’re simply looking for a performance trick to impress at the party. Whatever the reason, it’s really easy to increase your time without breathing, if you have the right exercise techniques and the right safety measures. fit. Read on below to learn how.

Table of Contents

Breathing Techniques

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Practice deep breathing. Before holding your breath, inhale and exhale “‘slowly'”, from deep inside your diaphragm. By doing this, you are expelling low-quality air from your lungs. ^{[1] X Research Source} Inhale for five seconds, then hold your breath for one second, before exhaling for ten seconds. Continue to breathe deeply for two minutes, and make sure that as you exhale, you expel all the last “leftover” air.

As you exhale, push your tongue up to touch your teeth. This will form a valve, which helps control the exhalation of air. Your inhalation should produce the same whistling sound as the exhalation. ^{[2] X Research Source}
Deep breathing allows your body to take in more oxygen than usual and store it in your blood cells. This helps when you’re holding your breath and your body can use its oxygen reserves to continue performing its functions, even when you’re not breathing.

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Purge CO2 out of your lungs. When you hold your breath, the pressure you feel in your lungs is not a result of the need to breathe, but rather a result of the amount of CO2 being created, compressed to be released. This CO2 formation becomes more and more annoying over time. To minimize this CO2 production, it is necessary to purge any pre-existing CO2 in your lungs, before holding your breath. Let’s do this:

Exhale forcefully, pushing as much air out of your lungs as possible. Puff your cheeks up as you do this, and imagine you’re trying to blow into a toy sailboat to move it across the water. ^{[2] X Research Source}
When you exhale completely, inhale quickly and repeat. Try to keep your body as still as possible while doing this, to avoid draining the oxygen stores in the previous steps.

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Inhale and hold for one minute and thirty seconds. This is the process of training, allowing your body to adjust to the feeling of being without air. Use a stopwatch to count down to 90 seconds, and don’t try to hold your breath for longer than that.

As you inhale, don’t inhale so much that your body feels like it’s about to explode. This will put pressure on your body and cause you to expend more energy. Instead, fill only 80-85% of your lung capacity so you still have room to relax.
When the 90 seconds are up, exhale quickly to free your lungs from the used air, then do three breaths, inhaling and exhaling completely. This is known as a semi-purging process.

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Repeat the process of deep breathing and purification, then hold your breath for two minutes and thirty seconds. When the first 90-second workout is over, repeat the deep breathing and cleansing exercise. Do each exercise for a period of one minute and thirty seconds.

When this process is complete, inhale and hold your breath for two minutes and thirty seconds, timing with a stopwatch. Don’t try to hold your breath longer than that.
When the time is up, exhale to release the used air and perform the semi-purification three times. Do this process with two minutes of deep breathing and one minute and thirty seconds of cleansing. Now you’re ready to try holding your breath for as long as you can.

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Splash cold water on your face. At this point, you may decide to splash your face with some cold water before trying to hold your breath. This has been studied by scientists, when exposing a person’s face to cold water will trigger a process to slow down the pulse, or reduce the heart rate, this is the first stage in the animal’s diving reflex. have breasts. ^{[3] X Research Sources} However, this step is not required.

You don’t have to actually dip your entire head in the water. Just splash some cold water on your face right before holding your breath, or try using a wet washcloth with cold water.
However, do not use an ice pack instead of plain water; Similar research suggests that being shocked by something too cold triggers other reflexes. Just make sure the water temperature is around 21°C and the rest of your body is in a relaxed position.

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Inhale and hold your breath as long as you can. Sit in a comfortable position and inhale deeply, filling 80-85% of your lung capacity. Hold the breath for as long as possible, completely still to avoid unnecessary energy expenditure and oxygen waste. Usually it’s better to have someone else time your workouts for you, time will seem to pass faster and you’ll be able to hold your breath longer if you don’t have to constantly keep an eye on the clock. . ^{[2] X Research Source}

Holding your breath for long periods of time can be frustrating, and it is often necessary to find a way to distract yourself if you are to be successful in achieving your goal. A common distraction technique is to flip through the alphabet from A to Z, thinking of a friend, celebrity, or historical figure whose name starts with letters. Stig Severinson, who set a world record for holding his breath underwater for 22 minutes, is the proponent of this technique. ^{[2] X Research Source}
Don’t keep air in your cheeks. This method is considered a way of storing air, it will require “exhaling” the air in your lungs and replacing that air with the air in your cheeks. This method is known as “circle breathing” and is difficult to practice, often resulting in the person holding their breath losing both of their air reserves. Therefore, it is best to avoid using this method for the time being.

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Relax all the muscles in your body. This is an important factor, need to completely relax and release all tension in the body when you hold your breath. Close your eyes and focus on releasing tension from all parts of your body one at a time, starting with your feet and working your way up along your body, then to your neck and top of your head. . In this way, it is possible to significantly reduce your heart rate and increase the time you hold your breath. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Focus on something that relaxes you. When you can’t concentrate anymore, distract yourself by doing something with your hands, like counting to 99 with your fingers.
Try not to move while holding your breath. When you teleport, you waste oxygen and this reduces the amount of time you can hold your breath. Sit still.

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Exhale slowly. When you can’t hold your breath anymore, try to avoid exhaling all the air in your lungs quickly. First, exhale about 20% of the air, then inhale again to get the oxygen to the most important areas faster. You can then completely exhale and inhale.

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Repeat the above steps 3-4 times in each training session. We don’t recommend doing this more than once, as it can cause damage to your lungs and body. Try exercising once in the morning and once in the evening if you want. Keep practicing and before you know it, you might be holding your breath for a few minutes.

Optimize Your Lung Capacity

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Exercise to increase your lung capacity. While there’s no way to increase the size of your lungs, there are ways to increase the amount of air your lungs can take in, and increase your lungs’ efficiency at absorbing oxygen. Specifically, a rigorous daily exercise regimen can help strengthen your lungs and optimize their air capacity.

”’Do a lot of exercises that increase your heart rate . Incorporating a few cardio exercises into your weekly workout schedule can do wonders for your lungs. Jogging, jumping rope, aerobics, and swimming are all major forms of cardiovascular exercise, which work harder to pump blood and lungs to provide the body with the oxygen it needs to function. continue to operate. Try a 30-minute high-intensity workout, pushing your body to its limit, for the best results.
Underwater workouts . Water training (swimming, water aerobics, water weightlifting) is also a form of exercise that increases the heart rate, but water provides an element of resistance that requires the body to work harder. more to complete the exercise. And as a result, the lungs have to work harder to deliver oxygen to the body, causing its oxygen-carrying capacity to increase markedly over time.
Practice in an elevated location . In higher places, there is less oxygen in the air. That means your lungs have to work harder to deliver oxygen to your body. This is a great way to strengthen your lungs, but you need to be careful not to exercise too hard, or you could potentially fall victim to altitude sickness.

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Lose weight . Excess weight reduces the body’s efficiency in using oxygen, as well as increasing the amount of body mass that the blood must pump oxygen to. ^{[5] X Sources of Research} As a result, many breath-holding contestants will attempt to lose any excess weight in the weeks leading up to the competition.

This weight loss should be achieved with a rigorous healthy exercise regimen – through exercises and a well-balanced diet – if you deplete your body through a crash diet it will have a negative impact. your ability to hold your breath.
World record holder for breath holding, Stig Severinson, claims to have lost at least 9kg before attempting to break the world record for holding his breath underwater, in an attempt to increase his body mass ratio. with lung capacity. ^{[2] X Research Source}

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Quit smoking . In fact, the adverse effects of smoking on lung health and capacity are common knowledge. Quitting smoking can significantly increase the lungs’ ability to remove CO2 and absorb oxygen, even within a few weeks. So if you are looking to make your lungs stronger and increase their capacity, without a doubt, quitting smoking should be the first thing on your to-do list.

You should also avoid passive smoking as far as possible, as breathing in someone’s secondhand smoke also has a bad effect on your lungs.

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Play a blow or brass instrument. These types of instruments require a lot of lung power, making them a great way to increase lung strength and increase control over your breathing. And besides, playing an instrument is a great skill that can bring limitless satisfaction to yourself.

Flute, trumpet, oboe, and saxophone are good choices for blown instruments, while trumpet, trumpet, and tuba are popular choices for trumpet copper.
If you have a good voice, singing is another great musical aid to strengthen your lungs. Singing requires great control over one’s breathing, making it a great complementary activity for someone aspiring to a long breath test.

Prepare Necessary Safety Precautions

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Always practice with a partner. Here’s one wise piece of advice that you should follow, which is to practice holding your breath with a partner. The main reason is that they can guarantee your safety if you faint (which happens quite often during limited trial workouts), protecting you from injuring yourself and take care of you while you recover your cognitive abilities. Plus, a partner can help you time your breathing, alerting you every 30 seconds.

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Practice by sitting up straight, instead of lying down. The best position to practice holding your breath is to sit upright in a comfortable position, like sitting on a sofa or armchair. This allows you to expend as little energy as possible while holding your breath. Do not lie down while holding your breath, or you may run the risk of choking on your tongue if you pass out.

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Do not attempt to do this underwater unless you are supervised by a professional. Although the purpose of learning to hold your breath for a longer period of time is usually for use in the water, you should never perform an underwater exercise alone, without supervision. As mentioned before, it is quite common to faint or lose consciousness after holding your breath for an extended period of time, and if this happens underwater it can lead to drowning.

Even practicing with a partner can be dangerous, an untrained eye may not be able to tell the difference between a person holding their breath and someone who has passed out.
If you’ve decided to practice with a partner, make sure you’ve decided on a hand sign that you can perform at regular intervals to show your partner that you’re okay. ^{[6] X Research Source}

Advice

Don’t make any unnecessary movements. This will use up oxygen and limit your ability to hold your breath.
Try not to think about holding your breath. If you think about something pleasant, you’ll be less concerned about wanting to breathe.
Take a few deep breaths before you do this for an extended period of time.
Try to relax, close your eyes, and relax. But if you’re underwater, keep a small amount of power in case you want to rush to the surface.
Even if you have an expert by your side, don’t practice in the water! There have been many deaths like this. Don’t be one of those who are counted!
When holding your breath on land or in water, stay calm because if you panic, your heart rate will increase and you will lose more oxygen and energy.

Warning

Be careful if you are a person with tachypnea syndrome. Tachypnea syndrome causes a lot of unwanted effects, one of the more dangerous is that it tricks your body into thinking you have more air than you actually can, causing you to pass out without any symptoms. any warnings. If this happens while in the water and without a partner, you have a high risk of dying.
Never hold your breath underwater during an ascent if you are using a pneumatic tool (such as a diving tank). The expansion of compressed air during ascent can rupture your lungs.
If you feel discomfort in your chest, exhale, and breathe normally. (Unless you’re underwater, if you’re underwater, exhale and start coming up following the deep dive instructions.)

Things you need

Stopwatch
Pencil
A piece of paper to record the time
Associate (optional but recommended)
A chair (or anything to keep your back straight)

Steps