“A Swiss freediver held his breath underwater for 19 minutes and 21 seconds, according to news reports this week. The gasp-inducing feat beat the previous world record by 19 seconds, and blew away the record of 17 minutes and four seconds that magician David Blaine set on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show in 2008.
For most ordinary humans, all that breath-holding can be hard to fathom. The feat might also bring up some basic questions about biology. For example: Is it really possible to survive without inhaling for that long? And is it healthy?
“It is, as a matter of fact, possible — with certain tricks,” explained Claes Lundgren, a physiologist at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine in New York.
It is probably not, however, good for you, and consequences can be deadly.”
Read how it’s possible at Discovery News (thanks, DG)
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Hmmm,
yes, very interesting indeed!
I’ve seen a television program once that featured an olympic athelete trying to teach a journalist to hold their breath underwater for longer.
After the session, he could hold it for a minute longer.
hahaha – “It is probably not, however, good for you, and consequences can be deadly.” – yeah… erm not breathing can prove quite fatal actually!
still… i can barely hold my breath for 30 secs… well done freaky swiss man!
I have always been interested in mastering this art, and wondered if possible to achieve 22+ minutes. But “It is probably not, however, good for you, and consequences can be deadly.” i’m not gunna hold my breath on this one.
so, how is it possible, ?what are the tricks,?I for one over breath constantly, it makes me anxious holding my breath!
As a competitive freediver myself, I always feel kind of uneasy when this kind of records get big media coverage. The main thing which makes holding your breath for 20 minutes possible is filling your lungs with 100% oxygen before the dive. That makes your oxygen stores 4-5 times bigger than they would be if you were breathing normal air (in normal air there is around 21% oxygen). The problem of these dives is not the lack of oxygen (in theory the oxygen would last at least for 40 minutes) but the accumulation of carbon dioxide and the danger of carbon dioxide poisoning.
In real competitive freediving disciplines breathing 100% oxygen is forbidden. The official breath-hold record with normal air is 11 min 35 s, which I consider much more impressive than these 100% oxygen stunts.
If you want to see examples of real freediving, here are some great videos:
Diving to the depth of 88m in the official competition discipline of constant weight without fins:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF4PN8-2YSk
Diving for the lenght of 250m in the official competition discipline of dynamic apnea with fins:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQw7In1Ff10
As I mentioned in my other post, in competitive freediving the use of 100% oxygen and other forms of cheating are forbidden. You just fill your lungs with air, relax and dive as far or deep as you can. Like a dolphin.
David Blaine’s TED talk about this is pretty good.
“all that breath-holding can be hard to fathom”
aarrrgghhh…
That girl in Derren’s Trick Or Treat episode, showed us that with the right techniques etc, that it’s possible to vastly expand your breathing time underwater, But not to this degree, no. Blimey, 19 minutes? Makes me come over all dizzy just thinking about it!
LC x
A friend who is in the Navy taught me and some friends a way of circulating air around the lungs whilst holding your breath. You basically hold your breath and use the same muscle reflex when breathing to move the air around your lungs thus buying some more time before you feel the need to breathe.
Well,,b abies breath in the womb, and after coming out of there under water as well. This system might be reused but not completely the same way. People wont need that much oxygen if they slow down on the inside again to the max .. Those things combined might lead to long periods under water, although that wont be the case for most of us. Those who can will show some different structure right in your face all the time already, a bit aqua perhaps .. I don’t know how to say this different.
I once had a tub experience like that. I breathed under water, using lungs but different. As soon as the mind control (which I did not trigger in the first place while knowing what I was doing)) collapsed, or did I loose interest (it might be that too) I stopped doing that.
I’m also rather interested in these tricks – could one of them be to keep stored pockets of air or oxygen in your stomach, somehow and burp them up when required?