007: A Relaxation Breathing Technique for Freediving or for Life in General

The Deep Dive with Renee Blundon

Relaxation breathing is a powerful tool for freediving and for life in general in order to decrease your heart rate and help calm the body and mind.

In this podcast episode, I'll go over a relaxation breathing technique, also known as the 'Branko Petrovic Technique', which is used in freediving to help you relax deeply before your freedives and breath-holds. It slows down your breathing and intake of oxygen, therefore relaxing your nervous system and bringing your body back to its natural restful state.

Because your heart-rate is lowered quite quickly and less oxygen is consumed, this means you'll be able to hold your breath much longer. And even if you are not planning to do any freediving or breath-holding, the breathing technique can help anyone who wants to relax more and help to quite the mind.

Some Tips!

While practicing this technique it's important to breathe as relaxed as possible without tensing any part of your body and without straining your intercostal muscles or diaphragm in order to keep the heart rate low. This will help your mind and your muscles to actively prepare you for a period of non-breathing, and be chill about it.

The pause after each inhale and exhale helps to decrease your breathing rate even more, and this relaxation effect is enhanced even more when you do this breathing exercise in the water while breathing through a snorkel face-down on the surface. If there are waves, you can allow the waves to relax you even more (!) by keeping the body loose and de-contracting while allowing the water to move you in whichever which way, imagining you're like a rag-doll or just a piece of seaweed just floating along on the surface of the water.

Lowers Stress and Anxiety

This relaxation breathing technique helps lower stress and anxiety by quickly slowing down the heart rate and helping the body settle in the present moment. A study in 2013 proved that freedivers had a significantly lower level of stress, anxiety and negative affectivity compared to non-freedivers. And I believe this is mostly due to relaxation breathing / training and lifestyle elements.

Feel Better

The relaxation breathing can also help you feel better overall. Not only can it help lower your stress, but it can also boost your mood, because during the breath-work, feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine and noradrenaline, are enhanced during the breathing exercise and also afterwards.

The relaxation breathing technique also helps increase your energy and focus your mind. So you'll be able to focus better on your goals and have more energy to do the things you like.

Also because you'll be using oxygen much more efficiently after doing this breathing, this also leads to better respiration, lower heart rate, increased blood flow to the vital organs and better overall health.

So even though you may have never thought about changing your relaxation breathing for freediving or to practice relaxation breathing in general, it's time to give it a thought. Because the many benefits of this relaxation breathing exercise are super beneficial for your relaxation for freediving as well as for your physical and mental health in your everyday life.

Time Stamps:

• 00:00 Introduction to this episode
• 02:02 Podcast intro
• 03:09 How I learned it
• 04:05 Relaxation is key
• 05:02 The steps for the relaxation breathing
• 07:45 Guided session of relaxation breathing
• 12:40 Wrapping up & some additional info
• 15:17 Conclusion and what's next

Resources / References:

Pascal Huron (Facebook)

Branko Petrovic (Facebook)

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