Experimenting

The hyperventilation experiments didn't really seem to pay off, so I decided to go for the opposite. I read the thread "beyond 6:30 in static apnea" in DeeperBlue once again and got some new ideas. I also received some really good and thought provoking tips from a member. The point of todays exercise was not to find the latest point for the first contraction, but to find how long could I mentally "suppress" the contractions and how long could I deal with them in total. I'm convinced that with the traditional hyperventilation method I could propably eventually reach 7 minutes, but I want to look beyond that, and you don't get into the 7+ category without experienceing some discomfort.

Anyway, I set about to do the series, did some emptys and FRCs like always. For the first long full inhale static I decided to do virtually no breathup at all. After the pervious empty lung, I took maybe 5 breaths, trying not to think about breathing at all, but just trying to relax as much as I could. I then took one deep breath, but not even really full inhale and started. I experimented with the "controlled exhale", as well as I can imagine the technique, and slowly pressed air against my noseclip, making sure the epiglottis was open. I was surprised to realize, that it was feeling really good, and that feeling just wouldn't go away! At 4:30 I became too tempted and took a peek at the watch, still feeling really good. Realizing the time I immediately became excited and my mind started racing all over the place. I finally quit at 5:00 just looking like a huge question mark...Usually at this stage of the routine, 4 minutes is a though hold. But now I was at 4:30 feeling almost euphoric and peeked at the time out of curiosity. And no noticable hyperventilation.

I then tried to reproduce the result, wanting of course to do more. But even though the following holds were ok, I didn't get "into the zone" quite as well. But the common thing for all of them was that even without big hyperventilation, I could go well beyond 4 minutes before contractions and usually push them to even 5. For the last hold I did a concious but very very subtle "breathing cycle", while holding my breath, moving a minute amount of air back and forth from the mouth to lungs very slowly. I don't know if it really helped or not, but it felt good. I managed to squeeze my self to 6:35, which is good, with 40 contractions. Good day overall and I really think I'm onto something here.

Holds:
2:00 (cold, bunch of contractions)
2:30 FRC (with tons of contractions)
1:30 FRC (no breathup, really hard)
1:40 Empty lung
4:30 (no packing, 7 contractions, 1st ~4:30)
1:47 Empty lung
5:47 (3 packs, 20 contractions, 1st 5:00)
5:00 (10 deep slow breaths, 10 packs, no contractions)
6:35 (some packing, 40 contractions, 1st 4:47)

"some packing" meaning I did pack, quite a lot, but it's not comparable to the traditional amount of packs, because I started it well before having fully inhaled (wanted to experiment on this, since usually I make quite an effort to fully inhale before starting packing).