How long can you hold your breath?

[Gokul43201]

Main Question or Discussion Point

I would love to see a poll on this. How long can you hold your breath?

No smart-alecky answers please!

NOTE: This can include the time for one exhalation.

 

[Evo]

1-2 minutes, tops.

 

[berkeman]

When I'm free diving, I like to get into a rhythm of 1 minute down, 1 minute up. I can keep that rhythm up for an hour or more. Wonderful and peaceful.

I can stay down longer, but then my recovery time is longer on the surface. Plus, I've gotten lightheaded a couple times coming back up after staying down longer, which is a definite reminder to not screw up and stay down too long!

 

[jostpuur]

"more than 30 minutes" If somebody holds his breath for more than 30 minutes, he is not typing anything on his computer anymore.

I used to be able to hold nearly up to 3 minutes, about 5 years ago when I was actually doing some free-diving in a local diving club. But now its probably the usual 1 minute.... I don't actually want to know how bad I'm at this anymore, I haven't been diving for a long time.

 

[Daniel Y.]

I haven't tried to hold my breath since I was 12. But I remember timing myself at about 1 minute 30 seconds.

Makes me wonder how long I could hold my breath with the knowledge I have now of relaxation and meditation techniques...Blaine's record, here I come! :)

 

[montoyas7940]

Thanks Gokul43201!

I am so excited. I have to practice first.

 

[humanino]

At the same age, around 12 or so, I was holding it for 3'35" under water. I was more or less serious with that, I mean, I did not do that stupidely at first attempt. I had been timing myself for a long months (years ?). In the beginning, holding 1'30 was difficult. So it took me several months to learn how to stay calm, to look after my heart beat while trying to minimize my entire body activity.

Now what is funny, is that I was not really doing this for any other purpose than amateur free diving in natural environment. I was among other sports a swimmer, a cross-country skier (winter) and cycler (summer), plus living in altitude also develops lungs naturally. And only years later did I read about people doing that seriously and found out that, the methods I came up with intuitively were used by professionals.

Don't try this at home ! ;-)

edit
Unfortunately, I have not been practicing for a looooong time, and I guess I cannot exceed 3' now. So I voted 2' to 3'.

 

[Gokul43201]

I see now that I have asked a slightly different question in the OP and in the poll.

 

[berkeman]

As a fun aside, one of the workout sets we do at the pool is called "under/overs". It's 25m (or yards) underwater, then pop up to do the next 25m butterfly. Do several of those in a row, and your lungs are burning!

 

[BobG]

The longest I can hold my breath comfortably and still function without worrying about it is around 45 seconds or so.

I haven't tried to determine the maximum time I could stay underwater since I was a kid and can't remember the longest I've ever held my breath, so you get an estimate.

 

[mattmns]

OK, when I sumbit this post I will start holding my breath, then I will edit the post to reflect the time... if you don't see my edit please call for help!

 

[_Mayday_]

I am about 40 seconds. You guys are crazy with your 2 minutes! A girl once passed out in my brothers year holding her breathe, and that thought has always freaked me out, especially under water!

 

[Gokul43201]

Help!!!!

 

[Darkiekurdo]

One minute is my maximum.

 

[_Mayday_]

Help!!!!

Did you try and hold it for too long? Deep breaths, deep breaths.

 

[Daniel Y.]

Oh yeah! I just timed myself (http://www.online-stopwatch.com/) and got 2'18" (and 840 ms).

I bet I could easily get 3 minutes if I practiced a little bit. Just remember to relax your body as much as possible (if you practice meditation it's easy to get completely relaxed with a really low heart rate in a minute or two), breath in as completely and out as completely as you can about 30 times before you actually start, and while you're holding your breath don't move at all.

 

[humanino]

I am about 40 seconds. You guys are crazy with your 2 minutes! A girl once passed out in my brothers year holding her breathe, and that thought has always freaked me out, especially under water!

As I was indicating earlier, this is not to be taken as a stupid game, and is seriously dangerous.

Before holding your breath you need to concentrate, saturate your body in oxygen by deep intense breathing for several minutes. And most important of all : be reasonable and do not attempt to go anywhere beyond your capacity.

One should actually not attempt such things without taking a medical exam.

 

[Gokul43201]

Did you try and hold it for too long? Deep breaths, deep breaths.

No, I'm trying to save mattmns.

OK, when I sumbit this post I will start holding my breath, then I will edit the post to reflect the time... if you don't see my edit please call for help!

Help!!!!

 

[mattmns]

WHEW!

Gokul, thank you for calling for help!


edit... to be honest, I was just embarrassed with my low time: held my breath for about 30 seconds

 

[BobG]

As I was indicating earlier, this is not to be taken as a stupid game, and is seriously dangerous.

Before holding your breath you need to concentrate, saturate your body in oxygen by deep intense breathing for several minutes. And most important of all : be reasonable and do not attempt to go anywhere beyond your capacity.

One should actually not attempt such things without taking a medical exam.

I have to admit that I see little purpose in holding your breath for a prolonged period of time if you can't do anything else but hold your breath. It's probably more important to know how long you can function without air. How many tries you can make at rolling your kayak right side up before you'd better seriously consider bailing out; how long you can look for your lost contact lens on the bottom of a swimming pool; how long you have to unsnap your seatbelt and get out of your car after driving into a lake; how long you have to saw your feet off with a pocket knife after organized crime associates have tossed you into the river with a cement block; things like that.

 

[Daniel Y.]

I have to admit that I see little purpose in holding your breath for a prolonged period of time if you can't do anything else but hold your breath. It's probably more important to know how long you can function without air. How many tries you can make at rolling your kayak right side up before you'd better seriously consider bailing out; how long you can look for your lost contact lens on the bottom of a swimming pool; how long you have to unsnap your seatbelt and get out of your car after driving into a lake; how long you have to saw your feet off with a pocket knife after organized crime associates have tossed you into the river with a cement block; things like that.

What if Predator was hunting you and the only way to avoid detection was to remain perfectly still underwater? You have to think realistically, here.

 

[lisab]

...how long you have to saw your feet off with a pocket knife after organized crime associates have tossed you into the river with a cement block...

I use breath-holding to get rid of hiccups. But I don't take a deep breath and hold it; I breath all the way out, then hold it. I find I get to the near-panic state very quickly, and hiccups are gone, just like that.

 

[Chi Meson]

I see now that I have asked a slightly different question in the OP and in the poll.

I was gonna say...

"No smart-alecky answers," yet we have choices that go up to 30 minutes?

Those synchronized swimmers can hold their breaths for 4 minutes or so. The record is about five. I'm a life-long swimmer, and I can only get to two and a bit.

 

[Chi Meson]

What if Predator was hunting you and the only way to avoid detection was to remain perfectly still underwater? You have to think realistically, here.

To stay underwater, without floating up, you need to hold your breath after exhaling. Now THAT hurts, but it is also effective in building lung capacity if repeated regularly.

 

[BobG]

I was gonna say...

"No smart-alecky answers," yet we have choices that go up to 30 minutes?

Those synchronized swimmers can hold their breaths for 4 minutes or so. The record is about five. I'm a life-long swimmer, and I can only get to two and a bit.

If they're just sitting still while holding their breath?

During their routines, the top competitors can go 1 to 2 minutes straight with their head underwater, but that's obviously nowhere close to just sitting on the bottom of a pool. Those people are doing some serious work and are running a heart rate close to 200 beats per minute.

http://www.active.com/swimming/Articles/Synchronized_swimming_helps_increase_strength_and_endurance.htm