How long can you hold your breathe?
Try it. Take three deep breaths, let one third of the last one out, and then hold it as long as you can.
Tell me how long you can do it.
I’ll try myself now.
Wow, only 45 seconds. The sun was in my eyes. How pathetic. I used to be able to do over two minutes in a swimming pool. Friggin’ old age.
I just did two minutes and thirty-five seconds, which is about average for me without preparation.
I once did four minutes and two seconds. With Preparation I can consistently hit three to three and a half minutes.
By now you’re probably wondering what the point of this is. This probably isn’t what you thought when you clicked on this thread.
Bear with me a minute or two, I’d like to get a couple of times first before I explain where I’m going with this.
2:07.
About a minute five. I’m not even close to the shape I used to be in (not that I was that hot to begin with, but a decade behind a desk will do that to you).
Well, here’s the kicker. Assuming that you are not ill either cardiovascularly or respiratorally, there is nothing at all stopping you from holding your breathe for four minutes.
What makes you want to breathe is not the absence of oxygen, but the buildup of carbon dioxide in your lungs. You have enough oxygen in your lungs right now that if something were to block your ability to breathe, you would remain conscience and struggle for at least four minutes.
The time I made it that far I hyperventilated for fifteen minutes beforehand, purging my body of carbon dioxide, so I didn’t have as fast a buildup. That’s mildly dangerous, and cheating besides, so that doesn’t count, and don’t try it.
So, the difference is your body is coercing you into breathing before you really need to. The question, answered by your time, is your ability to resist this very fiece coercion.
That’s hard. My lungs were kind of spasming for 20 seconds before I stopped.
2:17. How do you go longer without hyperventilating?!
I’m reminded of an episode of G.I. Joe (after it started getting really weird) where the G.I. Joes were out in space. There was a problem that required work to be done on the outside of the spacecraft, but they had no spacewalking suits. So they took a survey, figured out who could hold their breath the longest, and sent the best two breath-holders out to do the job.
I mention this to distract everyone from the fact I have not shared the embarrassingly short amount of time I can hold my breath. As a young’un, though, I could do two minutes.
Now, one odd thing is that this doesn’t have anything to do with being in shape, or your age (though if you smoke or have been drinking it will affect things.)
It’s simply a matter of mind over matter.
You might wrongly think that this is a test of your tolerance for pain or discomfort. It’s really not.
If you try this several times in a row, you’ll notice that your time starts to lengthen even though you give up and finally breathe at exactly the same pain threshold you did the first time.
Try it, you’ll see what I mean.
What is actually happening here is that you are conditioning your autonomic systems to let you further into your safety margin of carbon dioxide saturation. You’re telling your body to raise the bar as far as what’s allowed and get closer to your ultimate limits.
With consistent practice, you can get pretty darn close to that four minute mark. Chances are, unless you are unusual, you won’t surpass it by much without cheating or passing out.
I haven’t checked many of these times yet, but I doubt there’s many over 2 minutes. That’s 50% of your theoretical limit. I understand that about 10% of people can do two minutes. Most fall between 1 and 2 minutes.
So, what’s happening here?
Your practical ability to hold your breathe is probably less than half your theoretical ability.
The only thing that stops you from approaching that limit is your natural aversion to doing things that make you uncomfortable.
I just tried it, but when I started to turn blue, my mom ran in and gave me a BB Gun.
That woman has quite a memory.
Scylla, does this explain why it’s easier underwater, since you can exhale at a consistent rate? I mean, does that help to shed the CO2?
A long time ago, when I swam in high school, we would do 25 yard underwater swims at the end of practice. As many as we could do. I recall once passing out during one of these, or at least fading consciousness, and sort of coming to at the bottom of the pool. I opted out after that one. I also assume that your capacity is diminished by actually excerting yourself during the test.
In Society of Mind Marvin Minsky wrote:
1:32
Are we allowed to exhale after the initial 1/3? I think I could have got another five seconds if I exhaled. I was holding my nose though.
Or any female that’s given birth. 
Being “great” then is not a difficult task. Both culture and custom give comfort a high priority.
As a whole we work well within our theoretical limits. To be great all you have to do is accustom yourself to the fact that those limits that you feel are imposed upon you, really aren’t.
If you want to be great, try to stretch yourself by 5% in whatever you do until you become accustomed to it. Then, stretch again.
As a whole, we are a very comfortable people, and these are very comfortable times. It shouldn’t take much stretching to make yourself great.
The ability to hold your breath is obviously only an example. Think about what other areas this might apply to, and whatever other false limits are imposed upon you.
In my opinion, greatness is very simple. If you ever get close enough to get a feel for what your ultimate limits might actually be, then you have already become great.
Most people never do, and again, IMO, it’s not a matter of talent, or laziness, or anything like that. It’s only a matter of what you are used to, and what culture and environment suggests.
To answer two questions:
You can breathe out all you like, and you’re supposed to breathe out slowly while underwater so that Boyle’s law and the exchange of gases within your lungs doesn’t result in an overpressure that could pop or damage your lungs when you come to the surface.
This latter mostly applies to snorkeling and doing deepish surface dives, but can happen anywhere. It’s always a good idea to let a trickly of air come out of your lungs while swimming underwater.
Now I get it; Scylla’s channeling Tony Robbins.
Ha! I fall second only to you, Scylla. I pulled a 2:30 my first time out. After reading further down the thread about extending yourself and being allowed to breathe out, I stretched it to 2:36. Not [/]quite* 5%, but then that wasn’t many reps for accustomization.
Also, I know I’ve done over three, not too long ago. Showing off for my 7-year-old son. He pulled a mere 45 seconds in a head-to-head. However, I did kind of cheat by hyperventilating.
Interesting. I must try to continue this stretching. I want to beat 3:00 again before, say, mid-Oct.
- Dave