Breath Hold Training for Freediving: What Every Freediver Should Know
- Anthony Feoutis
- Aug 9
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 11
Most people think freediving is just about going deep. That we’re a bunch of adrenaline junkies chasing records and flirting with danger.
I once watched the intro of a documentary about my favorite sport, and there it was, a deep, dramatic voice claiming that freedivers dive “as deep as possible, trying to come back alive.”
I remember thinking: WTFF (yes, double F).
Freediving couldn’t be further from that. We’re not dancing with death. We’re celebrating life, and the incredible body and mind we’ve been given.
It’s not about reckless dives into the abyss.It’s about calm. Focus. Control.It’s about tuning in, knowing when to stop, and giving ourselves the chance to come back the next day, the next month, the next year. To keep training, and slowly push our edge.
And it all begins with one thing: your breath-hold.
Because when you can control your breath-hold, you can control your dive.
And that changes everything.
What Is a Breath Hold in Freediving?
A breath hold in freediving isn’t just “holding your breath” and powering through the urge to gasp for air with sheer will. It’s a trained, intentional skill.
It’s what allows you to dive deeper, stay longer, and stay calm when everything around you tells you to panic.
There are different ways we train this skill:
Static apnea: breath-holding without moving, usually lying still in water. But honestly, I prefer doing it on my bed. Most of my CO₂ tolerance? I built it dry.
Dynamic apnea: holding your breath while swimming horizontally. The movement is adding another dimension, testing your control under movement.
Depth diving: where pressure, equalization, and stress all join the party.
Each type challenges a different part of you: your body, your mind, your ability to stay relaxed when it matters most.
Breath hold isn’t just physical.It’s a mix of physiology and psychology. Your lungs, your CO₂ and O₂ levels, your heart rate, they all play a role. But so do your thoughts. Your fears. Your ability to stay still in your own head.
The key? Relaxation and CO₂ tolerance.If you can stay soft and relaxed while CO₂ builds up, you win.
That’s the game.
What Limits Your Breath Hold?
If your breath hold is short, it’s not because you suck at it. There’s always a reason. Actually, a few.
Breath Hold Training for Freediving: CO₂ buildup.
To stay alive, your body needs energy. That energy comes in the form of ATP, made in your cells by combining oxygen and glucose. The catch? This process produces a lovely byproduct: carbon dioxide.
Normally, you’d exhale that CO₂ without thinking. But you’re underwater now, no exhaling allowed. So CO₂ starts piling up, which changes the pH of your blood, making it more acidic.
Your brain doesn’t like that.Chemoreceptors, special sensors in your brainstem, pick up the rising acidity and raise the alarm. They’re the ones responsible for that oh-so-pleasant urge to breathe. This is where contractions start.
The more tolerant your brain is to acidity (i.e., CO₂), the longer you can hold before that first contraction kicks in.That’s exactly what we’re training when we work on CO₂ tolerance.
Breath Hold Training for Freediving: O₂ depletion
That’s the sneaky one. And the dangerous one. Low oxygen.
You don’t feel it. There’s no burning, no warning. Your body quietly drifts into hypoxia, and then it’s lights out. A blackout underwater is silent. That’s what makes it so dangerous.
This is why we never train breath holds alone. No exceptions. No ego. No “I’ve done this a hundred times” nonsense.
And while we’re here, let’s talk about hyperventilation.
It might feel like a clever hack, get rid of all that nasty CO₂, right? Yes that is what you do when you Hypervenilate. Extend your breath hold, delay discomfort, feel invincible?
Yeah. Until it doesn’t work.
Hyperventilating flushes out CO₂, which delays the urge to breathe. But it does absolutely nothing to raise your oxygen. So you’re floating there, feeling great, no contractions, fully relaxed… while your oxygen is silently disappearing.
That’s how people black out without ever feeling the urge to breathe.
Now, yes,some advanced freedivers use light hyperventilation in very specific contexts, like elite-level static apnea, and even then, only under strict coaching and supervision. But that’s the exception, not the rule.
If you’re not 100% sure whether you should hyperventilate, here’s your answer:No.
Breath Hold Training for Freediving: The Mind
And here’s the twist: most breath holds don’t end because of low oxygen or high CO₂.They end because of the mind.
Discomfort shows up early. Maybe your diaphragm twitches just a little. Maybe your throat feels tight. Maybe a thought pops in, “This feels wrong.”And just like that, your brain hits the brakes.
The urge to breathe? It’s not just chemistry. It’s psychology.Your body’s not out of oxygen. You’re not in danger. You are even not that uncomfortable yet. But your brain doesn’t like the feeling, it can even anticipate a potential future struggle, so it invents urgency. It pulls the plug way before your actual limit.
This is why mental training is part of breath-hold training.Not optional. Not extra. Essential.
You have to train your relationship with discomfort, to meet it, sit with it, observe it, and not react. We’re essentially retraining an ancestral reflex, something buried deep in our DNA: the fear of drowning. And that’s no small thing.
And once you realize discomfort doesn’t equal danger, a lot of doors open.
Master the mind, and you gain time.
Not just in the water, but in every challenge that demands stillness under pressure.
Breath Hold Training for Freediving: Technique
You can have the best CO₂ tolerance in the world, but if your posture is off, your body is tense, or your finning is inefficient, you’re leaking energy, and with it, oxygen. Even your pre-dive breathing matters.If it’s rushed, erratic, or just plain sloppy, you start your dive already behind. Think of it like showing up to a marathon already winded. The dive start when you start to breahe for it and will end after your recovery breathing, that is the whole package.
You start with a specific, limited amount of energy, and you have to make the most of it.Wasting oxygen is the one thing you can’t afford. Every tiny detail counts: how you breathe before the dive, how you streamline, how you kick, how relaxed your face, jaw, shoulders, and legs are. It all adds up, or it drags you down.
That’s why freediving isn’t just about holding your breath. It’s about how you prepare how you move, and how you think, all at once, working in harmony.
That’s what makes it beautiful.And that’s what makes it hard.
Proven Techniques to Improve Your Breath Hold
So how do you actually get better at this?
You don’t just hold your breath and hope for the best. You train with purpose. You target the systems that matter (CO₂ tolerance, relaxation, control) and you repeat until the discomfort becomes a place you're familiar with, not afraid of.
Now, I could run through every single "breath hold training for freediving" type here, but that’s not the mission of this article. Instead, I’ll point you toward the specific pieces I’ve written that go deeper into each method, so you can choose the ones that match your needs and experience.
Free Download: A 4-Week Progressive Training Plan for DYN and DNF Based on Intensity
Training Zones
Article: How to Hold Your Breath Longer (Without Feeling Like You're Dying)
Detailed training programs (from beginner to advanced freediver) made of innovative training
strategies and new specific exercises specially
designed to help you unleash your static apnea
power.
Free Download: Freediving Mental Hacks: Master the Mind, Conquer the Depths
The Depth Collector – Book One is 400 pages of no-fluff freediving training, built entirely around
how to train, practice, and improve your breath-
hold with structure, not guesswork.
Mistakes to Avoid in Breath Hold Training
Even with the right tools, progress can stall, or worse, backfire, if you’re making these mistakes:
1. Hyperventilating
Yes, it delays the urge to breathe. But it also removes your safety buffer.Hyperventilation lowers CO₂ too much, letting you dive dangerously close to blackout territory without warning. That’s how accidents happen. If you're not 100% sure when and why to use it, don’t.
2. Pushing Through Strong Contractions Too Early
It’s not a toughness test. Forcing yourself to suffer through heavy contractions before you’re ready can fry your nervous system and kill your motivation. Progress comes from consistency, not brutality. Train smart, stay calm, improve gradually.
3. Training Without Supervision or Knowledge
Freediving isn’t something you “just figure out.”Going in without a clear plan, or worse, copying random exercises with no structure, is a recipe for frustration or risk. Follow a progression. Know the why behind the what.
4. Comparing Yourself to Others
Big one. Everyone's physiology is different. Your training history, your lung volume, your CO₂ sensitivity, none of it is the same as the person next to you. Freediving is personal. Progress is personal. The only person you should be comparing yourself to… is yesterday’s version of you.
Breath Hold Is a Skill, Not a Talent
Your breath hold isn’t a magic trick. It’s not a gift you’re born with.It’s more like fire, something you learn to tend. A quiet flame that grows steadier the more you feed it with patience, repetition, and calm.
At first, it flickers.Your mind panics. Your body twitches.But over time, you learn to stay.To soften instead of resist.To listen instead of fight.
The breath becomes less of a cage and more of a compass.Each session carves out a little more space, inside your lungs, your body, and your mind.
Because freediving isn’t about escaping into the deep.
It’s about coming home to yourself.
To be continued…
If what you’ve just read sparked your curiosity, know this—it’s just a ripple on the surface. The Depth Collector series plunges deep into this pillar, uncovering layers of insights, lessons, and practical tools to refine your freediving journey.
And it doesn’t stop here. The series explores all eight foundational pillars, packed with everything from mental hacks to sport nutrition, breathing techniques, training plans, and more.
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