Do you want to learn
how to hold your breath?
Explore the book:
BREATH HOLDING AND FREEDIVING
Basics for Beginners
Author: Johanna Nordblad
If you want to learn how to hold your breath and enjoy its benefits, this book, along with its training program and practice videos, is designed just for you. Through breath-hold exercises, you will learn to relax consciously, develop mental control skills, and at the same time, gain a foundation in freediving.
DO YOU WANT TO INCREASE YOUR BREATH-HOLD TIME?
Do you dream of freediving, or are you a scuba diver, surfer, open water swimmer, paddler, or another water sports enthusiast? This training program can help you enhance safety and relaxation in your activities. With the program, you will learn to hold your breath effortlessly for about two minutes.
DO YOU WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR OXYGEN UPTAKE?
Carbon dioxide tolerance plays a significant role during physical performance. Breath-hold exercises can quickly and effectively increase your COâ‚‚ tolerance. With the training program in this book, you will strengthen your respiratory muscles, improve your endurance, and enhance your COâ‚‚ tolerance, which in turn helps boost your oxygen uptake.
DO YOU WANT TO REDUCE STRESS AND RELAX?
Breath-hold exercises strongly activate the parasympathetic nervous system and stimulate the vagus nerve. Its function is to lower heart rate and blood pressure while reducing stress hormone levels in the body. By activating the parasympathetic nervous system through breath-hold exercises, you can consciously relax yourself.
By reading this book, you will understand why we can hold our breath, and it includes exercises that can be practiced both on the surface and in the pool.
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With this book and training program, you have the opportunity to learn breath-holding, making it an excellent addition for other water sports enthusiasts such as surfers, paddlers, scuba divers, and open water swimmers, as well as anyone looking to improve their water safety or benefit from freediving techniques in their own sport. The relaxing effects of breath-holding and the exercises that easily enhance mental control can be useful in many areas of life, even if you are not interested in freediving as a competitive sport.
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If you want to learn freediving and have not yet taken a freediving course, this book is a great way to get started. By reading the book and practicing the exercises, you will also gain an understanding of the skills you can develop before taking a freediving course and when it might be the right time to enroll.
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The book includes a training program that will help you learn breath-holding easily and quickly. You can follow the program in the book or watch the training videos online.
Why practice breath holding?
Breath-holding is a powerful and versatile exercise that provides numerous benefits for both the body and mind. When practiced regularly, breathing and breath-hold exercises strengthen the respiratory muscles—especially the diaphragm and chest muscles—enhancing lung capacity and improving breathing efficiency.
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Breath-holding increases the body's ability to tolerate higher levels of carbon dioxide. As COâ‚‚ levels rise, blood vessels dilate, improving circulation and allowing oxygen and nutrients to reach the muscles more efficiently. This enhances muscle function, endurance, and recovery. A higher partial pressure of COâ‚‚ also helps maintain optimal pH balance, making oxygen more readily available for muscle use. Increasing COâ‚‚ tolerance through breath-hold training is a particularly effective practice that supports both overall well-being and athletic performance.
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Breathing exercises not only improve physical endurance but also have a profound mental impact. Focusing on your breath promotes relaxation, reduces stress, and enhances mental clarity. Additionally, breath-holding activates the dive reflex, which conserves oxygen by slowing down the brain’s "opinion center." This oxygen-saving mechanism makes freediving and breath-holding deeply relaxing and meditative practices that support well-being in everyday life, help manage demanding situations, and improve both physical and mental resilience.
AUTHOR
Johanna Nordblad
ICE DIVING WORLD RECORD HOLDER
I wrote this book because I know from experience how important and easy it is to learn breath-holding and the benefits it can bring.
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As a freediving instructor, I train many beginners, and I have seen firsthand the profound overall benefits that breath-hold exercises provide.
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I have also trained surfers, paddlers, open water swimmers, and other water sports enthusiasts who have gained confidence, courage, and relaxation in the water through this training.
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Practicing breath-holding has brought a lot to my own life, both in diving and in my everyday activities.
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I have set three world records in freediving, and I currently hold the world record for ice diving—103 meters from one hole in the ice to another, wearing only a swimsuit.
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One reason I was able to achieve this in freezing water is that, through breath-hold training, I have learned mental control and how to manage different sensations in my body.
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COMING SOON
ICE SWIMMING
Basics for Beginners
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Do you want to enjoy the cold and benefit from the health effects of ice swimming?
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Coming soon: Ice Swimming Basics for Beginners—a book featuring a step-by-step training program. With it, you'll learn to enjoy ice swimming in a relaxed and comfortable way.
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