Hello divers! Today I want to share with you a simple but very important part of my dive ritual: my pre-dive stretch routine. I see lots of divers dedicating a lot of time to maximizing their breathing and apnea capacity before diving, they do a lot of dry statics, yoga, concentration, meditation, etc, etc, but I don't see them stretching or warming up their muscles. Humm, do they forget that freediving is a sport too, and that it is the legs and arms that take us down and back up in the end? Having said that, I think it's very important to condition ourselves for apnea, and I myself take about 20-30 minutes for my breathing warm up before every dive. I also do a lot of yoga and feel that it is extremely important to keep a harmonious balance between body and mind, and this has helped a lot during my martial arts career, so nothing against yoga either. To clarify though, I'm talking about the active kind of yoga, what is called "asanas", or postures that stimulate blood irrigation to organs and muscles, not the passive, meditation style yoga. But my point was that, besides getting mind and lungs ready, the muscles need even more attention. Why? Well, let's see.
This is actually a fake :-) It has been made of several dives, but I´ve made it to be used in lectures about freediving. The deepest sequence is the return f...
CMAS World Championship 2004 Rovinj, Croatia
