How to Hold Your Breath Longer (Without Feeling Like You're Dying)

Adapt. Evolve. Dive deeper.

You’re weightless, drifting beneath the surface, the sunlight above fracturing into liquid gold. Everything is still. Time slows. Then—your diaphragm clenches, and an invisible alarm bell rings in your brain. Breathe. Now! An ancestral instinct takes over, The peace shatters...But… what if it didn’t? What if you could stay in this moment—calm, in control, and completely at peace?

The Big Secret (That’s Not Really a Secret)

If there were a magic hack for holding your breath longer, I’d be selling overpriced "Elixirs" on the internet and living on a yacht. But there isn’t. The real secret? Consistency. Not glamorous, but wildly effective.

Over time, your chemoreceptors adapt to higher levels of carbon dioxide (the gas responsible for triggering the urge to breathe), and your brain learns that lower oxygen levels are not an emergency. Training smart and consistently is the key.

Breath-holding should be exciting—maybe not always enjoyable at first, but something you grow to love. I learned to love it, but it took time. More importantly, I learned to train at the right intensity—challenging enough to stay engaging but not so intense that it became frustrating. I genuinely believe that finding this balance was the key to unlocking my passion for breath-hold training.

The Golden Rule: Excitement Over Suffering

For me, there’s one rule that never fails: If I’m excited about my next training session, I know I’m on the right path. Excitement leads to consistency, and consistency leads to progress. But if I find myself thinking, 'Ugh, I have to do this training again,' then something is off.

And yet, I see so many freedivers grinding themselves into the abyss, believing that suffering will magically make them better. The phrase 'train hard, dive easy' is often misunderstood. Suffering for the sake of suffering won’t help you hold your breath longer—it’ll just make you miserable.

So, let’s ditch the pain-for-progress mindset and train smarter.

CO₂: Your Most Important (and Most Annoying) Sidekick

CO₂ is both your greatest ally and your biggest challenge in freediving. It influences every aspect of your dive, starting with relaxation, which directly impacts equalization, muscle tension, mental state, and ultimately, oxygen efficiency.

Forcing yourself through discomfort and pretending it was a “beautiful dive” is completely counterproductive. Every year, we organize a small depth competition called the Liuqiu Cup, named after Xiaoliuqiu, the small island in southwest Taiwan where we live. Before the competition, we offer training sessions that include the use of our counterballast system and bottom camera.

You wouldn’t believe how many freedivers I see in the footage, completely panicking at the bottom—struggling to grab the tag, turning frantically—only to resurface and claim their dive was fantastic. No, it wasn’t. How do I know? Because I know that feeling in the chest when panic sets in at depth. I know the rush of thoughts flooding the brain on the way up. And I know that urge of our ego to pretend that we were in control, as if the control was the scale on which we measure how good we are.

Pushing too hard without proper adaptation doesn’t make you stronger; it leads to mental blocks. And these are your real enemies, not CO₂. Once a mental block settles in, it steals the most valuable part of freediving—the joy and freedom of being underwater.

CO₂ doesn’t just create discomfort—it triggers panic. It taps into one of our most primal fears: the fear of drowning. This isn’t a minor mental hurdle; it’s deeply ingrained in us after millions of years of evolution. Overcoming it isn’t just about training your breath-hold—it’s about reprogramming a survival reflex. And that’s no small task.

Three Essential Roles of CO₂ That Every Freediver Should Understand

Role of CO₂	Function	Impact on Freediving
The Bohr Effect – Releasing Oxygen Where It’s Needed	CO₂ weakens the bond between hemoglobin and oxygen, allowing more oxygen to be released into the muscles and brain.	Improves oxygen availability, helping sustain muscle function and mental clarity during breath-holds.
Vasodilation – Improving Circulation	CO₂ relaxes smooth muscles, widening blood vessels and increasing blood flow.	Enhances circulation and oxygen delivery, improving endurance and overall comfort in a dive.
The Urge to Breathe – Your Brain’s Survival Alarm	The brain detects rising CO₂ levels, which lower blood pH and trigger the urge to breathe.	Training CO₂ tolerance helps delay the urge to breathe, increasing breath-hold time and relaxation underwater.

Training CO₂ tolerance isn’t about mindlessly pushing limits—it’s about changing the way your brain interprets discomfort. That takes patience, consistency, and a mindset that values adaptation over brute force. Freediving isn’t about fighting against yourself—it’s about working with your body, your mind, and yes, even CO₂.

The Three Breath-Hold Training Zones

Zone	Description	Experience
🟩 Green Zone (70% of your training time or 7 sessions in a 10-session block)	Like floating on a lazy river.	Effortless, smooth, and relaxing. This is where your body adapts without stress.
🟧 Orange Zone (20% of your training time or 2 sessions in a 10-session block)	Like wading into deeper water where the waves start pulling at you.	Slight discomfort, but manageable. Your brain starts questioning your life choices, but you’re still in control.
🟥 Red Zone (10% of your training time or 1 session in a 10-session block)	Like fighting a riptide.	Intense and overwhelming, but if managed correctly, it makes you stronger.

Balancing your training across these zones makes progress sustainable and enjoyable.

Green Zone: Where the Magic Happens

Aspect	Description
Purpose	Builds CO2 tolerance in a stress-free way.
How it Feels	Effortless and calm, like floating on a lazy river.
Training Plan	Six or seven sessions, 10-12 rounds per session.
Rest Time	Rest as needed between rounds.
Key Focus	Relaxation, breathing control, no pressure.

Find a comfortable position—lying down is best. Breathe through your nose for two minutes, slowly, as if you’re about to take the best nap of your life. Then, take a full but comfortable breath (don’t forget to time yourself) and hold it until the first contraction. That’s your Green Zone.

For Green Zone training, complete six or seven training sessions of 10 to 12 rounds each, with as much rest as needed between rounds. Train at a rate of three sessions per week, which will take a little over two weeks to complete. You must have at least one rest day between training sessions. No rush, no pressure—just smooth sailing down a lazy river.

Green Zone Weekly Training Plan (Week 1 & 2)

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Rest
Week 2	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Rest

Orange Zone: Turning Up the Heat

Aspect	Description
Purpose	Strengthens CO2 tolerance under mild stress.
How it Feels	Uncomfortable but manageable—like wading into deeper water.
Training Plan	Two sessions, 6-8 rounds per session.
Rest Time	Rest as needed between rounds.
Key Focus	Delaying the first urge to breathe while staying in control.

After mastering Green Zone training, it’s time to step it up. The setup is the same—breathe, take a final breath, start your stopwatch—but now, when the first urge to breathe arrives, keep going. The breath hod must be uncomfortable but manageable.

Red Zone: Intensity is Key

Aspect	Description
Purpose	Forces deep adaptation by pushing limits.
How it Feels	Intense, like battling a riptide—high effort but rewarding.
Training Plan	One session, 1-2 rounds per session.
Rest Time	Rest as needed between rounds.
Key Focus	Mental resilience, pushing past discomfort, adapting under pressure.

Now comes the Red Zone, where you go all in. This is where you push past discomfort and force deep adaptation. This zone isn’t for every session—just one training session with only one or two rounds.

Think of this like a stress test for your nervous system. It’s intense but necessary (in small doses) for building true resilience. Just don’t overdo it.

Orange and Red Zone Weekly Training Plan (Week 3)

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 3	Training (6-8 rounds)	Rest	Training (6-8 rounds)	Rest	Rest	Training (1-2 rounds)	Rest

The Cycle of Progress

Once you’ve completed the cycle (Green → Orange → Red), start again from the Green Zone. Each time, you’ll notice improvements in your breath-hold duration, CO2 tolerance, and overall comfort

Train smarter, not harder. Keep it fun, stay consistent, and enjoy the process.

Alternatively, you can structure your training like this:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Week 1	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Training (6-8 rounds)	Rest	Rest
Week 2	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Training (10-12 rounds)	Rest	Training (1-2 rounds)	Rest	Rest

Are CO2 Tables the Best Way to Train CO2 Tolerance?

I followed the classic CO2 tables for years and wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. Their design is flawed because they force you to push through all three intensity zones within the same session, leading to inconsistent adaptation and unnecessary strain.

I also don’t see the point of progressively reducing recovery time between rounds. Yes, I get the reasoning—it’s meant to keep more CO2 in your system to build tolerance. But for what purpose? To push through heavy contractions just for the sake of it? You can achieve the same adaptation without exhausting your nervous system by following a structured program based on the three intensity zones I described earlier.

With this approach, you’ll never hit a mental block and enjoy your training. Plus, every ten sessions or so, you get a chance to measure your progress by entering the red zone—maybe even hitting a new personal best—without grinding yourself into the ground.

So, for me, the answer is NO—classic CO2 tables are not the best way to train CO2 tolerance. Breathe as much as you want between breath-holds. Start each hold fully rested. Follow the intensity training zones. You'll still get the adaptation—and you'll love every session.

The Final (But Very Important) Rule

Freediving isn’t just about holding your breath—it’s about learning to relax in the face of a primal discomfort, one hardwired into our DNA for survival. Can we say that training in freediving is facing the fear of dying? Yes, I believe we can. As freedivers, we are actively reprogramming our brains, rewriting a response that has existed for millions of years.

So stop comparing yourself to others. Freediving is an inward journey. It’s not about who can stay down the longest—it’s about how deeply you can connect with yourself while you're there.

Now go—breathe light, train smart, and fall in love with the silence beneath the surface. Because in that stillness, you won’t just learn to hold your breath longer—you’ll learn something far more important. You’ll learn how to truly let go.

---

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 goes much deeper—uncovering insights, lessons, and practical tools for freediving training.

👉 Read more on the blog or grab your copy here.