Most people see freediving as an extreme sport reserved for thrill seekers chasing depth records, but actuall, it is more than this. Of course, everything brought to the limits comes with some risks, however, if done properly, freediving is not only incredibly safe but also offers powerful benefits to both your physical and mental health. So, let’s look at the top 5 surprising health benefits for freediving.
5 Health Benefits of Freediving
Freediving isn’t just about exploring the deep, it’s also a powerful way to boost your physical and mental well-being. Here are five health benefits of freediving.
- Helps to Relieve Stress and Anxiety
- Strengthens Your Lungs
- Improves Your Fitness Level and Flexibility
- Improves Joint Health
- Helps to Achieve Better Focus and Concentration
1. Helps to Relieve Stress and Anxiety
Freediving resembles and overlaps with yogic practice in many ways. Mental strength, in addition to awareness and control of the actions of your body, are the essential factors you need to become a skilled freediver.
But, How can you achieve that? First things you should learn on your freediving course include various relaxation besides breathing techniques. When relaxing, your heart rate and oxygen consumption are reduced. That enables you to dive longer and help you get a more safer, and enjoyable diving experience.
The benefits pf the various skills you practice when freediving exceeds the underwater world. Freedivers have low stress and anxiety levels in addition to negative affectivity if we compare them with non-athletes (This results based on comparative study on psychological characteristics of free diving athletes).
The same study also claimed that freediving improves coping strategies, elevate self-confidence, and increases the belief in the internal locus of control. This means thatplayers engaging in the sport gain trust in their skills, learn the efficient way to deal with difficult situations more, and they have more control over the events in their own lives.
2. Strengthens Your Lungs
While taking a full breath in is a rare thing for most of us, freedivers do that on a regular basis. When start practicing this sport, you have different breathing techniques, for example diaphragmatic, or “belly” breathing, which is regarded as a much more efficient way of oxygenating the body.
The reason behind that is that we aren’t used to using the full capacity of our lungs, and learning this to the maximum can make you feel uncomfortable at first.
However, when you train more on that, the more comfortable you feel when practicing it. Do regular breathing exercises in order to increase the volume and elasticity of your lungs, in addition to improving the stability of your core muscle. Furthermore, your body uses oxygen more efficiently, because it becomes fine-tuned to performing on oxygen limits.
3. Improves Your Fitness Level and Flexibility
Another thing to learn on almost every freediving course is how to stretch the whole-body. The more you flex and open your body, the easier you will move through the water, equalize and avoid cramps.
Additionally, your instructor will guide your physical training and recommend other activities that may have many benefits to you.
Many freedivers practice apnea walking, yoga, or simply do gym work to improve the strength and cardiovascular fitness of their muscles. All in all, when you start freediving, fitness and flexibility usually become soon, which in turn enables you to lead a longer and healthier life.
4. Improves Joint Health
One of the important health benefits of freediving is its positive effect on joint health. Depending on several studies, spending time in and underwater can have good impacts on relieving pressure on the joints and even raise their range of motion because of hydrostatic pressure which counteracts the usual pressure the body encounters while practicing high impact activities.
The weightlessness you feel when being submerged in the water helps in reducing swelling and inflammation, in addition to that, it allows those who suffer from arthritis or injuries to relieve pain and exercise underwater with comfort.
5. Helps to Achieve Better Focus and Concentration
The same as in meditation, freediving needs from you to become a laser-sharp focused. When diving, you should put all your daily distractions and extraneous aside. The lack of sound and other sensory diversions underwater make you feel as if you are in a truly unique environment which help you clear your headspace from any other worries.
Through freediving, you rein in your fear, reslting in mental clarity and insight you couldn’t gain otherwise. Even when training on dry land, you hone focus. That special concentration of mind you reach with the help of freediving can be applied to all areas of life.
