What are the benefits of freediving?
Freediving is a unique sport that makes athletes rely on their own body, its physical and mental capabilities. The very idea of diving under water without special equipment challenges human nature, creatures seem to be born to walk on the earth seek to overcome their natural limitations and make what seemed impossible.
Freedom like never before
Using only your body gives you, among other things, unique freedom of movement under water – true freedom, not familiar to most people. You can feel like an integral part of the underwater world, and get closer to its inhabitants – as close as possible. In full gear for scuba diving, releasing air bubbles, you can scare away many animals, which will not happen during freediving.
Explore yourself
Those who are interested in freediving know that this activity requires maximum concentration and attention to their body, not only at the physical level but also in terms of the ability to focus, control themselves, push themselves a little further beyond the limits of the possible. Being engaged in this sport you will learn a lot about yourself – as aptly expressed by Umberto Pelizzari, world champion and freediving legend: “The scuba diver dives to look around. The freediver dives to look inside.”
Physical and mental health
Like many other types of physical activity, freediving helps to achieve and adhere to a more healthy lifestyle. On the physical side, you strengthen your body and maintain it at the peak of physical activity. Freediving like any other physical activity will increase the strength of your body, help develop muscles and increase endurance and vitality. Freediving activities also benefit your joints, which experience less pressure under water, and help strengthen your lungs through exercises to increase their oxygen capacity.
On the part of the mental component, such activity has a positive effect on your mental and psychic state. It has been proven that regular physical activity reduces anxiety, and freediving also helps to master a variety of relaxation and concentration techniques that will help you make your daily activities more conscious and become more calm and composed in your everyday life.
The benefit of freediving for your mental health can be used not only for general relaxation and calming the nervous system. This kind of immersion can be useful for solving some specific problems. One of the common psychological problems is the fear of water in one form or another. Whether you experience discomfort at great depth, or you cannot accept the idea of diving or even entering the water at all, freediving will help you to cope with this fear and overcome it at a pace and form that is acceptable to you.
Become a better scuba diver
If you are engaged in scuba diving, then diversifying your physical activity with freediving will help you to get a lot of advantages. In particular, you will master and learn how to apply various techniques of breathing, concentration, and relaxation of your body including the ability to maintain equilibrity under water and general buoyancy. However, it is worth remembering that these two types of activity are radically different. Having taken a lot of useful things from freediving, do not forget that breathing and movements during scuba diving are completely different.
One of the main, if not the main ability of freedivers, which will be useful for developing for scuba divers, is the better capacity for air consumption. In the process of training to hold your breath, you will learn many new things not only about the technique of this process but also about the psychological skills of dealing with stress and reducing the level of the tension. As a result, you will be able to better control your body and mind even in those activities that do not relate directly to breathing, which will undoubtedly help you quickly and more accurately respond to situations that may arise under water during scuba diving.
And finally, going to freediving you do not need to carry a huge amount of various equipment. You can travel to the most beautiful destinations of the planet with light baggage!
By Yuriy - Apnea Pirate