The world record is 24 min 37.36 sec
How can they stay conscious for so long on a single breath? Doesn’t the body need a constant supply of oxygen?
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There are a number of points to cover here.
– Freediving training is like many other forms of training. You can’t start by running a marathon or bench pressing 200lbs, but with enough training your body adapts. Similarly, if you train your body to adapt to low-oxygen conditions, it handles it a lot better.
– A lot of it is mental. Learning to relax all your muscles, clear your mind and go into a zen-like state drastically reduces oxygen consumption. Also, what most people believe is the urge to breathe from low oxygen is actually an urge to expel carbon dioxide and not indicative of a lack of oxygen. Freedivers know that the first diaphragm spasms come ½ to ⅓ of the way through a maximum breath hold.
– As another poster mentioned, Mammalian Dive Reflex is a powerful effect
– The record was set after breathing pure oxygen. Normal air is only 20% oxygen, so he had 5x the oxygen in his lungs as you or I would have when holding our breath. He also trains to expand his chest and take bigger breaths along with “packing” (taking mouthfuls of air and forcing them into his lungs).
– All that said, it’s still an amazing feat. David Blaine managed 17 minutes under similar conditions, so 7 min more is really a lot
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