Freedive Training for the Busy Professional: Make the most of your workday!

Relaxation

The corporate environment is far from relaxing! Navigating the gauntlet of deadlines and office politics can build up stress which fuels muscular tension and inhibits your full potential. Since tense muscles consume more oxygen than relaxed muscles, it's important to calm down! Simply recognizing that you are tense is a huge step in self-awareness and allows you to view the situation from a different perspective. The deep diaphragmatic breathing well known in the freediver's repertoire is also a powerful stress reducer – Make use of it... and ignore your coworkers if they look at you funny!

Flexibility

A flexible body will greatly improve your freediving. As I mentioned before, tense muscles consume more oxygen, which in turn shortens your bottom time. Flexibility reduces muscular tension. How? Achieving a hydro-dynamically correct arms-over-head position, for example, takes much more effort for an-inflexible diver. Less flexible individuals have to use extra strength just to keep their arms in the correct position. This results in more oxygen consumption. My solution? Stretching break! People take smoking breaks all the time. I choose stretching breaks and focus heavily on the postural muscles that suffer greatly from prolonged sitting. Perform stretching in unison with the aforementioned diaphragmatic breathing for an even more effective stretch! During the FII Level 3 freediving course you'll learn freedive specific stretches.

Exercise

Fitness is an important component to freediving. Ideally, I would freedive everyday, but since I do not have that option, I take advantage of every opportunity to squeeze in a little physical activity. At the office, I accomplished this by taking the stairs as often as possible. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator is becoming more of the norm this day and age. You can take this a step further by sprinting! Sprinting quickly puts you into a hypoxic stateand if you have a buddy, you can take this yet even further. I sprint up multiple flights of stairs while holding my breath - The looks on your coworker's faces are only temporary, but the freediving benefits you'll reap during your daily grind are priceless!

Summary:

Your day at the office does not have to be a waste of time...from a freediving perspective, that is. The tips I mentioned will help make your professional day more interesting at the least. You may also thwart some of the damaging effects of sitting all dayand you may even improve your freediving! In additionI have noticed that a relaxed body and mind often equates to an increase in my office productivity. So there is the possibility of getting double the benefits!

Happy diving,

Bo

Sobonna Ong

Sobonna Ong (Bo) is an FII Freediving Instructor based in Alexandria Virginia. He offers FII freediving courses in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and has a passion for brewing Kombucha!  Click here for Bo's upcoming freediving courses.