Just say "NO" to hyperventilating?

As you can probably tell if you read through my blog, since my first competition i have been slowly going backwards. I've had the odd bit of success but still nowhere near where i thought i would be at the end of 2009! I really targeted myself with 7mins static at the end of this year as i had been over 6mins five or six times but nothing was working for me since May.

I've tried max attempts everyday, yoga, no warm up's and FRC holds but again no progress? I went into lots of Co2 tables, crazy tables, you name it, I've tried it.

I believe that hyperventilating has great immediate effects on your performance but if you rely on them they have a bad effect on your long term development. With this in mind i continued my training this week but cut out the 2/4/2 breath up's and replaced with relaxed, slow deep breaths before each hold. The aim was to take each hold up to the point of the 1st contraction and rest for 2mins and repeat.

Day one
2min hold
2min 30sec hold
3min hold
3min 15sec hold

Day two
2min 30sec hold
2min 45sec hold
3min 15sec hold
3min 30sec (1st contraction) continued to 5mins with 19 contractions

Only doing three warm up's, no packing, no 2/4/2 breathing saw my contraction kick in time only 15secs behind where i was when i was doing over 6min holds. My contractions earlier this year did not start until 3min 45sec. I know that i need to take more control of the contractions and slow them down, this was key earlier this year. I have started to mouth fill during a static hold at the point of 1st contraction and also in between contractions to delay each one as long as possible.

Off to the pool tomorrow, this time with no pre-conceptions of what i want to achieve although i must say i will be happy to say goodbye to the whole "4mins something" sessions...