Exact Time: 30 seconds
Breath-holding is superb and healthy until you: Take a couple of full breaths then take in air and then breathe out. This is mainly an asana. Breathing is never regulated. The power to hold your breath is natural. Different people can hold their breath for a long time or for a short time depending upon their capability to hold breath.
A person can hold their breath by practicing and so increasing their lung capacity, and there is training for them who want to practice holding of breath. These are mainly taken by people for military training, diving, swimming, etc.
Man can feel the burning agitation on their lungs when they try to hold their breath. Muscles in the diaphragm contract forcing a man to breathe so can cause pain.
How Long Does A Person Can Hold Their Breath
The person can hold their breath for 30-90 seconds. Many people can hold their breath momentarily. Many adults can hold their breath for more than 20 seconds and a maximum of 60 seconds. Man can hold their breath underwater twice as he can hold breath on land as it conserves oxygen and energy while living in the water.
Mainly person can hold their breath for a few seconds up to minutes. A person with great determination can hold their breath for about 2-3 minutes. A man who is physically fit or practices any sort of sport can hold their breath for much time. But even enough training can be in vain as few people can hold their breath for about twenty minutes and some even can’t do so.
Men have higher lung capacities about 10- 12% than women. Choosing not to smoke or training related to endurance or willpower can increase lung capacity by a good amount. It has been told that lung capacity sets a limit on breath-holding. Freedivers (or breath-holding divers) use a technique known as lung packing that just doubles or triples the capacity of the lungs.
In lung packing, divers fill their lungs with air then they continue taking small breaths so training your lungs to hold more air and so effectively using air hence these free divers can breathe for a long period of time. Mainly metabolic rate is the factor that affects the breath-holding capacity of a human.
| Environment | Time |
| On Land | 30 – 90 seconds |
| Underwater | approx. 2 minutes |
Why Does It Take So Long For A Person To Hold Breath
Lung functioning and breath-holding vary from individual to individual. Lung function is being influenced by Body types and Gender. Studies have shown that people who are having long trunks have higher lung function. In a normal breathing process, we inhale oxygen and exhale out carbon dioxide. This is a natural and automatic process that can’t be stopped unless someone dies.
A person needs oxygen for their survival and body, and if we hold the breath the oxygen coming from the atmosphere can’t enter the body. So, carbon dioxide releasing into the body as the waste is unable to release from the nose so its level increases in the body, which triggers a reflex telling the body to start breathing again.
Hyperventilating is a method that allows you to hold your breath for a long duration. Breathe at a rapid rate, hence the rate of loss of carbon dioxide increases. So, making it easy for a person to hold the breath for a long time. Record holders as we have seen they make big records with the help of it only as before going to hold back their breath they just hyperventilate which get rid of carbon dioxide from their lungs.
Sometimes psychology plays a crucial role in holding of breath, like if you say you will be going to hold your breath for a longer duration then you may achieve your goal of holding your breath. Also, the involuntary reflex is one that allows the person to hold their breath for a long time in the water.
Conclusion
If you try holding your breath then you can suffer from many side effects: Low heart rate, Nitrogen narcosis, Lung collapse, sometimes Cardiac arrest too. Also, it causes brain damage too. Blackout or loss of consciousness and decompression sickness too occurs.
There are many benefits of holding breath. Such as Increasing life span, resistance to bacterial infections, generating again new tissues, etc. Sometimes, it makes you feel relaxed if done for a little time span.
Holding your breath can save your life in many a situation. If you want to learn how to hold your breath for a long time then practice for it. Don’t rush for holding breath as it can be deadly or harmful for you. Practice holding your breath and use different tricks and techniques for it.