Comments on: The TRUE meaning of Hypoxic sets (not what you think)… https://www.totalimmersion.net/blog/the-true-meaning-of-hypoxic-sets-not-what-you-think/ Total Immersion Fri, 20 Feb 2026 11:58:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1 By: CoachSuzanne https://www.totalimmersion.net/blog/the-true-meaning-of-hypoxic-sets-not-what-you-think/#comment-35 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:14:27 +0000 http://totalimmersion.net/blog/?p=729#comment-35 Mark, thanks for your comments! You had a nice breathing stroke in Coral Springs, it’s great read your sensations that you have while working on it.

Today I had yet another BEST SWIM EVER. I thought of your comments and how you had the sensation of getting as much air as you could want. I warmed up with some skating, nodding, risky breaths and one-armed drills, then did the 1000yd set you described (Why didn’t I think of that set, it’s so simple its genious).

The 4x 25s felt OK, the 4x50s a little better. But something incredible happened on the 3rd lenght of my first 75. I SAW the bow wave. I had been focusing on keeping one goggle underwater and suddenly I could see the bow wave clearly through the goggle out of the water. It was a perfect half sine-wave with a trough right where my mouth was headed. For the rest of the set, this was my focus…to look for the bow wave.

Occasionally it was not there, or seemed to be filled in quickly from the back by the water being pushed off my shoulder as my recovery arm came forward. So I started to make a point of breathing just a hair earlier in the cycle, and no more problems with that.

It was incredible. All I had to do was turn my head so my mouth was in the trough, which I could clearly see with each breath…not just hope that it had mysteriously formed.

Amazing. The first 3 100s were 1:40 on the nose, with sole focus on that bow wave, breathign every other stroke and alternating sides. My last 100 was a brisk effort at 1:32. Again, I’m very happy with my progress here in just a few short workouts of all less than 1000-1500yds each.

]]> By: CoachMark https://www.totalimmersion.net/blog/the-true-meaning-of-hypoxic-sets-not-what-you-think/#comment-34 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:50:08 +0000 http://totalimmersion.net/blog/?p=729#comment-34 Seems like a long time since Coral Springs… I’m amazed everytime I check out the TI website and see you blogging your way into history!
Anyway, had some VERY similar experiences to your ‘breathing at altitude’ and ‘head pressure’ exercises I thought I’d share…
There’s nothing like having multiple ‘TIO’s’ eh? I was practicing to get my head into a more neutral position (hanging my head, not looking up or out, just allowing myself to FEEL the h2o supporting my head, and VOILA…. MY NECK FINALLY RELEASED ALL THE TENSION AND I WAS ABLE TO SWIM freely and easily, not having to support that 8lb dummy!! I was instantly amazed at the ease of effort acheived by just NOT holding my head up anymore. I grooved this by not breathing for a while of course cuz it felt so gooood… I used no tempo trainer and did not rush, but neither did I ‘plod’ thru the workout at a slow tempo, but had a brisker pace than usual (the workout was using this fp per 1000yds- 4×25, 4×50,4×75,4×100). i added breathing, staying very conscious of my ‘zen’ head position and totally relaxed neck, turning to the R only and VERY SLOWLY keeping 1 Goggle Wet. The 1 Goggle Wet really helped me turn minimally to air and made it easier to keep my head in a released position. Consciously ‘viewing’ the pool underwater with the submerged eye kept me from over-rotating my breathing motion and kept it more in my wake as well. The last thing I did, was to make my breathing continuous…. that is, NO breath holding on exhale or inhale!! I had been trying to hum to make sure I was steady in my exhale, even humming louder/exhaling more forcefully just before breathing… HOWEVER, this didn’t work for me. Once I began rolling my head w/ my shoulder to ‘just enough’ to clear the water w/ 1 goggle and head the that PNP (perfect neutral position), I found I not only needed less oxygen, (using much less energy both to hold head ‘up’ and turning it hardly at all to breathe), and that I was able to breathe in and out continuously, as if I was on land w/ no interruption in the breathing. Wow, you might try it sometime. kind of like a fish must feel.
Another FP I used while practicing this head released breathing, was to notice the ELBOW of the recovering arm on my R/breathing side and the sensation of “pulling it forward from the water surface”, using a small wrist ‘snap’ to release it from the surface tension. I used the image of Fiona Laughlin’s super streamline position (on the dvd/book covers) which helped me maintain the right amount of core rotation for this. Focus on the elbow ‘leading’ from exit to entry seemed to allow my mouth to inhale air for a ‘much longer than necessary time’, which felt great! I never remember such a feeling of having all the air I WANTED, let alone needed, throughout a swim. It felt like I had an eternity to breath, all the while ‘viewing’ the underwater world with one eye, keeping my head level and relaxed. As you know, there’s nothing quite like an effortless swim to make one feel alive…..

]]>