Hi,
As a freediver and also cyclist (both a very humble recreational level), I think I can make just a few comments
on your question. Prepare yourself,this is going to be a long post
A few years ago (and I'm only speaking about three or four years ago here) in the freediving community it was generally accepted that aerobic exercise was a good way for improving your apnea times (bot static and dynamic, i.e: while swimming underwater). The reasoning behind this was no reasoning at all
. Everybody's intuition converged on thinking that a good cardiovascular system was of paramount importance for a freediver. Nowadays, this remains true. But only in the anaerobic sense. Think about it.. is there anything more anaerobic than moving your muscles without breathing??? So, a tipical year round program for a freediver is: winter-> aerobic cardio (just to PREPARE for apnea and ANAEROBIC cardio) spring-> transition from aerobic to anaerobic exercises (apnea weight lifting, apnea running, apnea swimming, etc) and summer-> freedive!! (autumn rest is really important as long as apnea exercise is the most tiring exercise due to its extremely anaerobic nature)
The main adaptations after apnea training are:
- Increased blood red cell count
- Increased hemoglobin
- Increased ribcage mobility
- Increased (lots and lots) lactic acid tolerance (only if you train DYNAMIC apnea). After 45 seconds of swimming underwater without breathing, your whole body is bathed in lactid acid...
you just don't have the O2 for aerobic metabolic path!!
- Increased blood alkalinity (this has been shown to be really healthy and protective to your inmune system
- Unhuman decreased resting heart rate, but no changes in stroke volume (I think is is because of parasympathetic nervous system over-stimulation). On a static I often wear a HRM and can see numbers on the lowest 30's
The anaerobic exercises that mostly resembles apnea adaptations are anaerobic 'all-out' efforts on the 1 minute-2 minutes time span
Aerobic exercise has been shown to be, in fact, detrimental to apnea development, because the increased muscle mythochondrias (I don't know If this is by number or size, I'm so ignorant!!
) from cardio exercise and high VO2 max just rob the O2 you are holding.
Apnea exercise ONLY cross-trains to anaerobic exercise in the 1-2 minute segment
But (there's always a but) it can help with your cycling for sure, because of the improved BREATHING technique. But for this, I'll just recommend Ashtanga Yoga. Improved diaphragm strength, rib cage expansion, muscle definition, joint mobility, RHR and softnening of your body imbalances and of course... lots of breath control
If I have some time, I can post some well-known freedivers training regime. Most are like a 400m runner or a boxer: 50% aerobic, 50% anaerobic
BTW, brain damage only BEGINS after about 8 minutes from the point where you lost blacked-out.
Blacking Out is not a sympton of brain damage.. it's a self protective mechanism of your wise body just to stop you from conciously resuming your breath
I once heard of a cyclist who swam underwater regularly 25 meters in a pool just to mantain the lungs elasticity. This is the kind of cross-training you can expect from apnea-training to cycling:
More air volume, more lung control with less effort
Cheers from Spain,
Oscar