The One Month Breath Hold Challenge Begins!

First things first – Basic freediving safety!

Never dive alone, always dive with an apnea and rescue trained buddy.

Dry training is many times safer than wet training.

Do not hyperventilate (see why here)

Always dive within your limits. Take slow steps and make steady progress.

OK, lets begin

Lets get something straight. There is no easy route to a 4+ minute breath-hold, but in this guide i will take you through some of the basic techniques and a training plan which could take you there. I wish I had a secret breathing technique that could add 75% to your breath-hold, but i dont, and dont believe anyone if they say that they do! Freediving training is about adding small amounts on a regular basis until your body is conditioned to deal with the high c02 and low 02.

This is a six stage process and is finished off with a training table

STEP ONE

The first thing to do is see what your  dry breath-hold is right now. You need to see what you can achieve now to understand what you can get to with continued training.

1. Sit on a comfy chair or lay on a bed.
2. Breathe calmly and slowly for 2 minutes – No deeper or faster than you would normally.
3. Take a deep breath in, then exhale everything, then take a really deep breath in… as deep as you can manage.
4. As you hold your breath, relax and think of other things.
5. When you cant manage anymore take some deep inhales to recover. Always focus on your inhales and not your exhales when recovering!

How did you do?

We are going to use this time as a prediction of what you will be able to get to in one months time.

1 minute or less = 3 minutes

1:30 minutes (approx) = 4 minutes

2+ minutes  = 5 minutes

You may do better, you may do worse. Some people respond to training better than others, there are no fixed rules that we can use to precisely gauge your potential but after years of instructing people how to hold their breath these numbers are a pretty good guide. But remember, it will involve training… and lots of it. Your overall fitness levels will also affect how quickly you improve. If you are quite unfit yo may find you peak early and will struggle to go beyond that point.

STEP TWO

The next thing to work on is your breath-holding technique itself. This can be broken down in to the principle parts… We go in to this in far more detail on courses and in my book.

1: The preparation

There are three main things to focus on during your preparation. Relaxation of the muscles, relaxation of the mind and relaxation of the breath. See the theme? Yep… RELAXATION!

All your muscles need to be inactive, any muscle that is tense will use oxygen.

Your mind must be calm, if you are stressed out, nervous or even scared… you will not do well. Find something that calms your mind.

Your breathing must be relaxed, not forced, not deep, not fast … normal… (by doing this we are also avoiding hyperventilation).

2: The Final breaths

Ill keep this simple. Take 3 breaths….

One 75% inhale

One 100% exhale

One maximum capacity 100% inhale (do not pack)

HOLD

3: The breath-hold itself

Stop the air escaping at the glottis or the back of the throat, not at the lips.

Never release any air until you intend to breathe again, be it underwater or on the surface. Your exhales will include oxygen, so don’t waste it.

Remember my rule of thirds. Not sure what this is? Read here…

By working within the rule of thirds you will get a gauge of how well you are doing.

Relax your mind and body. Do not think about anything…. OR…. run a mantra through your head.

STEP THREE

The next step in your training is to work on the frequency, location and quality of your breath-hold training.

Frequency of breath hold training – 

Work on  doing c02 tables every other day for the first 2 weeks. Dont know what c02 tables are? Read about them here…

Then for the last two weeks work on 02 tables every day. Dont now what 02 tables are? Read about them here…

The basic idea here is that we are working on reducing the urge to breathe first of all with the c02 tables (as its an increase in c02 that makes us want to breathe). With our c02 tolerances increased we can then start working on the overall time with 02 tables.

Put aside an hour a day if possible for these tables. See the schedule at the foot of the page for more details.

Location

Dry training is 10-20% harder than wet training. It is also a lot safer (you should still do it with a buddy as dry breath-holds can still be dangerous). This increase in difficulty is because the mammalian dive reflex is triggered with facial immersion in water, therefore, when dry we suffer a drop in performance. You can use this to your advantage as if you can do well on dry land, you will do way better in the water. I would try to do at least one wet session a week though as it trains you on technique and trains your body to work in that environment. If in the water ensure you have a  trained buddy with you. Please only do wet sessions if you have done a course, there are countless points on safety and technique which you will learn! If you absolutely cant attend a course then I go over this in detail in my book.

Quality of breath hold training –

Just like any athletic training, the quality should be more important than the quantity. Doing apnea training everyday but hating every minute of it will get you nowhere fast!

Focus on committing properly to the session, get yourself in the right mindset to do it, dont have any distractions.

STEP FOUR

Aerobic and anaerobic training are both critical to your overall success. Your apnea sessions as detailed above are anaerobic training but they are of a type, they are relaxed and focused on time and not exertion. We want to now incorporate more physical training!

Anaerobic training – 

Anaerobic literally means ‘without air’, so you can see why it may help with your training. When you push your body really hard your breathing rate cant keep up and your muscles are starved of oxygen so they start to burn phosphates and glycogen instead. This kind of workout doesn’t have to be long and protracted. Its about high energy, short intensive bursts and working until your lungs want to burst! I do a standard work out of interval runs and then apnea walks. When training I will do this 3 times a week.

Aerobic training – 

This is a little less important than your anaerobic training when it comes to apnea but its still vital. This is when the body is using oxygen as a fuel source more so than glycogen. It ‘has air’.  So by training aerobically you are training your body to be more efficient with oxygen, typically this benefits the early part of a breath-hold. Think about long cycle rides or steady long runs to work on this. Ill do this twice a week.

STEP FIVE

Eat well (healthily), dont drink caffeine, dont take any artificial stimulants, dont drink alcohol, drink plenty of water. Don’t eat or drink lots just before an apnea session, your stomach lining uses lots of energy and blood to digest food.

STEP SIX – PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Ok, now we need to put all this together. We know we need to do the following to do well….

1. Proper breath up technique
2. Proper breath-hold technique
3. Training tables – c02 and 02 – dry and wet
4. Aerobic training
5. Anaerobic training

With that being understood here is  training table with goals for one month, assuming we can do a 2 minute breath-hold already. I have included it as a jpg so you can easily print it out. If you are not so focused on pushing times in such a short time-frame you can use parts of the training plan, cherry pick what you can and cant achieve.  Crucially this table has been tested and i know it works. Despite it being pretty hardcore, it is safe, as long as you are guided by what your body is telling you and are happy to pull back if you feel like you are overstretching yourself. If you have done a freediving course with us then you should understand where that point is and how to identify it.

How to Re-pack Bicycle Bearings

This is a method I have used for well over a decade to repack bicycle hub bearings, and to adjust them to a proper preload for optimum life and performance.

Step 1: Disassemble the axle assembly

If you want rear axles, see my other project:http://www.instructables.com/id/Rebuild-a-bicycle-rear-hub/

A future instructable project is coming concerning frame alignment. Please see it first if applicable!

Have at least 3 separate rags for this procedure. Rag 1 is for the raw glop of removal, rag 2 is for finer cleaning after rag 1, and rag 3 is for reassembly.

Have some non-chlorinated brake cleaner aerosol, and a glass jar to catch the overspray for best results. The overspray will still be useful to you in the future.

For front axles as covered here, the situation is essentially the same. Best method is as described below:

If you do not have a cone wrench (a recommended tool), try to determine the side that will give way first by unscrewing the locknuts away from each other. The side that moves relative to the axle is your first bet, then retighten the "stubborn" side to the fork as tight as possible, once this procedure allows. Then loosen and remove the nut from only one side of the front axle from the fork, and then loosen the cone locknut. Sometimes the cone locknut will stubbornly hang onto the cone. loosen it enough to get any form of wrench or pliers onto it to break the two free from each other in as few turns as possible. Since you are repacking the hub, use of penetrating oil such as "PB Blaster" is recommended, even if the parts are not rusted/seized.

Once you have them free from each other, spin them off completely and put them on rag #1. Scour off as much old sludge as possible with this rag from the cone and locknut first, then from the axle and other cone/locknut on the other side. Perfection is not required yet, just get the main glob of goo off.

Step 2: Clean bearings and cups

Still using rag #1, try to clean out the bulk of the old grease from the bearing cups and the inside of the hub itself, after removing shields/seals. Most shields and seals will simply pry off, just be careful not to bend or kink them. If you see two holes across from each other on the seal carrier, it likely screws off in a counter-clockwise fashion. Twist the rag and thread it through the hub to remove the bulk of the grease. Feel free to use the brake cleaner solvent (after removing any seals!) to aid this process, but don't expect perfect cleanliness yet. Don't forget to clean the axle itself and the cone still fixed to it. Be very sure not to get any solvents on the tires.

If the bearings are in a cage, and you have additional ball bearings of the same gauge to make it a "loose ball" bearing, discard the cage and clean them all by soaking a portion of the rag in solvent and "shuffling" them in the rag by creating a pocket with your hand and rubbing the bearings into the rag.

By now, you should have a clean-looking set of parts. I hope that you have salvaged an old hub to make this a "loose-ball" bearing kit, but if not, be very sure to use the hem of the rag to clean out the cage. Remove balls from the cage by pressing them inward to push them out. Again, this is not clean yet, and if you plan to re-use the cage, you will have to follow additional steps.

Step 3: Inspect the bearing surfaces

With rag #2 soaked in more fresh solvent, repeat the procedure outlined in the previous step for the ball bearings themselves and set them aside.

DO NOT USE A MAGNET TO HOLD ANY PART OF A BALL-BEARING ASSEMBLY TOGETHER FOR ANY REASON! Doing so will magnetize the parts and actually draw damaging metallic particles into the bearing and cause a premature failure later on in it's life.

Use the same rag to clean the inside of the hub and especially the bearing cups and cones as thoroughly as possible. Now it's time for inspection.

An ideal is that you should see a relatively even wear line on the cones that looks like a polished line that is centered in the curvature of the cone taper. This should be matched with the same impression on the inside of the bearing cup (race) in the hub.

Inspect each ball itself for defects such as pitting or galling. Remember these parts are "case-hardened", meaning they are harder on the very outside than on the inside. Visualize a steel M&M...This goes for the cone and race as well. Pitting will appear like the metal was "pinholed", and is usually the result of abrasive contamination. Galling looks more like some kind of acid burn, and is a result of contamination and/or lack of lubrication, where the metal has eaten itself. Only extremely minor pitting is something you can get away with on occasion. Galling will result in you never being able to properly adjust bearing preload and will just roughen every other contact surface like a contagious disease; dispose of any part demonstrating a galling effect. If the cup (race) in the hub is galled, junk the entire hub assembly regardless of the apparent condition of the individual parts. The only salvageable part of such a condition is the axle stud itself if anything, if it is not sprung.

Pay attention to the wear line around the circumference. If the line gets wide, you can see the load-bearing area, but if it gets too wide, it shows a bearing well-lubed, but poorly adjusted or not maintained, for too long a period. A wear line should not deviate more than 5% in width from thinnest to thickest. If it does, junk the part as it has worn way too far out of round to be useable. You didn't get to it in time to save it....

I cannot get accurate photos of the difference. so an illustration will have to do. The first is an acceptable wear line, the second is a good reason for recycling and demonstrates a potentially bad bearing group that has soured the entire hub operation. If your bearing cone looks like this, odds are that you are in the market for a new hub. The example is of a cone from opposite the galled bearing on the other side. This is how the effect ruins the other bearing, and why I say to toss the whole assembly when cups go bad. Only in certain special circumstances can a cup be saved from the hub with any hope of positive results.

The illustration provided shows an ideal condition. You can never repack your hub bearings too often.

Step 4: Repack

If you are making the smart conversion to a "loose-ball" setup, skip this step and proceed from there. For those who wish to, or have no other alternative but to re-use the original bearing cages, continue from this step:

After assuring that all bearing surfaces are clear and clean at this point, you are ready to rebuild.

Gently squeeze the bearing cage "fingers" down to hold each ball snugly but without binding. The cage is there to keep the balls equidistant for optimal strength, but it should not bind against the balls or any other bearing surfaces. Simply pressing the balls in will likely open the cage enough to allow free movement, but check to be sure.

Now, smother the cage assembly in grease, pushing grease from the inside out well past the point where grease starts to ooze from the outside. Positively drown it in grease, and add a significant bead of grease to the inside of the hub's bearing race, and place the cage assembly in the race, using the grease to hold it in place.

You simply cannot use too much grease for this step, and you should not be conservative on this step. Best is to saturate the bearing with as much grease as you can cram into it. Excess will be cleared later.

Step 5: Reassembly

If you are going the "loose-ball" route, pack some grease into the bearing cup and use that to hold each ball in place during reassembly. Be sure to use enough grease in this step.....better too much than too little at this point.

For those making the conversion and not sure of how many extra balls to add, just add enough to fit about in the wear line. One too many will demonstrate itself as too full to reassemble properly, so in such case, take one out. The bearings should fit in the same space as the caged version did, and one too many will be clearly evident. Use the same number of bearings for both sides, usually only adding 2, maybe 3 more will suffice. 7 balls caged usually equals 9 balls loose on a full-sized axle. Only fill a gap larger than 110% the diameter of a new ball. A little space between loose balls is acceptable.

Again, it is better to put too much grease than not enough at this point. I recommend using "high-temp disc-brake bearing grease" (automotive grade black lithium base) since these are low-speed high-load bearings per typical lube specifications. The thicker the grease, the better at this point, and water repellance is a nominal and desired property, regardless of bearing configuration.

A cone wrench is strongly recommended at this point to ease assembly and preloading.

Step 6: The art: Proper preload adjustment

I will assume you have obtained a cone wrench already at this point. If you are attempting to do this with regular tools, it will largely demand upon a skill that I cannot explain in words with any accuracy to achieve the same results. A trained wrench hand can try though...

Loosely assemble the hub assembly and install the "fixed" side, and secure that side's stud nut (lug). With a cone wrench in hand, slowly tighten the cone as you spin the wheel opposite the tightening direction until you feel a slight growl from the bearings through the wrench. The growl says "too tight". Loosen 1/8 turn at a time and moderately seat the locknut against the cone. Remove the wheel from the fork.

Spin the axle by hand, it should spin freely (gooey actually) without any grittiness, yet without an excess of free-play (looseness). You should just barely be able to detect looseness and never feel a "gritty" sensation. Keep in mind that the preload will increase when you secure the axle lugs, so you want a slightly loose setting to counteract this effect. Wipe away any excess grease as well, as some will ooze out past the seals (indicating overfilling, but a little bit over is desired), and the bearing will automatically purge excess grease to the amount it can use as it rotates.

Reinstall the wheel with the "fixed" side tightened down to full torque and the other side free...Spin the wheel very lightly to look for the sign of "stepping", where the wheel seems to lock into a "detent". If you do not see this, tighten the other lug loosely, hold the wheel steady and try to rock it laterally to feel for the slightest sensation of a "clunk". Ideal is that this should be barely perceptible. No perception of this means to loosen the cone by 1/6 turn at a time until you feel it. Do not mistake the flex of the fork for freeplay.

When you are confident you have this set to a barely perceptible sense of free-play, lock the cone locknut down firm, but not tight yet. Torque the remaining lug to proper torque. Spin the wheel barely, again checking for "stepping". Check for freeplay again. if there is none, it *maybe* is too tight still. Loosen "adjustment-side" by 1/4 turn, locknut and all, and retighten all as if it was final assembly. Check again for freeplay. If you can perceive the slightest bit of freeplay, tighten the cone 1/8 turn, lock it back down, and repeat until the clunk is completely gone, but NO tighter. If you have reached this point and the wheel has no lateral freeplay but spins freely, you are just about done.

Time and experience with performing this service will make this easier and quicker each time, until you can do this in your sleep and even skip a few steps and still come out perfect.

Step 7: Troubleshooting

To make sure that you have done this job correctly, get your hands on a long-shank flat-blade screwdriver. With the bike inverted, spin the wheel at a high speed, and then plant the blade of the screwdriver on the axle nut. Now plant your ear on the handle of the screwdriver, to use it as a stethoscope. A mild low rumble is acceptable, but any "sharp" noises indicate severe binding and/or damaged parts. A "sandy" sound indicates dryness and/or contamination. A prominent growl indicates bearings just a *wee* bit too tight. An ideal is a "whisking" sound, but rare if ever observed in tapered ball bearings ever. Only sealed-cartridge bearings are so silky smooth.

The ideal threshold for tapered-ball bearings such as those for bicycle hubs overall is just a *hint* tighter than the threshold of freeplay to pre-load the bearings for varying stresses so that they wear properly. There are two bicycle axle gauges, and the larger the better. If the rear axle is thicker than the front, your front axle is in danger of breakage due to some moron's idea of lowering manufacturing costs. If they match with a silver color, they are soft steel and are probably already sprung and bending your dropouts further. Investing in "black steel" or Chro-Mo axles will save you troubles from warped/bent axles and are far more resistant to becoming "sprung" than the soft-steel versions on cheaper hubs. I have landed a jump from over 50 feet high without damaging the axle at all. No comment on the frame or the wheel though.....

Misaligned dropouts almost always lead to sprung axles, and in turn bearing failures, so look for a future instructable on frame alignment by me, coming soon. I do not recommend attempting to straighten them on your own because there is a specific method involved to minimize weakening them. A broken dropout while riding can ruin your day in ways you can't imagine, so don't even attempt it without the assistance of a qualified bike-builder. Furthermore, over-correcting when cold-bending metals weakens them twice as much for every bend you make.

Step 8: Final steps

Just as after truing a wheel, you may need to readjust your brakes from scratch. Do not align the wheel to the brakes, align the *axle* to the frame, then align the brakes to the wheel. Check to see that brake pads will not ride into the tire's sidewall, or fall into the spokes at a standstill, then ride to check the same. Any feeling of roughness in the bearings that you can feel at the grips indicates a serious problem, so if you observe that, get off immediately and check the wheel's motion. If you have forgotten to snug the cone to the locknut and it has tightened up, push it home, but with the offending wheel off the ground if possible and recheck your work. With some luck you have not crushed the bearing.

If all is well, pay attention to the hubs for about 30-50 miles and wipe away any excess grease that may ooze out of the seals to prevent attracting more dirt. Keep your hubs free of grass and hair (somehow it'll find it's way from someone's head to wrapped around your axle, it is still an unexplained phenomena in quantum relativity), because they both eat seals like asphalt eats away flesh at 30+mph.

As a further tip, if you dunk your bike (whether off a jump or discovering uncharted water caves in a city-endorsed pothole), you may need to do this service far more often to preserve parts. Salt and lithium don't always play well together, so you sea-side residents may have to do this sooner than the typical 30,000 mile maximum.

Step 9: You are done!

At this point, you should call this a mission accomplished, but if you still have troubles with your wheel bearings, post a response to this project with as much detail as you can and i will try to solve the issue.

I have ridden a mountain bike at over 70MPH regularly on what would be considered "suicide runs", despite being unnatural for it's intended construction. I am a specialist in attempts for the land-speed record for bicycles (and a practiced attempter), so speak up if you have an issue relevant to this project. I'll be glad to hear your queries.

How to Fillet a Fish

Filleting Your Fish

It takes a certain amount of touch to fillet a fish, but expending a little more effort at the cleaning stage is worth it because it means no bones at the eating stage. When you get the hang of filleting, you can zip through a pile of fish pretty quickly, and it gives you a sense of accomplishment that you can do something as well as the old-timers.

Don't worry too much if you don't get absolutely all the meat off the fish when you first start filleting. The idea at the beginning is to get some. If you skin the fish, as recommended, you do not have to scale it first. Obviously, if you are going to use the skin, scale it unless you like to eat scales. Figure 1 shows the basics of filleting a small fish (up to about 5 pounds).

Figure 1: Filleting a small fish.

1. Cut off the head just behind the gills.

2. Hold the fish by the tail. With the knife blade pointing away from you and across the body of the fish, begin to cut toward the head (or at least where the head used to be). Use the backbone to guide your knife.

3. To take the skin off, begin by holding the fillet by the tail, skin side down.

4. Hold the knife crosswise across the fillet and insert the knife between the skin and the flesh. Don't worry if you don't get this perfect at first.

5. While holding the skin, cut in the direction of where the head used to be.

When you have a larger fish, the tail-to-head method of filleting can be a little awkward. In this case opening the fish like a book is an effective method, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Try this technique for filleting larger fish.

Follow these steps (shown in Figure 2) to fillet a larger fish:

1. Make a deep cut just behind the gills (about halfway through the thickness of the fish).

2. Cut a slit a few inches in length along the top of the fish (the dorsal side).

3. Using the tip of the knife, separate the flesh from the bones, as illustrated. The fish should open up just like a book.

4. When completely open, finish cutting away the fillet by moving the knife along the "spine of the book."

The Samurai Squat?

Allegedly this is a guide for how to crap like a real samurai. I have no clue if it's accurate, if they even used stand-up toilets, or anything else. I just like pretending I'm a warrior and figured some of you do too, so I'd post it. Although I always thought crapping like a samurai involved running a mortal enemy through with your sword, then crouching over the hole you just made.

But here is how things really go down:

The method his master taught for relieving oneself had been passed down for generations untold. When one would go to the outhouse, he would remove his right leg fully from his clothes. This was to give him full mobility. Yes, it would be odd to fight someone off when you were on the john, but imagine your feet being tied together when you were attacked on said john vs. your legs moving freely.

Secondly was body position and posture. The samurai would sit squarely on the seat, cross his leg so that his right ankle rested on his left knee (his left foot remained on the ground), place a hand on each knee, then straighten his back. Supposedly this aligns the bowels to help one from having to strain.

Canning Salmon!

This tutorial will show how to can salmon using a pressure canner.  I am using sockeye salmon we catch in a net at the Fraser River.

Step 1: Prepare your jars and scale the fish

Prepare your jars. They don't have to be sterilized, just clean, because they will end up in the pressure canner and be sterilized there. I used six salmon and finished up with 22 half pints and 15 pints. Averaging 5 pints per fish.

Scale the fish. You take a knife and scrape backwards scraping all the scales off. There's a special tool to do this but I've never tried it and after scaling as many fish as I have I'm tempted to buy one. I've viewed it in use online and it looks like it would be quicker and easier on the fingers. Don't worry if you don't get every single scale off, you just need the majority gone.

Step 2: Removing fins

The next thing is to cut off all the fins. You can do this first if you like and sometimes I do :) There are two fins on the sides, one fin on the bottom and two fins on the top, five in total. I cut the tails off when I clean the fish so that's already gone. Make sure the fish is clean. I save all those fins and little bits to can for catfood so don't throw them out if you have a cat!

Step 3: Top fin

Use a good sharp knife.

Step 4: Cutting your salmon

I use a meat cleaver and it works great for slicing and cutting right through the backbone.  I cut my salmon steaks to fit. I also place them into the jar "skin side in," most books say "skin side out," but I don't like the look or how they stick in the jar after processing. Bones, skin, and all, go into the jar, those bones will soften later by adding vinegar and the processing.

Step 5: Packing your jars

Pack tightly into jars, leaving about a 1 inch head space, I estimate this and it doesn't have to be perfect, just close.  Here's a bit skinnier pieces in a half pint jar, tightly packed.

Step 6: Course salt

After all your jars are filled it's time to add course salt.  Do NOT use table salt!
1 TEASPOON for PINTS
1/2 TEASPOON for HALF PINTS

Step 7: Add vinegar (optional)

This step is purely optional.  I like to add vinegar to soften the bones.  It's the same measurements as the salt.
1 TEASPOON for PINTS
1/2 TEASPOON for HALF PINTS

Step 8: Cleaning the rims of jars

Take a paper towel that's been dipped in vinegar and wipe the rims of all the jars. Salmon is considered a fatty fish so by doing this you wipe away the oil along with the little bits of stuff stuck to the rim for a better seal. It's extremelyimportant to get those rims clean! I ended up with only one jar not sealed, not bad for as many jars as I did :)

Step 9: Heating your lids

Bring water to a boil in a pot, turn heat off and add as many lids as you need. After 10 minutes place on your clean jars, screw on bands (finger tight, do not over tighten!), and put them in your pressure canner.

Tip:   After adding about two inches of water to my pressure canner I add a few glugs of vinegar because we have hard water and it keeps the white off the jars. Place lid on pressure canner.

Step 10: Pressure Canner

I own an All-American Pressure canner, and my directions say when you see steam allow the canner to vent for 7 minutes but follow the directions for your brand of pressure canner.  After venting I place the weight on and after the first rattle (right around 10 lbs of pressure), I turn down the stove and time for 100 minutes, keeping the pressure around 10 lbs throughout. I used to do 90 minutes but guidelines have changed and most newer books will now state 100 minutes (1 hour 40 minutes).

If your pressure drops below 10 lbs guidelines say you must start timing all over again so it's important to keep an eye on it!!

Step 11: Pressure canner

I let my jars sit undisturbed for about 24 hours.  After that remove the rings and wash in warm soapy water.