Dry training for freediving is a 30-minute session on dry land: about 8 minutes of relaxed breathing, about 15 minutes of CO₂ work ending in one longer static hold, and 5 to 7 minutes of stretching, done lying down, three times a week. Below is the routine step by step, the safety rules that make it safe to do alone, and how often to repeat it for real gains in the water.
Why dry training transfers to the water
Your body doesn't care whether you hold your breath on a mat or on a reef. CO₂ builds at about the same rate, the urge to breathe arrives the same way, and your brain learns the same lesson: contractions are uncomfortable but not dangerous. That's why dry work carries over so well to spearfishing. What you practise is staying calm, not the setting.
Dry training also removes everything that makes in-water training hard to keep up: travel, conditions, cold and finding a buddy. You can do three sessions a week from home, which is the consistency that changes how a dive feels. It's the foundation layer of our full Freediving Training for Spearfishing: The Complete Program.
What dry training can't do is teach finning, equalization or depth. Treat it as the engine and the water as where you learn to use it.
The safety rules for training breath-holds on land
Dry training is safe because of a few rules. Break them and it isn't.
- Lie down or sit fully supported. You can black out on land too. Lying down means a blackout is a short nap, not a fall onto a table edge.
- Never in water. No bath, no pool, no shower. "Dry" means dry.
- No hyperventilating. Breathe normally and slowly before each hold. Fast breathing hides the warning signs.
- Never while driving, standing or using machinery. Obvious, but people do it at traffic lights.
- Stop if you feel tingling, tunnel vision or confusion. Those signs mean your oxygen is low. Breathe and end the set.
Warm-up: relaxed breathing and a diving-reflex primer
Minutes 0 to 5: relaxed breathing. Lie on your back with your knees bent. Breathe slowly through your nose, letting the belly rise first, then the ribs. Aim for a slightly longer exhale than inhale, roughly 4 seconds in and 6 to 8 out. Let your shoulders, jaw and hands go heavy.
Minutes 5 to 8: two easy warm-up holds. Take a relaxed, comfortable breath (not a forced max) and hold for about 50% of your max, rest two minutes, then hold for about 60%. These warm-up holds trigger the diving reflex, the slower heart rate and narrowed blood vessels that save oxygen, so your later holds feel easier.
A cold, wet cloth on your face during the warm-up holds strengthens the reflex. It's a small trick that makes a noticeable difference.
The main set: CO₂ work and one longer hold
Minutes 8 to 22: a short CO₂ table. Hold for about 50% of your max static each round, starting with 1:45 of rest and dropping 15 seconds every round, for six to eight rounds. If your max is 2:30, that's 1:15 holds with rests going 1:45, 1:30, 1:15 and down from there. You can work the numbers out yourself with our step-by-step guide to making a breath-hold table.
Minutes 22 to 25: one longer static. After three minutes of easy breathing, do one hold at about 75 to 80% of your max. Keep it calm and stop at the point where you'd stop on a dive, not at your absolute limit. This last hold is where you practise staying loose through contractions.
Cool-down stretches and logging the session
Minutes 25 to 30. Finish with gentle stretches for the ribcage: side bends with your arms overhead, a slow twist in each direction, and a few full, easy breaths into the sides of your ribs. Keep them gentle after a breath-hold set; the deeper diaphragm work belongs on its own day.
Then log three things: your table, the time of your long hold, and one word for how it felt (calm, tense, rushed). Over a few weeks that one word tells you more than the numbers. If your holds are getting longer but every session feels "tense", you're pushing too hard.
How many days a week to dry train
Three days a week, with a rest day between hard sessions, is the sweet spot for most spearos. Two sessions keeps you where you are; four or more at full effort usually leaves you flat and stops progress.
Vary the main set across the week: a CO₂ day, an apnea-walk day and an O₂ day train different things and keep the routine fresh. Our guide to how often to do CO₂ and O₂ tables covers the spacing in detail, and an app like Spira (free on Google Play) can generate and time the tables so you can keep your eyes closed.
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