Equalisation Exercises You Can Practise at Your Desk

You can train most of your equalisation on land. Simple equalization exercises with a nose clip teach the separate movements of the glottis, soft palate and tongue that make up a Frenzel, so in the water you only have to put them together. Five to ten minutes a day at your desk, in the back of a cab or before bed is enough for most people to feel a difference within a few weeks.

That is good news if you live in Delhi, Hyderabad or Pune and see the sea twice a year. Your ears don’t need the ocean to learn this.

Why dry practice carries over to the water

Equalising is coordination, not strength. You are learning to move muscles you have never controlled on purpose: the back of the tongue, the soft palate, the small door at the top of the windpipe. On land you can focus on one movement at a time, with no breath-hold, no cold water and no mask pressing on your face.

The water then becomes the place where you test the skill rather than the place you try to find it. Our wider guide to freediving training at home covers the rest of what you can do away from the coast.

What you need

• A swimming nose clip, or your thumb and finger
• A small mirror (your phone’s front camera works)
• A timer
• A bed or sofa for the head-down drills
• Optional: your freediving mask, to practise pinching through the nose pocket

No special device is needed for any of the core drills.

Drills for the glottis and soft palate

Find your glottis

Say “uh-oh” slowly and stop in the middle. That catch is your glottis closing. Now take a normal breath in, close the glottis and try to breathe out through your open mouth. Nothing should move. Hold it for five seconds, release, and repeat ten times. Your shoulders and belly stay relaxed throughout.

Open and close the soft palate

Hum “mmm” with your lips together: air flows through your nose, so the soft palate is open. Now puff your cheeks and blow against closed lips: no air goes through your nose, so it is closed. Alternate the two slowly, ten times. Then open your mouth in front of the mirror, say “ahh” and watch the uvula lift. That is your soft palate moving.

The K-lock cheek hold

Puff your cheeks with air and keep them full while you breathe slowly in and out through your nose for 30 seconds. To do this, the back of your tongue has to seal against the soft palate, separating the air in your mouth from your airway. It feels odd at first. Build up to 60 seconds. This one also lays the groundwork for mouthfill equalisation later on.

Drills for the tongue piston

Silent K pulses

Pinch your nose, close your glottis and make a “K” movement with no sound, so the back of the tongue lifts up and back. Do three sets of ten, gently. You may feel pressure behind your nose or a click in your ears. If you only feel pressure in your mouth, hum for a second and try again.

Cheek-to-ear transfer

Puff your cheeks, pinch your nose, close your glottis and use your tongue to send the cheek air up into your nose until your ears click. Your cheeks should soften as the air moves. This is the clearest proof that you can equalise without your lungs.

Equalise on a relaxed exhale

Breathe out normally, without forcing, then do a Frenzel. With less air in your chest, any habit of pushing from the lungs becomes obvious, while a tongue piston feels exactly the same. Our step-by-step Frenzel guide explains what to check if it doesn’t.

Practising head-down on your bed

Most equalisation problems show up when you go head-first, so practise there.

1. Lie on your back across your bed with your head and shoulders hanging over the edge.
2. Let your head relax back so you are upside down from the shoulders up.
3. Do five gentle Frenzels, pausing between each.
4. Sit up slowly, rest for a minute, and repeat once or twice.

For something closer to a real descent, try it lying face-down with your head over the edge, which puts your neck in a more dive-like position. Keep these sessions short. Being upside down is surprisingly tiring for the neck.

Safety: These drills involve no breath-holds and belong on land. Don’t combine head-down practice with breath-hold tables, and skip it if you have high blood pressure, eye-pressure problems such as glaucoma, or feel dizzy. Don’t practise equalising with a cold or ear pain, and see an ENT if your ears stay blocked.

Nasal balloon devices: useful or not?

Nasal autoinflation balloons are small medical devices, often used for children with fluid behind the eardrum. You seal a nozzle against one nostril and inflate a balloon through your nose. Some freedivers use them as feedback while learning to move air into the nasal cavity.

They are not essential. The main risk is inflating the balloon with a big chest push, which trains exactly the Valsalva habit you are trying to lose. If you do use one, aim to move air with your tongue and a closed glottis, don’t worry if the balloon barely moves at first, and check with an ENT beforehand, especially if you have had ear problems.

A 10-minute daily routine

Minutes	Drill	Notes
0 to 1	Glottis holds	10 holds of 5 seconds
1 to 2	Soft palate open and close	Hum, then puffed-cheek blow, 10 of each
2 to 4	K-lock cheek hold	2 holds of 30 to 60 seconds, breathing through the nose
4 to 6	Silent K pulses	3 sets of 10, nose pinched
6 to 7	Cheek-to-ear transfer	5 slow reps
7 to 8	Frenzel on a relaxed exhale	5 reps, hand on belly
8 to 10	Head-down on the bed	2 rounds of 5

The first four drills are discreet enough for an office desk or a metro ride, as long as you don’t mind the occasional puffed-cheek look from the next seat. Save the head-down part for home.

Once the routine feels easy, some divers start experimenting with hands-free equalisation, opening the tubes with no pinch at all. It is optional, and not everyone can learn it.

Taking the drills to the pool

After two or three weeks, test what you have built. In the deep end, with a buddy watching from the edge, go down feet-first along the wall or a ladder, equalising every half metre. Then try a slow head-first descent. If something works on land and not in the water, the gap is usually tension or speed rather than the technique itself.

Our post on pool training for freedivers covers how to set up sessions safely in a busy public pool. If you are wondering how much of this can be coached over a screen, we wrote an honest piece on online freediving training. The freediving.in community for Indian freedivers is coming soon, so stay tuned.