Yoga for Freediving: Asanas for Ribs, Hips and Shoulders

Yoga for freediving works best as targeted mobility training: asanas that open the ribcage and upper back, free the hips and ankles for finning, and release the neck and shoulders so you can hold a streamlined position without strain. A 25-minute routine three or four times a week does more for most divers than an occasional 90-minute class. This post sticks to postures. Yogic breathing is a separate subject, and we cover what it can and can’t do in pranayama and freediving.

What freedivers need from yoga, and what they don’t

Freediving asks for a particular kind of flexibility. You need:

• A mobile ribcage and upper back, so a full breath feels comfortable and your chest copes better with the squeeze of depth. Poor chest flexibility is one of the factors often linked to lung squeeze.
• Open hip flexors and flexible hamstrings, because a good kick comes from the hip with long, fairly straight legs.
• Ankles that point, so the fin blade lines up with your leg instead of angling down into the water.
• Free shoulders and a relaxed neck, so your arms can rest overhead and your head can stay neutral without effort.
• The ability to relax on cue, which a regular yoga practice trains quietly in the background.

You don’t need the splits, photogenic backbends or a heated studio. Forcing extreme ranges is an easy way to get hurt, and arriving dehydrated on a dive day is the opposite of what you want.

Asanas for the ribcage and thoracic spine

These are the poses that matter most for depth. Move into them slowly, and breathe into the area you’re stretching.

Side bends

• Parighasana (gate pose): kneel, extend one leg out to the side and reach the opposite arm overhead. Feel the side ribs open on each inhale.
• Trikonasana (triangle): keep the chest open and the side body long, rather than straining for the floor.

Gentle backbends

• Bhujangasana (cobra): keep the elbows bent and lift from the upper back, not by crunching the lower back.
• Setu Bandhasana (bridge): opens the chest and the front of the hips together.
• Supported Matsyasana (fish): lie back over a block or rolled blanket placed under your shoulder blades, and let gravity open the chest.

Twists

• Ardha Matsyendrasana (seated half twist): rotate from the ribs, keeping the spine tall.
• Supine twist: lie on your back, drop both knees to one side and breathe into the ribs on the other side.

Asanas for hips, legs and ankles

Efficient finning starts at the hip, as our guide to freediving finning technique explains. Tight hip flexors from long days at a desk shorten your kick and pull you into a bent-knee bicycle.

• Anjaneyasana (low lunge): sink the hips forward and let the hip of the back leg drop gently towards the floor.
• Supta Padangusthasana (reclining hand-to-big-toe pose): lie on your back with a strap around one foot. It stretches the hamstrings without loading the lower back.
• Vajrasana (thunderbolt pose): kneeling on the tops of your feet stretches the front of the ankles, which helps you point your toes. Sit on a folded blanket, and skip it if your knees object.

Asanas for the neck and shoulders

A streamlined position needs arms that rest comfortably beside your head and a neck that isn’t fighting to look forward.

• Uttana Shishosana (puppy pose): from all fours, walk your hands forward and let your chest sink towards the floor.
• Gomukhasana arms (cow face): use a strap between your hands if they don’t meet behind your back.
• Garudasana arms (eagle): a good release for the upper back between the shoulder blades.
• Gentle neck releases: ear towards shoulder, slow and unforced, a few breaths each side.

Uddiyana bandha: useful, with caution

Uddiyana bandha is an abdominal lock done after a full exhale. With the breath out and the throat closed, you expand the ribs as if inhaling, so the belly draws in and up under the ribcage. Freedivers use it, along with similar diaphragm stretches, to make the diaphragm and lower ribs more flexible, which can make depth more comfortable.

It is also an exhale hold, so treat it with respect:

• Do it on an empty stomach, sitting or standing, on land.
• Hold for a few seconds at first, and release the belly before you breathe in.
• Stop if you feel dizzy or light-headed.
• Skip it if you’re pregnant, have a hernia or have had recent abdominal surgery, and ask your doctor first if you have heart or blood pressure problems.
• Learn it from an experienced teacher or freediving instructor, and agree with your instructor how close to a dive you should do it.

Safety: Uddiyana bandha and other exhale holds belong on land, on an empty stomach, on a mat. Never practise them in water, never combine them with kapalbhati or any other fast breathing, and stop at the first sign of dizziness.

Our post on stretching for freediving covers diaphragm and full-exhale stretches in more depth.

A 25-minute yoga routine for freedivers

Order	Pose	Target	Time
1	Cat-cow (Marjaryasana-Bitilasana)	Spine warm-up	2 min
2	Puppy pose	Shoulders, upper back	1.5 min
3	Low lunge	Hip flexors	1 min each side
4	Gate pose	Side ribs	1 min each side
5	Triangle	Side body, hamstrings	45 sec each side
6	Cobra, three rounds	Upper back extension	2 min
7	Bridge, three rounds	Chest, front of hips	2 min
8	Cow face arms	Shoulders	1 min each side
9	Seated half twist	Ribs, spinal rotation	1 min each side
10	Reclining hand-to-big-toe	Hamstrings	1 min each side
11	Thunderbolt pose	Ankles	1.5 min
12	Supported fish	Chest, ribs	2 min
13	Savasana with a body scan	Relaxation	3 min

The final savasana isn’t optional. A slow body scan, as described in our post on relaxation techniques for freediving, links the mat to the calm you want before a dive.

Fitting yoga into a freediving week

• Practise in the morning during Indian summers, before the heat makes everything harder, or in an air-conditioned room in the evening.
• Keep pre-dive yoga light. Before a pool session, ten minutes of cat-cow, side bends and shoulder circles is plenty.
• Tell your yoga teacher you freedive. Ask for help with chest, side-body and hip work, and say no to anything that feels forced. Iyengar-style props (blocks, straps, bolsters) are ideal for stiff divers.
• Use head-down positions for ear practice. Lying with your legs up a wall, or hanging in a gentle forward fold, is a good position for equalisation drills with a nose clip, because it mimics being head-down on a descent.
• On trips, use rest days for a longer, gentler session instead of skipping movement altogether.

Your first two weeks on the mat

Before you start, take a simple measure: stand side-on to a wall, slide one hand down the outside of your thigh in a side bend, and note where your fingertips stop. Do the 25-minute routine three or four times a week for two weeks, then measure again. Many people notice their breath feels freer before the measurement changes much.

Stay tuned for the freediving.in community, launching soon.