Question

1. Cheryl is a swimmer and before she swims a sprint event she voluntarily hyperventilates so she can hold her breath longer. Why might this practice work for sprint swimmers?   Would it be beneficial for a distance swimmer—why or why not?

Answer 1

In case of Cheryl she is a sprinter swimmer. She needs to cover her distance in a short time. Fi that she need more oxygen. So when she hyperventilate the the air that be exhaled is completely removed from the lungs. This leads to the reduction in carbon dioxide in the blood and then if she she holds her breath it will lead to the rise in oxygen level in the blood stream. Thus oxygen availability increases and she can sprint fast.

This is not good for long distance swimmers. They need consistency than speed. If they use this method initially it may help them. But they can hold breath for long time. So they will not know about the oxygen depletion and stimulate a breath. Our bodysystem can't identify the level of oxygen but can respond to the level of CO2. So oxygen depletes faster than CO2 develop in the blood stream. Thus they fail to stimulate breath and may lead to blackout. It's a serious problem. Getting blackout in water may take their life.