Aerobic Base Training - The Foundation of Your Freediving Season

Have you set your New Year’s resolution for 2025? Are you planning to compete in pool disciplines, explore greater depths, or simply improve and refine your freediving skills?

Here’s the truth: building up your freediving skills takes time, focus and consistency. Depending on your experience, it will require 6–8 months of training to get to the competitive level. And at the core of that journey is base training—a phase lasting 2–3 months that is, in my opinion, the most critical and challenging part of the process.

Skipping base training is like building a house without a foundation. Yet, I’ve seen countless freedivers skip this vital step. Why? Because it can be hard, it’s repetitive, and it demands thinking outside of the box.

The good news? You can accomplish the majority of this training solo—even in a pool. It’s safer than you might think because you train without weights, without a wetsuit, and with breath holds that rarely exceed 25 seconds (and often less, for beginners).

AEROBIC BASE POOL TRAINING SESSION

Here’s an example of the aerobic pool session I completed today in a 50m pool:

1. 20 minutes - Yoga/stretching warm-up
2. 500m freestyle pyramid breathing (short fins):
•  100m breathing every 5 strokes
•  100m breathing every 7 strokes
•  100m breathing every 9 strokes
•  100m breathing every 7 strokes
•  100m breathing every 5 strokes

3. 500m overs/unders:

•  25m DNF (dynamic no fins) + 25m freestyle with 2 hook breaths at the wall

4. 500m underwater sprints (short fins):

•  25m bi-fin sprint + 25m active recovery on the back
•  25m monofin sprint + 25m monofin kick recovery on the back

5. 500m breaststroke kick with kick board:

•  One breath after every 3rd kick 50m / return kicking on the back with arms above the head

6. 10 minutes HIIT:

•  Deep-water interval training

7. 50m cool down

TOTAL POOL TRAINING: 2km / 55 minutes

WHY BASE TRAINING MATTERS

Sessions like this are a fantastic way to kickstart your training season. Why? It helps to:

• Build aerobic capacity specific to freediving
• Improve overall strength and endurance
• Refine your technique
• Enhance lung function
• Develop water awareness by exposing inefficiencies in your movement

It’s not easy at first, but you'll feel the results if you stick with it. As you transition into the next, more specific phase of training, you’ll find that your longer dives in a few months time become smoother, easier, and more enjoyable.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU POOL TRAIN?

I recommend completing a session like this 2–3 times a week. To complement your pool training, incorporate dry static breath holds, gentle strength exercises, and mobility work on land a few times a week. With this combination, you’ll build a rock-solid foundation for freediving success.

READY TO TAKE IT FURTHER?

If this article resonates with you and you’d like to learn more, check out my first and world's most comprehensive course: No Fins, No Worries. Over 12 weeks, you’ll be guided step-by-step through the foundations of training and performance—not just for no fins, but for freediving in general.

Let’s make this your best season yet! 💪🏻💦