When the water gets cold, a lot of us in the freediving world go quiet- myself included. The gear gets rinsed and shelved, the dive plans turn into "next year," and by spring we're rebuilding what we let slip. I've been there. But over the last year, I found something that keeps my ocean skills sharp even when I'm nowhere near the water: hot yoga.

I didn't start practicing for freediving. I started because I wanted a place to sweat, stretch, and quiet my head. What I found was a training ground that overlaps with freediving in ways I never expected.

Breath Hold: Learning to Stay Calm When Your Body Wants Out

The urge to breathe in freediving isn't really about oxygen. It's mostly a CO2 signal, and how you respond to it matters more than almost anything. Hot yoga teaches that response in a very hands-on way.

In a 100-degree room, your breathing wants to get fast and shallow. Holding a deep pose while keeping your breath slow and controlled is a daily rehearsal of the same skill: noticing the urge to react and choosing not to. Long exhales, steady nasal breathing, and staying relaxed in a position that feels intense all carry straight over to a dive.

This month, I committed to an October yoga challenge: 20 days of hot vinyasa in 31 days. I was already going to yoga 3 to 6 times a week, but I switched to a different studio that was hosting the challenge. It was higher intensity and hotter than I’m used to (96 degrees, or more when a packed class turns muggy with everyone’s sweat and body heat).

As expected, I struggled in the beginning, to say the least. But my body adjusted, and I learned the true meaning of breathing through the pose. You learn to be in tune with your body when it’s pouring sweat and struggling in the heat while holding a difficult pose. Half-moon is one I have a hard time holding. But when I stay in tune with my body and keep my breath steady, much like staying calm while freediving to conserve oxygen, I can keep up with those difficult flows.

In addition to remaining calm, your endurance increases significantly since your adjusting to fighting for your breath in the heat while maintaining your flow. I notice that my breath holds have gone from 3:05min MAX to up to 3:50min, just since the start of my yoga challenge. That is real short-term progress. 

Mindset: Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

Freediving is as much mental as physical. Your best dives happen when your mind is quiet, and your worst happen when the chatter starts.

Hot yoga trains that quiet. Somewhere around the middle of class, when the heat is up and your legs are shaking, there's a moment where your brain offers every reason to quit. Staying with your breath, relaxing your face and shoulders, and riding it out builds the same mental muscle I rely on at depth. You learn that discomfort passes, and that panic is optional.

Endurance and Recovery

A good practice builds the kind of low-key endurance freediving rewards: strong legs, a stable core, and the ability to move slowly and efficiently without wasting energy. Efficiency is everything underwater, because every unnecessary movement costs you oxygen.

The flexibility work helps just as much. Open hips, a mobile spine, and a flexible chest and rib cage make for a more comfortable duck dive and a more relaxed body on the way down. A looser chest also helps with lung capacity and comfort on a full inhale. And because I'm a big believer in active recovery (it's part of why we carry recovery products at Tide and Two), I love that yoga leaves me feeling restored instead of wrecked.

Heat Tolerance and Body Awareness

Hot yoga also builds something harder to name: body awareness. You get very good at noticing your heart rate, your tension, and the small signals that tell you when you're relaxed versus when you're bracing. In the water, that awareness helps you settle in faster and catch tension before it costs you a dive.

Keeping Your Edge Through the Winter

If cold water isn't your thing, you don't have to lose your progress between seasons. A consistent hot yoga practice keeps your breathing efficient, your body flexible, and your head in the right place, so when the water warms up you're not starting from scratch.

Here's how I'd approach it:

• Go 3-6 times a week. Consistency matters more than intensity.
• Breathe through your nose. Treat every class as breath control practice.
• Stay with the hard poses. That's where the mental training happens.
• Hydrate well before and after. Heat plus dehydration is a bad combination for anyone, especially a diver.
• Pair it with dry breath work like slow, relaxed CO2 tables, practiced safely and separately from class.

A Quick Safety Note

Hot yoga is a complement to freediving, not a replacement for proper training. Never practice breath holds in a heated room, and never practice breath holds in or near water alone. Listen to your body in the heat, take breaks when you need them, and talk to a doctor if you have any health concerns before starting.

Final Thoughts

The ocean will always be the best teacher, but it's not the only one. Hot yoga gave me a way to keep growing as a freediver through the months I'd rather stay warm and dry, and it's changed how I show up in the water. If you're looking for a way to stay connected to the sea in the off-season, give it a try.

See you in the water! Shop the new yoga collection for your hot yoga essentials.