Uncover Your
Freedive
Fitness
Profile
Know your body, train precisely, and reach your next breath-hold milestone with confidence.
The Science of Better Freediving
Our Freedive Fitness Assessment — the first of its kind in freediving — uses three targeted, sports-science-based tests to reveal exactly how your body performs under a breath-hold.
The result is your Freedive Fitness Profile — a clear, personalised breakdown of the type of diver you are, your strengths and limitations, and the specific training that will unlock your next level of performance.
The three tests evaluate and provide insights into: Your Apnea Engine Archetype, Your CO2 Sensitivity, and Endurance Profile.
Your archetype reflects how your body, mind, and nervous system handle the demands of sustained diving. We call it your apnea engine — because it’s how your internal systems “run” underwater. Understanding your archetype is a real game-changer for performance.
CO2 sensitivity tells us whether your body is over-reacting or under-reacting to CO2, potentially triggering your nervous system and an unnecessary fight-or-flight response. Limiting your diving potential.
Endurance ability tells us how well you can handle volume and whether your maximum is being held back or fully supported by general fitness and muscular endurance.
Struggling in the Pool? Here's Why You Need This:
Two divers can follow the exact same training and get completely different results. Why? Because freediving performance isn’t just about effort — it’s about how your body responds to breath-holding and which systems need the most development.
Stop Guessing. Start Diving Better.
O₂ Limits & Hypoxia – Finally understand why your breath-hold ends too soon and how to safely push further.
CO₂ & Lactic Acid – Reduce discomfort, delay fatigue, and train smarter, not harder.
Stamina & Endurance – Target the exact systems that keep you going longer, without wasted effort.
Mental Blocks & Control – Gain insight into your urge-to-breathe response and master focus under pressure.
Training Plateaus – Break through personal bests with drills, distances, and intensities that actually work.
Test 1: Apnea Engine Archetype
Which Freediving Archetype Are You? — Balanced, Pusher, Spiker, Cruiser
In dynamic freediving, most freedivers fall into one of four ‘apnea engine’ archetypes. Your archetype reflects how your body, mind, and nervous system handle the demands of sustained diving. We call it your apnea engine — because it’s how your internal systems “run” underwater.
The Balanced
...
The Pusher
You push hard, fight through discomfort, and hit limits fast — but it may be holding you back.
Signs you might be a Pusher:
Contractions hit early
Progress feels like pure effort
Training leaves you drained
Inconsistent performance
Find out and uncover more metres for less effort
The Spiker
Sudden jumps from easy to extreme? You might be a Spiker.
Signs you might be a Spiker:
Small effort = big discomfort
Dives feel either easy or brutal
Struggle to find your middle pace
Find out and gain control.
The Cruiser
Effortless in training, but hitting a sudden wall when it counts.
Signs you might be a Cruiser:
Most dives feel easy… until you hit your limit
Struggle with top-end intensity or hypoxia
Unsure how to safely push past your comfort zone
Find out and unlock your full potential.
Test 2: CO2 Sensitivity
Is your reaction to CO2 helping you, or holding you back?
Through targeted exercises, we measure your CO₂ response, giving you a sensitivity score from low to high. This shows whether your body and nervous system are reacting normally, over-reacting, or under-reacting to rising CO₂ levels—and provides guidance on the optimal training intensity to safely and effectively build your CO₂ tolerance.
Test 3: Endurance Type
Could you unlock extra metres with smarter training?
By testing your endurance with a set number of dives and repetitions, we identify whether you’re an “All-Rounder,” “One-and-Done,” or “Endurance Machine.” This reveals the most effective training strategies to help you gain more metres with less effort.
More Targeted. Backed by Data.
Your personalised Freedive Fitness Profile shows exactly where you need to focus, factoring in your diver archetype, CO2 sensitivity, and endurance type. With targeted exercises, precise metrics, and recovery plans, you’ll train smarter, fix weaknesses, and see real progress in the pool.
Tested against data from 100+ athletes, this is your shortcut to breaking personal bests. Don’t wait—your next level starts now.
What's Inlcuded:
We'll test your performance and take a deep dive into your results
Starting with a diver questionnaire, we will gather personal information about your current freediving performance and then provide you with a personalised assessment, including three key Tests to assess your diving efficiency and effectiveness.
Diver Questionnaire
Test 1: Apnea Engine Archetype
Test 2: CO2 Sensitivity
Test 3: Endurance Type
We'll uncover your Freedive Fitness Profile & what you need to do to improve
Uncovering insights into your strengths, weaknesses, and what might be negatively impacting your progress. You will receive a detailed yet easy-to-understand report with your Freedive Fitness Profile. Helping you to understand how to adapt your physiological and psychological systems to improve performance.
Personalised Report
Insights into Your Freedive Fitness Profile
We'll give you level-specific training recommendations
We provide 3 targeted dynamic apnea exercises tailored to your needs, with volume, recovery, and distance adjusted to improve your specific weaknesses and help you move confidently toward your goals. You’ll also get a clear overview of how to train individually, including recommended volumes, recovery strategies, distances, and key exercises to maximise your progress.
Personalised Insight
Training Advice to maximise your next training cycle
Training Exercises - 3 must-do, plus recommendations on general training.
Meet Your Coach:
Nathan Vinski
CMAS & AIDA Freediving Instructor, Coach & Ex-Competitive Diver.
Nathan Vinski is a world-renowned freediving coach and competitive freediver, featured in Netflix's “The Deepest Breath” and The Depth Collector (1) by Anthony Feoutis. The brains behind Train Freediving books, courses, and the Apnea Fitness training programmes. He's been a leading voice in freedive education for almost ten years.
Having trained a global squad of competitive freediving athletes to professional success and taught freediving courses worldwide, his mantra is “train smarter, not harder”, and the results speak for themselves.
Get in touch
Drop us a message with any questions. We're here to help.
About:
Train Freediving is a global leader in freediver training and education. Providing freediving courses, coaching, and digital training in Wales, the UK, and worldwide. Our approach is simple: learn to freedive comfortably and confidently – and have fun doing it! As the premier CMAS-affiliated education provider in the UK, you can trust that when it comes to learning about the sport of freediving, there's no one better to guide you.
