There might just be a real person who displays superhuman abilities under water.
That man, 39-year-old Stig Severinsen, just set a world record for holding his breath under water for a lung-burning 22 minutes.
The record leaves the Denmark native's previous underwater world-record performance of 20 minutes, 10 seconds, in the dust. According to Gadling, though, Stig earned his earlier achievement while submerged in a fish tank full of sharks. Under those conditions, who wouldn't burn through air reserves a little faster?
To be fair, reports The Post Game, the accomplishment required some outside assistance: before holding his breath, he breathed pure oxygen piped into a respirator in the pool.
Unlike the venue for his earlier performance (see "shark tank," above), this record was set in a dive training pool with the temperature dialed down to 30 degrees. Stig has also learned to drop his resting heart rate to "well below" 30 beats per minute while submerged, which slows the rate at which he burns oxygen.
In an interview on Reddit, Stig explained he also uses calming techniques he terms "meditation under water." The method involves recalling childhood memories and focusing on imprinted mental imagery -- in his case, images of dolphins and sharks.
To be fair, reports The Post Game, the accomplishment required some outside assistance: before holding his breath, he breathed pure oxygen piped into a respirator in the pool.
Unlike the venue for his earlier performance (see "shark tank," above), this record was set in a dive training pool with the temperature dialed down to 30 degrees. Stig has also learned to drop his resting heart rate to "well below" 30 beats per minute while submerged, which slows the rate at which he burns oxygen.
In an interview on Reddit, Stig explained he also uses calming techniques he terms "meditation under water." The method involves recalling childhood memories and focusing on imprinted mental imagery -- in his case, images of dolphins and sharks.
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