Swimmer films himself holding his breath for over five minutes has people saying he's 'not human'

People are flooding to social media in awe of a swimmer holding their breath for over five minutes.

Given how out of puff I get when I'm forced to speed up my walk into a slight jog to try and catch the bus, I certainly don't fancy my chances holding my breath underwater. However, one swimmer has managed to do it for a staggering five minutes plus.

It's probably a good point to warn not to try this at home and go and consult with an experienced swimmer or free diving expert if looking to develop such a skill. Prepare to feel panicked for them:

The typical human can hold their breath between 30 to 90 seconds, according to BBC's Science Focus.

However, many swimmers or people interested in free diving, have trained themselves to be able to hold it for longer.

The skill comes with patience, practice and control of one's breathing alongside a great deal of not freaking out at the idea of being underwater and not able to breathe.

And one athlete has sent social media users' heads swimming with their gobsmacking time.

How long can you hold your breath for underwater? (Getty Stock Images/ Stanislaw Pytel)

A video posted to X by Non Aesthetic Things - @PicturesFoIder - shows a swimmer going underwater with 'no warm-up' to see how long they can hold their breath for.

As the timer ticks on, the swimmer goes through a 'contraction' at around one minute 17 seconds.

Free diving training company Apnetica explains: "Contractions are involuntary muscle contractions related to breathing, especially of the diaphragm, which occur as the body's response to the increasing level of carbon dioxide (CO²) in the blood during breath-holding'.

"These muscle contractions can be felt as discomfort, burning, or even unpleasant pressure in the chest and throat area," it adds.

The swimmer has to try and remain as relaxed as possible for the contraction to pass and does so successfully, with the video showing them only coming back up for air after a whopping five minutes and 15 seconds.

And it's not taken long for people to flood to the comments in awe.

The swimmer even does a lap at the end for good measure (X/ @PicturesFoIder)

One X user wrote: "Bro has never touched a vape in his life."

"Those open ocean free divers are the real athletes of this world," another added.

And a third commented: "No way is he human."

And you'll be even more gob-smacked to know that five minutes 15 isn't even the world record, a man named Budimir Šobat achieving the world record for breath-holding underwater on 27 March 2021 with a time of 24 minutes and 37 seconds.

Topics: Health, Mental Health, Science, Social Media, Twitter, Sport

Poppy Bilderbeck

Poppy Bilderbeck is a Senior Journalist at LADbible Group. She graduated from The University of Manchester in 2021 with a First in English Literature and Drama, where alongside her studies she was Editor-in-Chief of The Tab Manchester. Poppy is most comfortable when chatting about all things mental health, is proving a drama degree is far from useless by watching and reviewing as many TV shows and films as possible and is such a crisp fanatic the office has been forced to release them in batches.