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Week 9 [11.12 - 17.12.2017] Holding the breath for 17 minutes!

David Blaine is an illusionist and a showman with a worldwide reputation. And in 2014, after 4 months of training on a special system, he set a world record for holding breath under water: 17 minutes 4 seconds. It's worth saying that Blaine demonstrated more difficult  "tricks". He was buried alive, he "levitated", disappeared, burned, etc. And there are enough documentaries about him already. Personally, I was never a big fan of him, but after this video, I became really interested in his performances. His tricks cannot be called just "street magic". In a very personal speech at the TEDMED conference, he talks about what he went through in order to set a world record and hold the breath under the water for 17 minutes (only three minutes shorter than the performance!), As well as that for him it means his work on the verge of life and death. 
If you are interested, I also recommend seeing a video about how David Blaine "barfs frogs": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPE928xUKL4

Questions:
1. Have you ever heard about David Blaine or this stunt?
2. What's your opinion on pushing the limits of the human body?
3. What's your personal record for holding the breath?


Comments

Anonymous said…
When it comes to me I have never heard about this man.
In my opinion it's great that people push their limits not only when it comes to holding breath but generally human body limits.
Actually I have never tested myself in holding breath but I think it would be just a few seconds.
Unknown said…
I have never heard about David Blaine. Last time I read that record in holding breath under water is 20min. Maybe I'm wrong or I read false infomration. Nevermind. I don't watch any illusionists on TV because TV can make everything and I think TV programs with illusionists are false. I don't know how big his lungs must be but I think they are big. My record in holding breath under water is maybe 2 min. I don't know how he can hold it for 17min .

Unknown said…
I've never heard of David Blaine but to stay under water for 17 minutes is unbelievable. When I went to elementary school I swam for 6 years. then I stood under water for about 4 minutes and it was a feat for me
Unknown said…
David Blaine - he is the best wizard :) I heard about him when I was a kid.
I think if you training and improve your body then you will overcome standards how to did David Blaine.
My personal record is 1min ....
Yevhen Shymko said…
Heard about him first time when I was a child but actually haven't seen a lot of his performances. For me pushing the limit of my body was during a hand-fight training when we had this durability exercises. At thet moment when I realized that the limit is only in my brain it become morally easier to push yourself to the limit. Loved to dive during vacation time and personal record something like 2 minutes or so.
Filip Sawicki said…
Yes I have heard about David Blaine, in fact he used to be quite a big celebrity some time ago. He is/was famous not only from breath holding world record but also bizarre tricks. You can see his “frog tricks” on YouTube where he performs it in front of Drake, Jimmy Kimmel, Beckham and so on… David shows that the limits of human body are very dependent on your own strength of will. I really support his statement that we should always fight to beat our personal records/limits. To do that we should focus not only on our body but also mind, which is the main and hardest obstacle to overcome. I find his speech was touching and motivating, there is a lot of wisdom coming from his experiences. My personal record on holding breath is embarrassingly low, I guess I should practice it more!
Unknown said…
This is the very first time I am finding out about David Blaine and his stunt. I am impressed by the system he's invented and to be honest I am doing exact same things when trying to hold by breath underwater. In my opinion pushing the limits of the human body is exceptionally amazing, because this is how humans have evolved through pushing their limits e.g. against cold few thousands years ago. It doesn't stop on nature, thanks to daily trainings and proper preparation, we are able to see athletes breaking records or people reaching unexplored limits. My personal record for holding the breath is quite shy in comparison with David's one, but ~100 seconds is not that bad.
Unknown said…
If David Blaine wasn't so tricky I could just say "Wow! This guy is awesome!". But do we have any evidence that he hadn't any access to oxygen while he was in a water? Because, you know, it is David Blaine.
But, anyway, he's very focused, calm and hardworking individual. Not a big fan of magic but a huge fan of David Blaine's magic, because it feels like true one :)
Andrzej Gulak said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
I've never heard about David Blane or this stunt.
I think that pushing the limits of the human body is a great idea as long as it doesn't have bad impact on health. Usually specialists may research interesting things when some people do things that noone has ever done before. For example when someone is diving very deep, researcher may discover something related to the blood system and find new cure for a disease.
I think I can hold a breath for a minute but I've never practiced it in my life.
Vladlen Kyselov said…

Yes, I heard about him. Very popular magician and showman. Earlier, I believed that this is what magic, special forces, but now I think that he simply uses some tricks that are inconspicuous to an ordinary person, one who does not engage in tricks. Nevertheless, I like to look at his performances because I still can not understand the peculiarity of his tricks. I've never dealt with this type of record, although I think it's worth a try.
Yea,i heard a lot about this crazy guy on youtube and i was watching his shows on TV. My first meeting with that David Blane - video buried alive - a must thing to watch,breathtaking trick.
I can't say, that this is a human's body push limits that we were witnessed of. It is just an amazing focus, nothing more. It is not even a world record,just nice show to watch.
My record is about 2 minutes under the water.
Marcin Górski said…
I've never heard of David Blaine and his stunt. Holding the breath for 17 minutes? Is it real? Seriously?
People are doing unimaginable things with their body. Look at gymnastics. It's amazing.
My personal record for holding the breath? It's about 1.5 minutes.
Unknown said…
I haven't heard of David Blaine nor his stunt. But I heard David Coppefiled is the best illusionist. I don't think he was pushing to limits his body when he holded his breath. I think it was some trick to make us think he hold his breath. It is impossible not to breathe for mor than 7 minutes. It can cause some serious illness. I don't hold my breathe on purpose, because then I feel uncomfortable.
Foodocado said…
I have never heard about David Blaind before. Pushing limits of the human body is good as long as it doesn't have bad impact on our health. Behind every beaten record there are thousands of hours of hard, daily work. I haven't measured the time for a very long time, but as I remember my record was around 4 min.
Maciej Główka said…
I've heard about world records in holding breath, but I didn't know David Blaind did it. I think it is incredible what we can do with our body. I wonder what will be the record in 10 years from now.
To be honest, I have never measured for how long I can hold my breath. I think it might be between 1,5-2 minutes.
Zygmunt Z said…
I have never heard about David Blaine but I must say that the record is really impressive. I don't mind pushing our bodies to the limits unless it doesn't effect our lifes and doesn't make any serious harm. I have never measured for how long I can hold my breath under water but I think it would somewhere over one minute
Tomasz Morawski said…
The only illusionist I know is David Copperfield, so nope, I don't know him.
It's nice he's trying to push limits of human body. There are still a lot of things about it we don't know, so if he wishes to be guinea pig - that's fine for me.
I've never measured how long I can hold my breath but I'd guess it's about 1-2 minutes.
I have never heard about David Blaine or of any of his stunts. I think it might be dangerous but it's great for us to see what are really human body limits. My personal record for holding the breath is probably about 2 minutes. I know, i'm not good at it.
Unknown said…
I've never heard of this man, probably because there are so many people that do similar things. I enjoy watching people doing inhuman things, like for example Felix Baumgartners jump from the stratosphere or people climbing skyscrapers etc. It is for some reason very entertaining, even though I would never have done anything like this myself.

For an answer on the last question - I don't what my breath-holding record was in minutes, but I know how long it was in metres, as I used to swim the olympic pool (50m length) at Warszawianka on one breath.
Unknown said…
Yes, I have watched some of his videos. I am not sure about how tricky he is, but I like the way he acts - easy and not pathetic. His balancing on the brink is quite interesting, but nobody knows how it really is. I like the stories of pushing the limits of human body, it could be very inspiring, but I don't think I could try to do it myself. In my opinion, each person could do with his life and body whatever he wants, unless it harms anyone else. I have no records in holding my breath, because I don't really like to do it:)
Marcin Mróz said…
I haven't heard about this man and this stunt, but I must admit it's impressive. I've always been bad in holding my breath under water, I've never counted, but I guess I would survive no more than 1 minute or something like that. :D When it comes to pushing the limits of your body, you always have to be very careful to not damage your health and do everything in small steps to achieve your goal. Otherwise it can lead to some serious consequences.
Jakub Lisicki said…
I haven't ever heard about this man. I think that for some people it may be impressive that he can do that. Presonally, I think that it's really dangerous and it shouldn't be attempted at all. I can understand people who love extreme sports and doing some dangerous stunts. It's fun, great to watch. What's the fun in holding breath for 20 minutes though? Showing limits of human bodies is great, but not as a show. It's great as a form of experiments to prove what are we capable of.
The longest I've been holding my breath is around 1 minute when I was diving underwater without any equipment.
I have never heard about David Blaine but he impressed me. Very interesting person.
I think that if someone pushes the limits of his own body intentionally it's fine and people like this was always intrigued me because they can show us that the biggest obstacle is our closed mind.
My personal record for holding the breath is about 1min40sec.
Unknown said…
No, I've never heard about him, but GOD DAMN! 17 minutes? It's insane. Pushing the limits of the human body is amazing. I love all these "People are awesome" videos. Right know I don't know what could be my record.
As a child I was swimming a lot, and I believe it was maybe 2-4 minutes? Something like that.
Unknown said…
1.I have never heard neither about David Blaine nor the stunt described in the talk.
2.I think that pushing the limits of human body is inseparably connected either with passion or with research, sometimes with both. That’s really interesting to observe people doing with their bodies things which we would never think of as possible to human being. This kind of stunts shows how flexible and adaptable human body actually is.
3.I have never measured the accurate time for which I can hold my breath but I think it was something around 1 minute.
Unknown said…
1. Have I ever heard about David Blaine or this stunt? Nope.
2. What's mine opinion on pushing the limits of the human body? Okay. Go right ahead. I personally don't need to do this.
3. What's mine personal record for holding the breath? I have no idea :D
Wojtek Protasik said…
I've never heard about this person and I really don't know how he had to train to achieve such a record. In my opinion if you train you can overcome your body limits, but it requires a lot of hard work and takes a lot of time. Kinda impossible to do this after only 4 months. Magicians however can do a lot of tricks so maybe it's not only the body limit thing behind this.
My personal record under the water is i think about 2 mins.
Unknown said…
I have never heard about David Blaine but I cant imagine 17 minutes without breathing! This is quite interesting. It's all about training. To be honest my personal record is propably about 1 minute, maybe 1:30.
Vyvyan said…
1. I never heard of David Blaine.
2. Pushing the limits of our body it's, in my opinion, ordinary thing for us. We know that our bodies are responsive to many factors so why we shouldn't test our endurance like it is described in talk.
3. I never measured the time I can hold my breath. I think it wouldn't be long (less than a minute or something).
Unknown said…
Never heard about this guy, but his record is impressive. I think that pushing limits was always in our nature. My personal record was something around 2-2,5 minutes. It usually gets better after I snorkle a lot.
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
Unfortunately, I have never heard about David Blaine... Unbelievable how could he hold his breath for 17 minutes... HOW?!this guy is from another planet. In my opinion pushing the limits of the human body should be our goal! Thanks to this, we will become better in everything we do. It seems to me I would hold my breath for about 2 minutes. I think swimming would significantly extend this time.
1. Have you ever heard about David Blaine or this stunt?
It is first time I hear about this guy.
2. What's your opinion on pushing the limits of the human body?
I really love it. It is always about pushing the limits to achieve something. Guy still lives so he is doing it right.
3. What's your personal record for holding the breath?
I think no more than one minute when I was diving and doing underwater movies.
Bartosz Łyżwa said…
I have never heard about this guy but he's very interesing... It's the best example that we have limits only in our heads and there are no limits for us if we don't want them. Achieving new things is a great feeling. I won't be suprised if he tell that he can walk on water :D. I don't know what is my personal record but I think it's possible to hold a breath for a 1,5 min for me.
Patryk Pohnke said…
I have never heard about David Blaine.
Surely it is a good think to push the limits of our bodies. It requires a lot of preparations and trainings, which also helps our minds. However, I believe that at some point pushing the limit is becoming unhealthy. Situation of holding breath for so long just simply have to damage the brain somehow. Of course it is only my opinion and I'm not even a specialist in this matter. That is why I admire David even more, cause after the breaking the record he allowed medics to gather as many data as they could just to help science investigate human organism behaviour in critical conditions.
It is something around 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
I have heard about David Blaine, but I haven’t seen any of his stunts ever before. I think that it’s really cool that people push the limits of the human body. I think that we push some limits every day and that is the reason we are constantly expand our possibilities. I don’t really know what is my record, I haven’t tested it since I was 15.
I must admit, assuming it's real then it's pretty good achievement. I didn't hear of this guy before because I'm not really interested in watching illusionists, but he got my attention. Thanks for interesting video.
Unknown said…
I've heard about the record but I haven't known the man that did it. I admire people like that just because I would never try to do anything even remotely similar. It requires too much effort on my part and I have never been good with devoting to just one thing.
My record is 2 minutes 53 seconds. I am proud of it. Especially that now I can only do it for around 1.5 ;/
Unknown said…
I have never heard about him and his achievements. I think that is is awesome that people always try to push their limits and it is reason why we achieve so much progress in e.g. technology but not also in any part of our existance. I don't have a personal record in holding breath because I have never measure it. I think that it is less than 30 seconds.
Ive never heard about this man before neither ive heard about this stunt or at least i dont remember hearing about it. Ive read couple articles in the past on breathing pure Oxygen in order to boos body capabilities such as stamina and being able to dive longer.
Curiosity is followed by ambition, ambition is followed by madness - there is nothing wrong in exploring humans body limits as long as we dont cross the line to madness. What would be madness ? For example artificial implants to our body.
Before i started smoking i could hold breath for 3 minutes underwater. It always fascinated me how low is our control over our bodies.
I’ve never heard of him but this is sick! 17 minutes wow! My record is like couple of seconds. I’m not the one for pushing limits of my body. I guess I like to challenge myself when it comes to sport but I always play it safe.
Unknown said…
Never heard of David Blaine, unfortunately. There are plenty such magicians around youtube and I don't trust them. Puhsing human body to the limits is something done by many people for different reasons. It can be pretty dangerous so yeah. I don't have a personal record fo holding my breath.
Unknown said…
I Have never heard about David Blaine but it looks like guy who train a lot how hold your breathe and manage your body to be better then other people. I like guys like this because they have a goals in their life and try to achive it. I wish him good luck.
1. I’ve never heard, neither about David nor this stunt. Maybe that’s why I’m not looking forward to have such information, because I am not fond of illusionists and this kind of show.
2. I am strictly for pushing the limits of the human’s body. Of course, nobody can be allowed to force other people to do so. It must be integral decision for everybody of its own. As for me, I like doing things, which look impossible in the beginning. The perfect example is jogging, where I push my limits systematically. I started from 10 km distance I made during sport event organized in my city 5 years ago - without earlier preparation. Since then I’ve taken part in many running events, I also started do regular trainings. My limit at the moment is half-marathon distance, which I made several times. Now I dream about making marathons in reasonable time.
3. I haven’t tried to practice this. This is a kind of pushing limits activity not tempting me at all, unfortunately. It can be useful, for example while swimming, but I don’t like such feeling such discomfort of existence. Not for me, definitely.

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