TED Talk >> David Blaine: How I hold my breath for 17 minutes?

I started learning about the world-record holder.

His name is Tom Sietas.

And this guy is perfectly built for holding his breath.

He's six foot four. He's 160 pounds.

And his total lung capacity is twice the size of an average person.

I'm six foot one, and fat.

We'll say big-boned.

I had to drop 50 pounds in three months.

So, everything that I put into my body, I considered as medicine.

Every bit of food was exactly what it was for its nutritional value.

I ate really small controlled portions throughout the day.

And I started to really adapt my body.

我开始了解到这个记录的保持者叫Tom Sietas。 这家伙就像是为屏气而生的，他有6尺4，160磅重。 而且他的肺活量是正常人的2倍。我呢，6尺1寸，很胖， 或者可以硬是说成骨架比较大。所以我必须在三个月内减掉50磅。 所有放进我嘴里的东西，我都看作是药物，每一小块食物都按照营养价值需要来吃。 一天内我都保持吃非常小量的食物， 渐渐的我开始保持很好的状态了。

The thinner I was, the longer I was able to hold my breath.

And by eating so well and training so hard, my resting heart-rate dropped to 38 beats per minute. Which is lower than most Olympic athletes.

In four months of training, I was able to hold my breath for over seven minutes.

I wanted to try holding my breath everywhere. I wanted to try it in the most extreme situations to see if I could slow my heart rate down under duress.

我越瘦，就越能长时间屏住呼吸。通过饮食控制搭配艰苦的训练，我的心率下降到每分钟38次，比多数奥林匹克选手都要低。 在4个月的训练，我已经可以屏住呼吸长达7分钟之久。我在任何地方都训练屏气，尝试在极端的环境下屏气，检验是否可以在高压下降低心率。

I decided that I was going to break the world record live on prime-time television.

The world record was eight minutes and 58 seconds, held by Tom Sietas, that guy with the whale lungs I told you about.

I assumed that I could put a water tank at Lincoln Center

and if I stayed there a week not eating, I would get comfortable in that situation

and I would slow my metabolism, which I was sure would help me hold my breath longer than I had been able to do it.

I was completely wrong.

终于我准备好要打破世界纪录，要在黄金时段的电视频道直播。当时的世界纪录是8分58秒，由Tom Sietas保持，我告诉过你们那个家伙有鲸鱼一样大的肺。我设想可以在林肯中心放一个巨型水缸，然后我在那里面先待一个礼拜，并且不吃饭，就会比较适应了，并且新陈代谢也会缓慢下来，我很肯定这样做可以帮我更长时间的屏住呼吸。 显然我完全错了。

I entered the sphere a week before the scheduled air date.

And I thought everything seemed to be on track.

Two days before my big breath-hold attempt, for the record,

the producers of my television special thought

that just watching somebody holding their breath, and almost drowning, is too boring for television.

so, i had to add handcuffs, while holding my breath, to escape from.

this was a critical mistake.

because of the movement i was wasting oxygen.

and by seven minutes i had gone into these awful convulsions.

by 7:08 i started to black out.

and by seven minutes and 30 seconds they had to pull my body out and bring me back. i had failed on every level.

我提前一个礼拜去到中心，感觉一切都渐渐上了轨道，没想到的是，在破纪录憋气尝试的前两天，电视制作人突然觉得光看人憋气，像是快要淹死，对电视节目太过无聊。于是我不得不加上手铐，边屏气边试着挣脱它们。这被证明是个极严重的错误。 开始后我因为挣脱的动作浪费了很多氧气，到第7分钟我已开始可怕的抽搐。到7分08秒时，我开始失去知觉，7分30秒的时候，他们必须把我拉出来进行抢救。我输的一塌糊涂。

Question

1. Why was they adding a challenge of escaping from handcuffs a mistake?
   > He was forced to use additional oxygen while escaping
2. Do do something under duress means
   > to do it under pressure or threat.

So, naturally, the only way out of the slump that I could think of was, I decided to call Oprah.

I told her that I wanted to up the ante and hold my breath longer than any human being ever had.

This was a different record.

This was a pure O2 static apnea record that Guinness had set the world record at 13 minutes.

So, basically you breathe pure O2 first, oxygenating your body, flushing out CO2, and you are able to hold much longer.

I realized that my real competition was the beaver.

所以很自然，我可以想到的唯一可以摆脱消沉的方法，就是去找Oprah。我告诉她我要提高赌注，我要屏住呼吸长过所有人。这是个不同的记录，这次是纯氧静止屏气记录，吉尼斯的世界纪录是13分钟。 纯氧静止屏气就是，先吸入纯氧，充沛氧气，排出二氧化碳，然后你就可以屏气更长时间。当时我意识到，我真正的竞争者是 —— 海狸。

In January of '08, Oprah gave me four months to prepare and train.

So, I would sleep in a hypoxic tent every night.

A hypoxic tent is a tent that simulates altitude at 15,000 feet. So, it's like base camp, Everest.

What that does is, you start building up the red blood cell count in your body, which helps you carry oxygen better.

Every morning, again, after getting out of that tent, your brain is completely wiped out.

My first attempt on pure O2, I was able to go up to 15 minutes. So, it was a pretty big success.

08年1月，奥普拉给了我4个月准备和训练。 我每晚睡在低氧舱里，所谓低氧舱就是模拟海拔15000尺的含氧量，跟大本营珠穆朗姆峰似的。这么做的原因是，可以累积体内红细胞的数目，帮助你更好的保存氧气。每个早晨，同样的，从低氧舱里出来时，我的大脑一片空白。 第一次尝试纯氧时，我已经可以屏气15分钟。 这已经算是不小的成功了。

The neurosurgeon pulled me out of the water because in his mind, at 15 minutes your brain is done, you're brain dead.

So, he pulled me up, and I was fine.

There was one person there that was definitely not impressed.

It was my ex-girlfriend.

While I was breaking the record underwater for the first time, she was sifting through my Blackberry, checking all my messages.

My brother had a picture of it. It is really...

当那个神经外科医师把我从水里拉出来时相当震惊，在他看来，15分钟不呼吸你的大脑就完了，脑死亡。可是当他把我拉出来，我却状态良好。当时有一个人是觉得没什么大不了的，就是我的前女友。当我在水下第一次打破纪录时， 她却在翻我的黑莓手机，检查我所有的短信。我哥哥当时拍了张照片。那真的是...

I then announced that I was going to go for Sietas' record, publicly.

And what he did in response, is he went on Regis and Kelly, and broke his old record.

Then his main competitor went out and broke his record.

So, he suddenly pushed the record up to 16 minutes and 32 seconds.

Which was three minutes longer than I had prepared. It was longer than the record.

终于我公开宣布挑战Sietas的记录。他所做的回应，就是在Regis and Kelly节目中，自己打破他以前的记录。然后他的主要竞争者又出来，并再次打破记录。这样，他突然将记录提高到16分32秒，比我所做的准备长出3分钟。你知道，因为这比原来的纪录长。

I wanted to get the Science Times to document this. I wanted to get them to do a piece on it.

So, I did what any person seriously pursuing scientific advancement would do.

I walked into the New York Times offices and did card tricks to everybody.

So, I don't know if it was the magic or the lure of the Cayman Islands, but John Tierney flew down and did a piece on the seriousness of breath-holding.

这下，我打算让科学时代杂志来报道这一切，我希望他们也能参与。于是，我做了任何一个严谨探索科学发展的人都会做的事，我走进纽约时报的办公室，给每个人表演纸牌魔术。我不知道是魔术的原因还是开曼群岛的引诱， John Tierney被说服了， 还写了一篇论屏住呼吸之严重性的报道。

While he was there, I tried to impress him, of course.

And I did a dive down to 160 feet, which is basically the height of a 16 story building, and as I was coming up, I blacked out underwater, which is really dangerous; that's how you drown. Luckily, Kirk had seen me and he swam over and pulled me up.

当他在那儿的时候，我试图给留下他深刻印象。于是我猛地下潜了160尺，大概有16层楼那么高。可我在上浮过程中，昏了过去， 那是相当危险的。那就是人们如何溺水的。 幸运的是克尔克看到我，他游过去把我救了上来。