How Long Can a Human Hold Their Breath

Interestingly enough, among mammals, humans have the least lung capacity for holding a single breath. Most of us without any specialized training, such as deep sea diving, can't even make it to three minutes without passing out. The current world record for holding one's breath is held by deep sea diver , Tom Siestas, who can hold his breath for nine minutes! The rest of us shallow breathers have a very limited maximum lung capacity that we reach whenever we take a breath so deep that we can't suck anything else in. Deep sea divers learn how to max out their lung capacity and then fit even more air into the mouth area to extend the breath holding process. This can be learned over time and under safe precautions only.