Thank you so much, Adam, for your encouraging words! :D

Thank you for your compliments! :)

Karan, you and ALovely, inspired me. I was slightly worried that I was plagiarising both your ideas and good instruction on how to do it. I wouldn't have figured out that the tongue was a route to the Eustachian tubes if not for the two of you.

You're welcome, Tom! The test to check if this works on dry land is to create a vacuum in your ears (artificial pressure) by pinching your nose and swallowing, hence sucking out air from here ears. You will feel it. And now, you try the steps. :) This is one of the best way so far on land to test if you opened your Eustachian tubes :)

Well done, Dennis!

Try my test. Pinch your nose, and swallow, to suck out the air from your ears, you will feel a vacuum, like your ears are block (and you have pressure on it). And now, try the manoevre. If it unblocks, it worked. If it does not unblock, it did not work.

@@equalizationgym thank you! I don't seem to be able to do the jolt, but I'll keep on trying. Thank you for sharing this!

​@@GraduadoFigoTo do that jolt, do you require some tongue awareness and strength. Yes, play around with it and see if you can do some tongue flexibility and strengthening exercises like what I share in the two links below if you have time. They may help! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d9xdn9SKmLbQZ40.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aZOBptKTsrqrlKM.html And when it works, you will hear it. It is a very clear sound of something opening. All the best! :)

@@equalizationgym thank you! I'll have a look! All the best from Greece!

It is not exactly the same, but it is as you said. The pool is much more gentler with the hands free. It is like a release of a valve to allow for air transfer, compared to the pushing of a piston of the Frenzel, that is a much stronger force. For the Frenzel, you feel the middle ear fills up until it pops, but the handsfree feels more like a gentle release.

Hi Johnny, I just googled patulous Eustachian tubes and they say the tubes are constantly open as the valves are not working. If this is correctly diagnose for you, you don't even need to learn equalisation as your ears will do it all the time for you. In your case, what you need to be careful of when freediving is ensuring no barotrauma at all to avoid infection of your ears. It means that for you, there is no barrier between the middle ear and nasal cavity, so if you have any damage, like burst vessels or bacterial infection, it's a freeway through both ways. I would say go conservatively, free and slowly, to test what you are capable and never push to never put yourself in an unexpected situation to protect your ears. You don't need to equalise but you will need to be protective of your health and inner body. Imagine if your ear drums ever burst, the sea water will go all the way into your nose and mouth, the valve is not there to protect you.

Yes.

It's like pushing it back in a sudden movement. So even though you put your hands together, for example, and they are touching, you still can push your two hands together to exert a stronger force against each of them. So it's like you put your tongue there and then you contract it back even more in one swift action.

I have managed to self-teach myself to hands free down to 52 meters. Check out: therapystop.wordpress.com/learning-to-hands-free-equalize/ It's confirm possible to learn. Do it step-by-step. First learn to do it on land. Then do it in water when it's easy for you to do on land. I have many friends who could hands free equalize at first, but eventually learned how to do it. It may take time, more for some than others, but definitely feasible.

Hi, I think there are some things you can observe and test to examine your asymmetry of function. For example: 1. Try to observe if you chew more on one side than the other whenever you are eating. 2. Move your lips exaggeratedly to the left and right, is it harder to do so in one direction than the other? 3. Stick out your tongue, and move it extremely to the left and to the right, is it harder to do so for one side? I think the first step to progress is awareness, (which you have already achieved.) And once we are aware, we can start more consciously changing our habits and doing exercises to strengthen the weaker side. I have created a website/course that not only helps you to self-diagnose your unique issues, but also give you exercises and tips to overcome them: equalizationgym.com/ But on your own, if you prefer, you can also use the tips I listed above to self-diagnose what could be your habits that are reinforcing this muscular imbalance, causing one side's equalization to be stronger than then other. And then think of ways to even out this balance. This is how I would personally approach a situation like yours!

I'm sorry. I hope the other techniques work for you! Keep experimenting and exploring how others do it! You will find your own way to do it! :)

Do you mean you have difficulties understanding my accent? Or that I had presented the information in too technical a way that was difficult to understand?

Same, just something people need to learn on their own over time.

In this instance I think she is using the tongue as a stepping stone or crutch technique to develop handfree equalisation. The tongue itself isn't involved in true handsfree but this definitely helps and works for those trying to learn :)