overexertion

[BradB]

This has been an interesting thread and I agree with the need to be fit, but I believe from what I have recently seen that mental fitness may be more important than physical in this case. On the dive my buddy freaked he was 15 years younger than me and in way better physical condition. I am 45 years old, overweight(working on that), am not in great physical condition(I sit behind a desk but am working on that). I had no problem at all getting to the bottom and doing my dive cause quite frankly my first dive out of Certfication was 110', spearing with no real buddy. I have probably 60 dives in less than 9 months many in poor conditionsand pretty much solo. Have I been a little freaked,yeah, in 1' vis by myself, listening to this booming sound I thought was a big Hebrew Mullet lurking just ought of sight. Turned out it was the boat trying to tell me to come up. Live and learn. Anyway, if ya want to bes afe ya gotta have your head screweed on right.

 

[rmediver2002]

But they do not do the job alone.

The point I was trying to make is knowing your limitations, even Lance Armstrong can reach a level of exertion that causes him to overbreath a regulator. Anyone of any fitness level can do it, knowing your limitation and self monitoring for early signs of exertion and CO2 toxicity are the important factors.

Increasing you fitness level in addition to many other benefits allows you to push your individual threshhold higher...

Jeff Lane

 

[scubajay]

I agree with the mental fitness. You have to remain focus and in control. Experience and being confortable in the water also plays a major role. But for a beginner scuba diver like me who did not really know how my body would react when I purposely overexerted myself that for me was a wake up call. It was like hey buddy you better get in shape. I am very comfortable in the water and Im glad that I went through the experience of overexersion. Next time I will make sure I take everything easy. The way I see it is, if you are under the water, there is no reason to rush. If you are in a rush you shouldn't be diving. Im glad I went through that experience. I told myself, remember this experiece because the next time you might not be so lucky. Scuba Diving is a lot of fun but very dangerous if you are careless.

 

[Snowbear]

... the mental anxiety was brought on by the physical over-exertion. I agree with the other replies that mental fitness is important, but also with the suggested cardio and weight training workouts. Good (or even marginal, if you're out of shape now) physical fitness will help you a lot if you ever get in a situation where you end up exerting yourself either on the surface or underwater.
Good luck with your diving!

 

[metaldector]

to do things slowly underwater. It's been years since I took a course in a pool but I don't remember ever being told to hurry and swim as fast as I could?! The essence of diving is to do things smoothly, calmly, and with a minimum of effort. If you want to wear yourself out, dangle gear, swim as fast as you can, and suck all the air from that regulator. I don't know the purpose of that? I have on occasions found myself stressed out after chasing a lobster or spearing a fish, but most of that was shear exhileration! Then quickly I calm down and continue the dive.:deadfish: