Enhanced air...does it help fatigue?

[Kairoos]

I don't think nitrox would help you, because I don't think the air mixture is the issue here. Four dives is a lot of dives, you're burning a lot of calories swimming around. Your body is also using a lot of energy to keep your body temperature up. How big of a breakfast did you have? What did you eat in between dives?

You should probably feel fatigued after 4 dives in a day, that's a pretty good workout, figure on a calm dive, you're burning 300 calories an hour. That's equivalent to about a hour and a half bike ride at 12-14mph as far as calories burned.

 

[Painter]

Just to fill in a little more information, since I started this thread.
I was wearing a shorty wet suit in very warm water, but I wouldn't discount the possibility of some chilling. I certainly felt comfortable and many weren't wearing any wet suits at all.
I do not have a computer, but plan to purchase one int the near future, before my next diving trip in March.
I know I was using a lot more energy because of my inexperience. My air consumption rate, faster than anybody elses on the boat, was evidence of that.
Most of the dives were in 30 ft or less. Most people seemed to ascend without much of any safety stop. I pretty much followed the guide.
And yes, I can see that four dives in one day is a lot of effort, more than I anticipated.

My conclusion from all of your helpful and informed comments is that I should get a lot more experience and at least give the enhanced air a try. Experience will probably do more for me, though.
Many thanks to all.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Just to fill in a little more information, since I started this thread.
I was wearing a shorty wet suit in very warm water, but I wouldn't discount the possibility of some chilling. I certainly felt comfortable and many weren't wearing any wet suits at all.
I do not have a computer, but plan to purchase one int the near future, before my next diving trip in March.
I know I was using a lot more energy because of my inexperience. My air consumption rate, faster than anybody elses on the boat, was evidence of that.
Most of the dives were in 30 ft or less. Most people seemed to ascend without much of any safety stop. I pretty much followed the guide.
And yes, I can see that four dives in one day is a lot of effort, more than I anticipated.

My conclusion from all of your helpful and informed comments is that I should get a lot more experience and at least give the enhanced air a try. Experience will probably do more for me, though.
Many thanks to all.

Just a minor point about semantics, but... Breasts are "enhanced" and air is "enriched"...

 

[DevonDiver]

I don't think nitrox would help you, because I don't think the air mixture is the issue here. Four dives is a lot of dives, you're burning a lot of calories swimming around. Your body is also using a lot of energy to keep your body temperature up. How big of a breakfast did you have? What did you eat in between dives?

You should probably feel fatigued after 4 dives in a day, that's a pretty good workout, figure on a calm dive, you're burning 300 calories an hour. That's equivalent to about a hour and a half bike ride at 12-14mph as far as calories burned.

This isn't really what people are talking about. I see fatigued divers... young, healthy, people turned near-comatosed and catching zzzzz's during surface intervals and on return in the boat from dive trip... and that's in benign, tropical waters on leisurely dives. They do, of course, have unrefined dive profiles and sloppy ascents....

The same was true for me, before I learned how to refine my dive profiles and ascent strategies.... and I was conditioned to some pretty extreme (cold, high exertion, endurance) non-diving activities.

Nowadays, I only experience that type of fatigue or malaise when I'm running shallow skills sessions - that inevitably look quite saw-toothed in profile and often include numerous full or partial ascents. In contrast, I feel vital and fresh in the aftermath of demanding technical wreck penetration decompression dives - despite them being significantly colder and more mentally / physically demanding.

How does a longer, colder, more physically demanding dive leave me feeling fresh and alive; wheras shorter, relaxed, shallow and warm dives leave me drooling?

The answer isn't in the calories burned..... the culprit arises from the effect on our complex physiological immune-system and brain chemistry mechanisms from decompression stress; which results from the excessive microbubble creation brought about by bad dive profiling and unrefined ascent behavior.

People will keep simplistically blaming post-dive fatigue / malaise / reduced vitality on the normal scapegoats; cold, exertion and burned calories. It's just a set of blinkers in the denial process that stops us acknowledging that we are not off-gassing sufficiently to avoid noticeable (if non-injuring) physical and physiological repercussions.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

This isn't really what people are talking about. I see fatigued divers... young, healthy, people turned near-comatosed and catching zzzzz's during surface intervals and on return in the boat from dive trip... and that's in benign, tropical waters on leisurely dives. They do, of course, have unrefined dive profiles and sloppy ascents....

The same was true for me, before I learned how to refine my dive profiles and ascent strategies.... and I was conditioned to some pretty extreme (cold, high exertion, endurance) non-diving activities.

Nowadays, I only experience that type of fatigue or malaise when I'm running shallow skills sessions - that inevitably look quite saw-toothed in profile and often include numerous full or partial ascents. In contrast, I feel vital and fresh in the aftermath of demanding technical wreck penetration decompression dives - despite them being significantly colder and more mentally / physically demanding.

How does a longer, colder, more physically demanding dive leave me feeling fresh and alive; wheras shorter, relaxed, shallow and warm dives leave me drooling?

The answer isn't in the calories burned..... the culprit arises from the effect on our complex physiological immune-system and brain chemistry mechanisms from decompression stress; which results from the excessive microbubble creation brought about by bad dive profiling and unrefined ascent behavior.

People will keep simplistically blaming post-dive fatigue / malaise / reduced vitality on the normal scapegoats; cold, exertion and burned calories. It's just a set of blinkers in the denial process that stops us acknowledging that we are not off-gassing sufficiently to avoid noticeable (if non-injuring) physical and physiological repercussions.

I have to agree with this, a lot. I first figured it out in Cozumel over 30 years ago. Two air dives to the NDC limit (before computers) with a long leisurely surface interval and lunch. Almost zero swimming, warm comfortable water temps, no tank handling - essentially no exertion and ... when you make it back to the hotel, we would normally need to crash for an hour.

There is ZERO doubt in my mind that decompression stress causes significant fatigue.

I do both freediving and scuba and I am not a good enough freediver to probably induce much decompression stress when freediving, but I might do 40 dives to 50 feet (or deeper) in a day and this is way, way more swimming, exertion, heart rate acceleration - physical stress than doing a couple of scuba dives, yet I generally feel less tired from freediving than 2-3 tanks of scuba..

If you are going to the deco limit (or past), I don't think it matters if you are using nitrox or air.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

On the weekend I typically make two dives per day in cold, sometimes turbid water. Occasionally these dives are beyond recreational depths and involve decompression stops. After the last dive I drive the boat back to the marina, sometimes through wind and rough seas. After unloading the boat of six tanks, gear and three SLR housings I wash the boat, rinse out the two outboards, hang gear to dry and take tanks to the shop for filling. Once that's done I put everything away and prepare for our next dive day.
After lunch I go over photos I shot that day and Photoshop the ones I plan to post. I upload them to Photobucket and write up a report and post it here. I then shower and finally relax, nearly five hours after surfacing from my last dive.
During the week I work fifty hours and have trouble staying awake while watching TV at 5:00. I've come to the conclusion that diving on air is the only thing in my life that does not cause fatigue.

 

[Skeptic14]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but if the same person dives the same profile on enriched vs air they will have absorbed less nitrogen. Depending upon their specific physiology and thus susceptibility to DCS stress they could feel less fatigued.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but if the same person dives the same profile on enriched vs air they will have absorbed less nitrogen. Depending upon their specific physiology and thus susceptibility to DCS stress they could feel less fatigued.

Yeah butt, That's not how most people use nitrox (or a computer). They use the nitrox and computer to maximize their dive time (often anyway).

 

[halocline]

Perhaps I'm missing something, but if the same person dives the same profile on enriched vs air they will have absorbed less nitrogen. Depending upon their specific physiology and thus susceptibility to DCS stress they could feel less fatigued.

It's not so much about how much nitrogen you absorb on a given dive, it's about how much you surface with. So doing an extended stop mimics the effect of using nitrox in terms of lowering post-dive N2 load.

 

[agilis]

Yeah butt, That's not how most people use nitrox (or a computer). They use the nitrox and computer to maximize their dive time (often anyway).

Most, but not all. I use oxygen enhanced nitrox within appropriate depth limits, but follow standard air tables and use a conservative computer at air settings.

Part of this is an extra safety factor because of my age (73), but I've also noticed that I generally feel better than I did using atmospheric air, especially after doing repetitive dives.

This is obviously subjective, but that's good enough for me.