My Fitness Didn't Translate

[TheFife]

I just got back from a cold water, ocean dive trip and have realized that I need to get in better shape. I am a former overweight smoker who now is tobacco free, an appropriate weight, and I exercise 5-7 days a week. The problem is that my exercise routine is almost exclusively road biking or using an exercise bike because these are convenient and I enjoy them. So I am aerobically fit, and I have strong thighs. However my upper body, core, and to some degree my calves and feet are weak. I need to readjust my fitness routine to target the muscle groups used when diving.

I need help identifying the specific exercises that will translate to diving. If at all possible, I would like to be able to see videos of the exercises being performed appropriately. I have seen a few "dive exercise routines" posted online, but they rarely have pictures and often use names for their exercises that don't match up to what I can search for online.

Here are the specific things that I felt were overly difficult for me.

• Wearing my BCD with tank and walking long distances to the water while fully weighted for cold water diving. This killed my shoulders. I wanted to stop walking and lean forward to take the weight off my shoulders.
• Long surface swims from the shore through kelp against the surge. My legs were on fire and I felt winded before the dive started. My strong biking leg says didn't help at all, since the muscle groups were completely different.
• Lugging and loading tanks and gear bags loaded with weights. I am a man that is slight of build. Lifting HP100s and dive bags full of gear and weights, in and out of vehicles to get around to the dive sites, drained me quick.

Any ideas?

 

[Aviyes]

- Core work: AB ripper 100/200 routine. It's a quick 6+ minute workout routine with 10 exercises/10-20 reps each/total of 100/200 reps. You can usually find the videos on youtube. Easy to do on a carpet in front of a computer monitor or TV. Once you know each exercise, don't need the TV anymore.
- Pushups and Burpees for upper body/full body endurance workout without a gym.
- Flutter Kicks for a workout that duplicates swimming kick. Work both your legs and core. Added difficulty/weight, do it wearing your fins.
- Calf Raises might help as well.
If you want to add weight to any exercise, you always have your dive weights.

Just a few ideas to hopefully get you going.

When lifting the gear make sure to use your legs. Squat motion is a great way to keep your back straight and aid in lifting the tanks and gear in/out of a vehicle. Also, maybe don't load all your gear in a large duffel. Split it up so you have 2 smaller/lighter bags. 1 more trip to the car, but may be easier than 1 large duffel full of gear.

 

[northernone]

Glad you're back to diving. You'll be encouraged to find that after a few dozen dives you're body will adjust to all the new motions.

For me the best fitness for diving is being out diving. Double the motivation for a lot of bottom time.

That said, I appreciate the dry land exercises listed above, I'll be borrowing them. Thank you.

Cameron

 

[seaseadee]

+1 On Core Exercises:

• Planks
• Leg Lifts
• Sit ups
• Push ups
• Some weights for your upper body
  • Curls
  • "Sawing Motion" with weight for triceps
  • Shoulder shrugs
  • Forearm raises

There are infinite routines you can do and some of the smarter folks on here will chime in with better than I have provided. Another consideration is the weight you carry around your belly/hips. If you are carrying some extra pounds there consider a diet to reduce the fat in those areas.

 

[Aviyes]

Try to avoid excessive amounts of normal situps. They are terrible for your back and spine. There are so many better ab exercises.

 

[RayfromTX]

Your cardio and the temperature regulation that you have developed on the bike will be of great benefit to you as well as your ability to process energy through your system. Mostly producing heat will drain your energy reserves and your ability to process on the fly as is required on long bike rides should be beneficial. I have ridden lots for many years. My heart rate and breathing stays quite low when doing low exertion activities such as diving. When I have to fight the current I am grateful for my cardio. If I get winded, others are suffering.

 

[Malpaso]

Rowing. It targets all the areas you mention. I row 3000m 3x per week. It has been a huge help cardio-wise, and is low impact of my back and knees, while strengthening both areas as well. Down side is you need a rowing machine

 

[uncfnp]

Warning, I am not a fitness trainer nor a body building guru and I have my own share of challenges but I do have some interest in general fitness and health.

I am going to go at it a little differently and recommend you not focus on target exercises but to approach this as total body fitness. Add a variety of exercises to your routines, not only different steady state exercises such as running, swimming and biking but alternate this with weight training that exercises muscle groups and not just isolated muscles. Consider too yoga and interval training.

So instead of training your body to maximize a specific activity, biking or diving, you train for complete fitness. This should give you maximal benefit to any physical activity and also reduce your chance of acute or over use injury by strengthening muscles and connective tissues in a balanced fashion rather then over development of target muscles.

 

[lowflyer]

I can relate to the pain in the shoulders when hiking a distance with gear on, but it's not because of weak shoulders. It is due to the direct pressure of all that weight transferred to the bony structures and muscles under the shoulder straps. Adding some padding for the hike is helpful.

 

[mattia_v]

I'll +1 the general fitness recommendation.

Cycling is decent aerobic exercise, although more for endurance than intermittend bursts of speed unless you train that specifically. What makes cycling accessible (low joint impact, scalable) is also what makes it easier to not push yourself all that much.

Improving overall fitness will help a good bit, and which kind will depend on what you enjoy doing and can sustain for a longer period of time. Weight training to strengthen your core (focus on your back rather than your abs, most all-round training will train both) can do wonders, as will a bit of interval work.