Should we exercice during a diving trip, or sit on a beach and read a book ?

Hi guys,

This thread is targeted to all of you who are exercise freaks like myself. I like to keep in good shape, going for a half an hour run, doing push ups, pull ups, abs, and more... However, when I go in diving holiday which is quite often, sometimes once a month, I tend to forget everything abouth exercising. And when I come back home I am somewhat out of shape. So I wonder if it would be a good idea to exercise let's say half an hour a day at an easy pace, or should it be completely avoided to reduce the risk of decompression sickness. ?

cheers

I guess the answer is to ask a diving doctor.

From my experience, I think it is worth sharing that several of my friends were on a photo-trip to Micronesia about 18 months ago. They had a case of decompression sickness on board. Happened to the fittest chap there - brought on apparently because he maintained some of his triathlon training.

I would imagine that you could always get up early and excercise before a day of diving.

Alex

I sometimes find gentle stretches helps if your doing a lot of diving or diving in colder waters... Cramp is a real nasty thing to get at anytime let alone whilst in water..

Dive safe

Dean(lotus position)B

Hi Daniel,

this is a good question. I like to do fitness and asked myself if it would be problematic with diving.

Luckily there was a long article in a German diving magazine last year.

Summing up they wrote that a very light cardio-training before diving is okay. But not after.

That means only on the first day of your diving vacation you could do some training

They are also warn that muscle soreness increase the risk of decompression sickness.

You see, there is a good excuse to stay at the beach bar and drink some magaritas instead of doing sport

Rachid

The official DAN rule (which came from earlier NASA studies) is moderate exercise at least 4 hours before and 6 hours after the dive.

There was a study in 2001 by Janowski (I read up on it because that was the year I got hit in PNG) that showed easy exercise during decompression actually helped nitrogen excretion.

For myself, I do yoga stretches about 25-30mins every morning about 1-1.5 hrs before diving. I also do about 30 minutes of easy calisthenics (pushups, situps, pullups etc) and 15 minutes of stretch before bed (usually about 4-5 hrs after diving). I avoid headstands during dive trips due to inane fear of getting Type II in the brain I also avoid heavy lifting (except for tanks and equipment which is usually not so strenuous).

This isn't medical advice by any means and you should always check with a doctor before you do anything.

yesterday they was an update for the article, that i mentioned in my post.

Tauchen - Sport und tauchen

Google Translation in English

Having read this stuff (as well as being a non-current NOAA certified physician) I think a common sense approach would be wise.

1. Being in good shape prior to diving is clearly beneficial for obvious reasons and specifically that the resulting lower cardiovascular stress during the dive will be advantageous both for air consumption and subsequent nitrogen load / unload process.

2. Strenous excercise close to or during diving may have deleterious effects particularly in the post-dive period.

When I did my NOAA training we 'experimented' on each other a little in the chambers, and one thing that was driven home to me was the fact that EVERY time you dive, you bubble. We proved this by using doppler on our chests to hear the fizzing as we came up from a dive in the chamber. Excercising appeared to increase the bubbling.

So the type of cautious excercise to simply maintain some fitness as Drew describes makes senses, vigorous activities the effects of which are still present during and after your dive, do not.

Echoing what Drew and Jeff generally.

The translated article also provided some information to keep in mind, such as the affect of work under water, dehydration and relationship to DCS. Though there are some things that are known, diving still has mysteries and questions, we just try to lower the odds. Just take a look at various dive tables and dive computers, some will say you are in Deco and others say you got plenty of bottom time left

There was an article by Neal Pollack, Ph.D on exercise in July/August 2008 Alert Diver. Good overview on the subject and how it is difficult to say anything definative in diving.

As he says

We do not yet have sufficient data to quantify the difference between beneficial and potentially harmful exercise. Understanding the various issues and applying common sense confer the best protection

Of course as Drew said, as on any medical issue, medical advice from a physician familiar with diving is the way to go.

This is the study I refer to by Jankowski:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9171464?dopt=Abstract

*Note this is not to say that exercising after a dive is OK!

A study by Wisloff and Brubakk in 2001 on rats supported Jankowski's findings (in rats mind you).

A study by Wisloff and Brubakk in 2001 on rats supported Jankowski's findings (in rats mind you).

I've been called worse and have been on boats with worse

When you read all the studies, publications and medical books, it is enough to make you stay out of the water. Good thing I have a short memory

The basic concept to be kept in mind is no different to considerations as to how conservative you set your dive computer. All dive tables, whether on a slate or in your dive computer are empirically derived based on a group of humans' ability to tolerate nitrogen bubbles. The more you do to create bubbles, the closer you get to being bent.

Remember, whether you have ever been bent or not, you have NO idea how close you have ever come to being bent. Water and pressure do strange things; I'm always amazed for example how our tolerance for O2 toxicity with Nitrox is much different to dry land. 3ATM O2 is standard treatment in hyperbaric oxygen treatment protocols, yet one would not consider this underwater.

Diving safely is only a relative term.

While it does take me a while to get back to the level of fitness I was at before a dive trip, I think diving itself is enough exertion for me. Except for some stretching I am too tired with 3-5 dives a day to even think about cardio or strength training. And it all works out good, weight wise. After my 3 week trip to Indonesia last fall, I came back 2 lbs lighter!! And I ate like a pig.

The more you do to create bubbles, the closer you get to being bent.

I often say every diver is bent, they are just asymptomatic

Remember, whether you have ever been bent or not, you have NO idea how close you have ever come to being bent. Water and pressure do strange things; I'm always amazed for example how our tolerance for O2 toxicity with Nitrox is much different to dry land. 3ATM O2 is standard treatment in hyperbaric oxygen treatment protocols, yet one would not consider this underwater.

Diving safely is only a relative term.

Yup the thought of 100% O2 at 66 feet is rather scary. The chamber is a bit more controlled though and lower chance of drowning.

Yup the thought of 100% O2 at 66 feet is rather scary. The chamber is a bit more controlled though and lower chance of drowning.

I worked a chamber for a few years treating mostly wound problems and cancer radiation problems; mostly old codgers in poor shape, and never saw a siezure. On the other hand, Nitrox induced seizures and even death at 1.6 ATA have been documented.

I worked a chamber for a few years treating mostly wound problems and cancer radiation problems; mostly old codgers in poor shape, and never saw a siezure. On the other hand, Nitrox induced seizures and even death at 1.6 ATA have been documented.

I was actually going to ask about statistics of seizures in chambers, not sure I ever saw those stats or not. I know when I dive Nitrox I do my best to keep my PO2 low, usually around 1.0, sometimes a bit higher. Do not recall pushing it to 1.4. I tend to be conservative when it comes to my diving

If we were meant to dive, we'd have gills.

I'll see if I can find some chamber stats.

If we were meant to dive, we'd have gills.

I'll see if I can find some chamber stats.

Thanks

If I see something I will let you know.

As to the gills, seems to be some things in evolution that divers would like to change

While it does take me a while to get back to the level of fitness I was at before a dive trip, I think diving itself is enough exertion for me. Except for some stretching I am too tired with 3-5 dives a day to even think about cardio or strength training. And it all works out good, weight wise. After my 3 week trip to Indonesia last fall, I came back 2 lbs lighter!! And I ate like a pig.

Hey me too but more so. Each time I come back from a one or two weeker (four dives a day) I am at least 7 pounds lighter and my SAC drops to 10-12 lpm. I'm 6'2", presently 220 lb and an unashamed 'foodie'.

Its very easy to convince my girlfiend that I need another diving holiday...

If we were meant to dive, we'd have gills.

I don't exercise when not diving anymore, so I don't see why I'd be exercising in between dives! (but that'll change this year ... yeah, right!)

But ... interestingly, I believe we are the only primate species that has downward-facing nostrils ... which I once heard someone postulate indicated a deep-rooted relationship with the water - specifically that at some very formative period with intense selection pressure, our ancestors lived in very close proximity to and spent a significant amount in the water.

I just can't see how you'd find the TIME and energy to excersise, let alone sit on the beach... The trips usally go: wake up, last minute fiddle w camera gear, breakfast if you can squeeze it in, dive, dive, lunch, dive, dive, snack, nitedive, dinner and checking out days photocrop... then crosseyedly trying to set up camera gear for next day - nodding off and finally deciding that cleaning o-rings in the morning instaed of having long breakfast is better than cleaning orings while half brain is asleep... I could not sqeeze in excersise in a divetrip, but perhaps if you are triathalon-fit you would have different kind of energy-levels