I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, not really sure what category this should go in.
This is something that dawned on my not actually diving but from my constant rollercoaster approach to working out daily for a few months, then quitting for a year, then starting again.
If you look at the accidents forum, a large majority of the "accidents" seem to be health related, many of them of them heart attacks or something along those lines. Presumably from divers who are "couch potatoes" that do not perform any serious exercise during the year than instantly jump into a dive which is almost like a shock to their body.
If you are like me and are constantly taking up exercising regularly than quitting, you may have experienced the same thing. The very first day you start working out again after taking a hiatus, doing something like jogging a mile seems like its going to kill you. I often have felt like I was going to pass out the first 2-3 days. It's a feeling that just "hits" you all of the sudden. then day 4 or 5 comes around and it's no issue, the feeling of passing out/blacking out nearly vanishes. It doesn't "feel" easier to jog that mile, it's just as hard as it was the first day, however, i don't feel like I'm gonna black out. I have googled around and it seems like this is a relatively common thing people like me experience. One thing I would like to point out is that after a week, I'm not really in better shape per say, sure I may have lost a pound or 2 but being 2 pounds lighter is not the difference between blacking out and successfully running a mile, rather its your body adapting to your new routines. But my main point here is that after just a few days that this blacking out feeling nearly vanishes. And from what i have heard from a personal friend is this is also true for "skinny" people as well. I have a friend who just started working out who had very little if any fat on him, not to lose weight of course but to gain weight and muscle and he experienced the same feeling the first few days of lifting weights.
Here is where I am thinking the diving community may be wrong:
Diving if you are overweight, is much more dangerous than if you were not overweight.
Many divers suggest that it's dangerous for an overweight person to dive. Taking my experiences from above, I'm not sure its necessarily being overweight, rather that not having any stamina built up. I am willing to bet that by simply starting a jogging, biking or other aerobic workout routine just a week or 2 before you go on that dive vacation may significantly decrease the chance of a "medical event" underwater by simply avoiding that shock reaction your body has when you suddenly do a strenuous activity after being dormant for so long.
That being said, what are your thoughts on this statement:
It is more dangerous (in terms of a medical heart attack related event) for a "skinny" person to dive if he has not performed a strenuous activity for a long period of time vs an overweight/obese diver who has been actively jogging daily for the last couple of weeks.
This is something that dawned on my not actually diving but from my constant rollercoaster approach to working out daily for a few months, then quitting for a year, then starting again.
If you look at the accidents forum, a large majority of the "accidents" seem to be health related, many of them of them heart attacks or something along those lines. Presumably from divers who are "couch potatoes" that do not perform any serious exercise during the year than instantly jump into a dive which is almost like a shock to their body.
If you are like me and are constantly taking up exercising regularly than quitting, you may have experienced the same thing. The very first day you start working out again after taking a hiatus, doing something like jogging a mile seems like its going to kill you. I often have felt like I was going to pass out the first 2-3 days. It's a feeling that just "hits" you all of the sudden. then day 4 or 5 comes around and it's no issue, the feeling of passing out/blacking out nearly vanishes. It doesn't "feel" easier to jog that mile, it's just as hard as it was the first day, however, i don't feel like I'm gonna black out. I have googled around and it seems like this is a relatively common thing people like me experience. One thing I would like to point out is that after a week, I'm not really in better shape per say, sure I may have lost a pound or 2 but being 2 pounds lighter is not the difference between blacking out and successfully running a mile, rather its your body adapting to your new routines. But my main point here is that after just a few days that this blacking out feeling nearly vanishes. And from what i have heard from a personal friend is this is also true for "skinny" people as well. I have a friend who just started working out who had very little if any fat on him, not to lose weight of course but to gain weight and muscle and he experienced the same feeling the first few days of lifting weights.
Here is where I am thinking the diving community may be wrong:
Diving if you are overweight, is much more dangerous than if you were not overweight.
Many divers suggest that it's dangerous for an overweight person to dive. Taking my experiences from above, I'm not sure its necessarily being overweight, rather that not having any stamina built up. I am willing to bet that by simply starting a jogging, biking or other aerobic workout routine just a week or 2 before you go on that dive vacation may significantly decrease the chance of a "medical event" underwater by simply avoiding that shock reaction your body has when you suddenly do a strenuous activity after being dormant for so long.
That being said, what are your thoughts on this statement:
It is more dangerous (in terms of a medical heart attack related event) for a "skinny" person to dive if he has not performed a strenuous activity for a long period of time vs an overweight/obese diver who has been actively jogging daily for the last couple of weeks.
