Diving and Exercise

[Codefox]

Hey everyone. Mostly a lurker here but I have a question about diving and exercising. I'm currently training for a marathon in January and in December I know I'll have a little free time to get some diving in before the end of the year (and hit 100 dives! woo!) but I wanted to see what the feeling was of how long you need to wait after diving before doing heavy physical exertion. My general plan would be something like this:

Dive saturday am so be out of the water finally no later than 11 am.
Long run sunday (probably 2 - 3 hours so a fairly intense workout) around 6 or 7am. That's about 19 - 20 hours from surface to running.

I've always been extremely conservative when it comes to flying and diving. More so than probably even makes sense. The closest I've ever come to 24 hours is probably 30 - 32 hours of surface time. (I travel extensively for work so its something that affects nearly every dive I make.)

Does that sound like enough time? I could always do my runs in the evening the following day rather than the morning but that affects my schedule more than I'd like for the marathon and 3 hours at night is tougher to fit in than the morning! I have to be safe too which is my primary concern.

 

[psiborg1812]

That time frame sounds fine, but it will depend on the depth and duration of the dives. If you do short shallow dives you will not have as much nitrogen loading as you will with deep long dives. So if you are going to push your no deco limits on those dives, you might want to wait till the evening to run. Moderate exercise about an hour before diving has been shown to help your body cope with the stress of being underwater better, if you PM me an email, i'll send you some articles on it.

Congrats on hitting 100 dives! You know it's tradition to wear a speedo on #100 right?

 

[fjpatrum]

I would guess that is more than enough. I know Navy SEALS who do a lot more "workout" directly after a swim than any diver I've ever met. None of them have died from overexertion after a dive.

That time frame sounds fine, but it will depend on the depth and duration of the dives. If you do short shallow dives you will not have as much nitrogen loading as you will with deep long dives. So if you are going to push your no deco limits on those dives, you might want to wait till the evening to run. Moderate exercise about an hour before diving has been shown to help your body cope with the stress of being underwater better, if you PM me an email, i'll send you some articles on it.

Congrats on hitting 100 dives! You know it's tradition to wear a speedo on #100 right?

Speedo?!!! That's not what I heard!

 

[Allen Herron]

Mix in Nitrox and you really shouldn't have to worry!

 

[Codefox]

Mix in Nitrox and you really shouldn't have to worry!

Strangely I am not Nitrox certified. Its something I recently have decided I absolutely need to get done but probably not until next year some time. Just need to make some time to do it.

I would guess that is more than enough. I know Navy SEALS who do a lot more "workout" directly after a swim than any diver I've ever met. None of them have died from overexertion after a dive.



Speedo?!!! That's not what I heard!

Well, I may be getting ready for a marathon but I'm no SEAL

That time frame sounds fine, but it will depend on the depth and duration of the dives. If you do short shallow dives you will not have as much nitrogen loading as you will with deep long dives. So if you are going to push your no deco limits on those dives, you might want to wait till the evening to run. Moderate exercise about an hour before diving has been shown to help your body cope with the stress of being underwater better, if you PM me an email, i'll send you some articles on it.

Congrats on hitting 100 dives! You know it's tradition to wear a speedo on #100 right?

I prefer not to push my limits when I'm diving. Not that I won't but it had better be worth it in order for me to do that and usually its not! I never heard that on the exercising before diving. I suppose I could get up a little earlier and do a short 'warm up' run before I go out. I'll definitely send you my email since I enjoy reading those types of articles. I've been lurking for a year and I'd say over the past year just reading things here has made me a much better diver as I have changed some of my habits.

And I haven't heard that about the speedo...I think I need an article on THAT for some proof!

---------- Post added November 20th, 2012 at 12:46 PM ----------

BTW, I really appreciate all of the advice on this!

 

[psiborg1812]

Exercise and diving issues aren't really about overexertion, more about risk of Decompression Sickness. Going on a dive that puts you close to deco and increases your nitrogen loading and then exercising directly after the dive can increase risk of DCS. This is due to several factors. one is during the dive you have reduced blood perfusion to tissues and then exercising after increases the bloodflow and can 'wash out" bubble nuclei. Also, exercising creates areas of sudden low pressures around the joints when you exert yourself, which can exacerbate already forming bubbles. Navy diving usually is shallow for long periods, that can affect the amount of nitrogen dissolved in different tissues.

Exercising before diving helps with blood perfusion, but most importantly it creates hear shock proteins which help reduce the body's negative response to bubble nuclei and diving strain. Plus it helps you fit into that speedo!!!

No speedo articles, but several pictures....

 

[Codefox]

Well the articles were pretty interesting. I haven't read all of them but I have read a couple. Its interesting that the Divers Alert article suggests you should avoid 24 hours before and after diving before doing any exercise and especially joint stressing exercise which running definitely is! I think that may be overly conservative myself so I feel comfortable doing a long run the next morning.

I'm most interested in the discussion of exercise prior to diving. I never really believed it would be as detrimental as some thought but never would have even thought it could be at all beneficial either. I really think I'll be adding a 3 or 4 mile run to my morning routing before a dive. I really need to get my Nitrox cert as well which I think will be helpful on a lot of the diving I do in S. Fl

 

[g1138]

Congrats on hitting 100 dives! You know it's tradition to wear a speedo on #100 right?

Speedo?!!! That's not what I heard!

The speedo is for modesty's sake while you're sitting at the safety stop.
I'm all for keeping a clean kit but some things just shouldn't be tied down w/ rubber keepers.

 

[DeeperOut]

I would guess that is more than enough. I know Navy SEALS who do a lot more "workout" directly after a swim than any diver I've ever met. None of them have died from overexertion after a dive.

Did you ask them for the accident reports? Or perhaps you had the fortune of interviewing the ones that died? Were they present as ghosts?
My point being, very few recreational divers match the physical requirements placed on combat divers. Young, fresh meat with thousands of dollars spent on each to verify USDA top grade. Don't forget they get routine medicals before every operation. They don't have to worry about if they are healthy enough - Uncle Sam does that for them. Do you have the same facilities at your disposal? Did you perhaps have the fortune of reviewing the profiles that combat divers routinely dive? (you would then see that it is quite shallow, short, and "max-oxygen", meaning they accumulate less nitrogen than recreational divers due to oxygen enriched mixes or rebreather use.

I would suggest that any recreational diver to embark on a strenuous exercise regime prepares to do a lot of research on their own. Unfortunately I cannot recommend getting approved by your doctor - I have dealt with several cases of quack machismo where a general practitioner did not refer a diver to a diving medicine doctor, with sad results. So the only course of action, with any health concerns, is contacting a top diving medicine doctor.

Now that we have that out of the way - mild to not-too-strenuous exercise at least 4 hours before a dive and mild exercise at the minimum of 12 hours after a dive, ideally with a night of sleep. Start conservatively, keep a log, and see how you feel. Hydrate! Urine should be clear before dive. Use nitrox.

And read research done on the subject, some resources have been given, lots more at Rubicon foundation, search for exercise in the archive.

 

[Codefox]

Now that we have that out of the way - mild to not-too-strenuous exercise at least 4 hours before a dive and mild exercise at the minimum of 12 hours after a dive, ideally with a night of sleep. Start conservatively, keep a log, and see how you feel. Hydrate! Urine should be clear before dive. Use nitrox.

Yeah, its still a tough question to answer though. The recommendation is 4 - 6 hours generally. Longer is better and avoid strenuous activity with heavy joint loading for a while. Of course, marathon training certainly falls under 'strenuous joint loading' but there's so little guidance really out there. Even with everything I've ready I haven't figured out if 20 hours is conservative enough or overly aggressive! If I have a couple easy dives I have to imagine I'd be alright but can anyone really say for sure? I may have to consider moving my dive to Friday afternoon rather than Saturday morning to make sure I'm being as safe as possible. Moving my long run to a day other than Sunday is problematic due to the 3 - 4 hours I need for something like that and it pretty much has to be in the morning.

This is great stuff though (I think anyway)