Does Fitness Have Anything to do With Diving?

[Hank49]

My personal experience is that cardiovascular fitness makes little or no difference in resting air consumption, but makes a huge difference in the consumption rate when swimming at 1kt or greater.

I see this also on dry land when restarting my exercise program after a hiatus. At the beginning, a certain incline and speed will have me huffing and puffing and gasping for air. After a month of regular exercise, I'll be doing that same incline and speed, or more, while casually chatting with someone with ease.

Exactly. At rest, which is almost what a nice relaxing dive is, it makes little to no difference. But being cardio vascularly fit is like putting a 4 barrel carb instead of a two...or a turbo charger on an engine. A healthy heart can deliver oxygen (hemoglobin) faster when needed.

 

[ArcticDiver]

Honestly? Physicians releases don't mean much to me, because you can find one to pass you on anything. But I am just a nurse, so don't take what I say as meaning anything. Doctors, like every other profession run a huge range.

My cardiologist knew I was diving 140 ft with a congenital arrythmia that was making me faint. I told him it never happened diving (it didn't unless I was upright) He was from Barne's Heart Institute and later ablated me. he knew that I understood my symptoms and if I was wrong, I would not take out an entire family in an SUV, by diving...

Look how many 90 year old's have had bypasses and drive on the freeways.
If I listed the 12 or so deaths in the past eight years, here, and the details, maybe you would understand this is not "from meanness".

Take the buffet crowd from Vegas, and plop them in Waikiki, and book them on some 100 ft + charters. That is what we are dealing with here, but nobody says that because it is "not nice". Deadly though. waiting for the government, or some doc back home to fix it, is just not a good plan.

...

I'm not exactly sure what the motivation for this thread is. I could make some guesses. But that would be unproductive. Instead I've extracted a couple portions of what has been posted.

Why talk about how important fitness is when you blatantly brag about how you dove when you were patently not only not fit, but not healthy? What possible good can come from such a statement? On the other hand anyone who meets you now has to be suspicious about whether or not you are going to become a life threatening emergency thus ruining their day trying to save you.

Just how many 90 year olds have had bypasses (I assume you mean CABG)? How many drive? If you know the numbers then let's see them. If not this kind of statement has to be categorized as blatant bigotry against the elderly. For the record: I know several 90 year old people; none of whom have had coronary surgery and all of whom lead lives that would be considered active by any age group.

Hmmm, "buffet crowd from Vegas"? Again this is more of a slur on an age group with heavy overtones of cultural bias. Unless you can provide some independent data to support that these people, whatever a "buffet crowd" is, are less healthy or less fit than what I see walking the streets of Honolulu this appears more like bigotry than anything else.

As far as I've been able to find threads by you are the only ones claiming that there is a a Fit vs. Not Fit controversy. Also, you seem to be hung up on the idea of Fat vs. Not Fat. In the same vein as people who make other comments that are really cries for help I have to ask: Are these threads a cry for help with an eating, or weight disorder?

 

[Cacia]

Hmmm, "buffet crowd from Vegas"? Again this is more of a slur on an age group with heavy overtones of cultural bias.

yea, it is. MY culture though. what age group, btw?

Are these threads a cry for help with an eating, or weight disorder?

maybe you should pick up a Newsweek, sometime, Arctic Diver.

you are the only ones claiming that there is a a Fit vs. Not Fit controversy. Also, you seem to be hung up on the idea of Fat vs. Not Fat.

I get that too, that might not mean I'm wrong though.

It was suggested we start this thread to take individuals out of the discussion.
Why don't you go start one about weight harness methods or something useful? "Mean Girls" or something, I don't care...

you blatantly brag about how you dove when you were patently not only not fit, but not healthy?

No...I am fit for my age. But, not as fit as my dive partners. And I work on it, I am not bragging really, just trying to make a point that seems... evasive. I must say that the best divers who are also overweight don't seem defensive, just another observation.

Of course, the better diver you are, the less weight comes in to play. But if you are a new diver and don't have much experience, it is a big factor, especially in big water or current.

 

[ArcticDiver]

OK, I've satisfied my conscience that this isn't a "cry for help". Instead it reads more like the product of a bored, biased and maybe angry person with too much time on their hands. That's ok if anyone wants to play in that arena. Not me though.

Bye

 

[24940]

OK, I've satisfied my conscience that this isn't a "cry for help". Instead it reads more like the product of a bored, maybe angry person with too much time on their hands. That's ok if anyone wants to play in that arena. Not me though.

Bye

Looks like someone hit a nerve.

I remember watching a guy taking a full ten minutes to recover from a walk from the site to the parking lot last year. I thought he was going to die on the way up the hill and recall wondering how I would be able to evacuate him if he went TU before making it to the parking area.

I've thought about that guy a lot since then. He was definitely over his head, but likely considered that to be a personal decision. I doubt he considered his family or the boor bastard who would have the nightmare of trying to rescue him. Honestly, it would ruin more than my day to have someone die on me and I would spend a good deal of time second guessing my efforts.

Several years ago, I had to conduct a swift water rescue. It kicked my ass, but was successful. At that point, I realized how critical fitness is. As a professional, it always amazes me how many instructors out there look so far out of shape.

 

[Cacia]

Arctic Diver, There are a lot of threads to choose from on this board, it's true.

.......

I noticed something funny about JB's O2 consumption, and it is not that great. I was curious why his resting HR was over 100 for awhile, and he was "overtraining" somebody suggested. Now it is back to 60 or so. I'm not sure how overtraining makes your HR run high..anybody know?

At that point, I realized how critical fitness is.

I noticed when we dived together, you were much stronger getting back to the boat in the current and I could not make it...remember that? (I thought I'd be okay, following the DIR guy, lol) Probably just your SP jet fins though..

I worry about weight harnesses when there is no ladder, because I worry somebody could get tangled and sink. I confess to not feeling confident about getting someone out of one. I should know that, but have never asked anyone.
(my bad)

bored, biased and maybe angry person with too much time on their hands.

Actually, that is a good point because the heart experts say that once you have had something go wrong with your heart, it really changes you, psychologically.
You are forever aware of the vulnerablity..I have noticed that. But it is also my number one risk of death, even if I had never had an arrythmia. It is probably yours too, AD, based on age alone. The older a person is, the more fit they need to be to compensate, to some degree.

 

[donnad]

on being in CV shape..........yes, i meant that you won't get winded as quickly when you have some sort of challenge........like currents,difficult entry or exit, etc........and then that would save you air the less you have to exert yourself. i think i would feel kind of vulnerable to be diving as a couch potatoe so to speak as opposed to being in some sort of regular exercise regimen

 

[Ann Marie]

There are countries all over the world where obesity is problem. In America it a major problem. No argument from me.

I think feel that it is more important to teach people how to judge their limits in an activity, like diving, than to beat them down for their lack of fitness or for being obese.

If you saw an obese person at the gym or riding a bike would you feel compelled to tell them that the gym isn't for them? Would you question their physician's clearance for engaging in physical activity there?

Your comment about having to be overweight as a requirement to be a moderator is very telling to me.

I don't think that you get the responses that you do for expressing your opinions but in how you express your opinions.

 

[grazie42]

My observation is that fit divers (by my subjective estimation) seem to have it a lot easier and more fun than their unfit (again by my estimation) counterparts, even on "benign" dives.

Fit divers seem to enjoy their dives further down on the "goodness scale" of dives.

Fit divers unarguably have greater abilities to deal with physical "stressors" than unfit ones, everything else being equal.

Responsible unfit divers end up calling dives when fit divers can still go out and enjoy themselves.

It is of benefit for all divers (regardless of current fitness level) to strive for greater fitness, not just for diving but for "life". Personal fitness should be a part of the risk-asessment of a dive.

Maybe people don´t talk about it much because it is (or should be) obvious that it is a factor that impacts all dives (in varying degrees)? TBH, if you haven´t figured that out by the time you´ve finished OW then fitness is the least of your issues...

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Hi ... my name is Bob. I'm 56 years old, 5'9", and about 225 lbs ... on a good day.

During the past seven years I've logged about 2,000 dives ... most of them shore dives involving a pretty fair amount of surface swimming, and commonly dives that require me to spend at least some of the dive swimming against current.

Despite the fact that I'm an old, fat, ******* my daily routine includes 30-minute workouts on a stationary bike in the morning ... I'll log between 8 and 9 "miles" according to the little gauge on the front of the bike.

My typical week-end could have me doing several dives ... sometimes in doubles ... sometimes also with deco bottles ... often lugging them down the beach, kicking out to a descent point, doing my dive, and lugging them back up when I'm done. Besides carrying sometimes about 175 lbs of gear, I'm usually the one helping weaker divers into and out of the water.

I'm reading claims that fat increases your air consumption? To my concern, not nearly as much as decent skills and good technique. On my recent trip to Indonesia I typically ended the dive with more air than all the skinny people on our boat. I typically got about 68 minutes out of those oversize beer cans that most dive ops around the world like to use for scuba cylinders.

Fat people have more trouble with buoyancy control? Maybe ... but tell that to my tech buddies who I spend long deco stops with ... typically while managing doubles, two deco bottles, and sometimes a scooter. I'd like to see how well most of you can hold a 20-foot stop for 20 minutes when the bottom's 180 feet underneath you and you've got that much gear to manage.

Besides diving, I like to do other things. Sometimes I'll go spend a week-end in the mountains ... this past Sunday I spent several hours on Mt. Baker, breaking trail in about a foot of fresh powder on snowshoes. That's more cardio than I'll ever get diving. Guess what? I didn't die of a heart attack.

Am I fat? Yup. Am I fit? Depends on your perspective, I suppose. Should I be diving? Well ... how many of y'all can claim 2,000 dives in seven years? It ain't killed me yet ... and I ain't feelin' much like slowing down yet either.

Finally, let me say that I'd like the opportunity to see how well some of you fitness freaks could keep up with me on scuba gear for a couple of days ... might prove enlightening ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)