Exercise routines for scuba

[brsnow]

Looking at overall trying to loose weight . But I really would like to improve air consumption.

Do y’all focus mainly on sprints or distance running ?
Bicycling etc.

Pilates, classic traditional Pilates works amazing for fitness and especially air consumption.

 

[mcohen1021]

1. Breathe in
2. Breathe out
3. Power inflator curls
4. Dive Buddy benchpress
5. 100 yd Dive Gear lugging across sand

 

[scubadada]

This is a good article. Their chart has average RMV based on weight. According to that I should be and average of 17l/m and I usually get between 15-18 depending on the situation.

Your RMV Rate, How To Calculate It To Be A Better DIver!

Knowing your Respiratory Minute Volume (RMV) is extremely important to divers. It allows you to plan for the amount of gas that will be consumed on dives and measure your performance.

greatdivers.com

This will not work, or be even close, for some (many?) divers. I weigh 185-190. article says my RMV should be about 0.6 cu ft/min. My average RMV over the last 1,706 dives of all types, is 0.36 cu ft/min. the median, mode, and weighted avg RMV for the 522 divers who responded to the poll is 0.5-0.59 cu ft/min Average Gas Consumption

The article is a nice summary of factors that affect the RMV and ways you might improve it, also discussed in the SB thread

Their wetsuit recommendations are close for me, under the category of divers who tend to cold

 

[Chavodel8en]

I agree with everyone's recommendation that swimming is the best workout for scuba diving.

I consider myself fairly fit - I jog and walk alot - but whenever I scuba, I can always tell that Im using muscles that dont get enough workout. Im always sore afterward.

I dont really have access to a pool, so I dontt swim as a workout, unfortunately.

 

[TMHeimer]

I agree with everyone's recommendation that swimming is the best workout for scuba diving.

I consider myself fairly fit - I jog and walk alot - but whenever I scuba, I can always tell that Im using muscles that dont get enough workout. Im always sore afterward.

I dont really have access to a pool, so I dontt swim as a workout, unfortunately.

Yes. I dive weekly during the warm weather and rarely have any muscle pain afterwords. In winter I dive at most bi-weekly, sometimes not for a month, and do have some muscle pain. Been doing that for years.

 

[Alaskan Scuba Dude]

Eat well—sleep well—think well—live well.

 

[PirateFoxy]

If you’re reducing calories to lose weight, add some weight lifting type exercises (body weight, actual weights, random heavy stuff around the house, whatever works for you, your muscles don‘t care if it’s a proper dumbbell or a can of soup) to help maintain muscle. Muscle is calorically ‘expensive’ to have around because just having it sitting there (when you are not exercising) takes some energy. So our bodies, when we are not getting enough calories in, look for ways to reduce our caloric needs, which removing ‘excess’ muscle does nicely. So you want to be using it enough that your body thinks you need to keep it around.

The flip side to this is that building some muscles like the big ones in your thighs and butt can help with dieting since they raise your maintenance calorie needs, which means you can eat more food and still have a calorie deficit. For smaller build people - like women - this can be especially helpful as for some people the amount of maintenance calories is pretty low, so when you reduce that further to be in deficit you have trouble getting a balanced diet, plus you’re not eating enough volume to not feel hungry all the time. So if you can put in some time doing stuff like squats, you may find that you’re then able to have a more reasonable calorie intake and still lose weight. Though as above you have to keep doing the squats so your body doesn’t try to reduce all that lovely new muscle.

(You can sometimes build a little muscle mass while eating in a caloric deficit, but if you really want to put muscle on, you’re best to do that before starting the diet, as your body also resists adding new muscle while you’re in a caloric deficit. So you’ll be doing work for minimal gain vs doing some strength building work first.) (And since some women do worry, you are very unlikely to end up built like the She-Hulk from adding weight lifting to your exercise schedule unless you’re really working for it. Women just tend to put on less bulky - and thus less obvious - muscle mass. Genetics and hormones and so on.)