Fitness and diving

[happy-diver]

Pushbike riding

 

[Hartattack]

GUE's Fitness for Divers is a great book to help you along your journey. I'm in the first few weeks of the intermediate program, and I am enjoying it so far; it seems to target the muscle groups needed in diving. With that said, my normal fitness routine was training for triathlon events, so this program is a welcomed change of pace and an added weight training introduction. 10/10 recommend.

 

[Xaman Ha]

Bodyweight exercises will not give you a significant strength stimulus for a long time (unless you're able to do advanced calisthenics). Incremental loading = barbell is required for that. Air squats and the like are cardio, not strength exercises. However, bodyweight training is better than no training.

Cardio, on the other hand, is easy to do. Just convert your walks to slow runs and increase the pace over time. There are many other options as well: swimming, cycling, youtube videos etc. All you need to do is elevate your heart and breathing rate for sustained periods of time.

Once you've reached an average level of cardiovascular fitness (maybe you have it already), you should do both LISS (low-intensity steady state) and HIIT training, 1-2 sessions of each per week.

 

[Cdncoldwater]

Bodyweight exercises will not give you a significant strength stimulus for a long time (unless you're able to do advanced calisthenics). Incremental loading = barbell is required for that. Air squats and the like are cardio, not strength exercises. However, bodyweight training is better than no training.

Cardio, on the other hand, is easy to do. Just convert your walks to slow runs and increase the pace over time. There are many other options as well: swimming, cycling, youtube videos etc. All you need to do is elevate your heart and breathing rate for sustained periods of time.

Once you've reached an average level of cardiovascular fitness (maybe you have it already), you should do both LISS (low-intensity steady state) and HIIT training, 1-2 sessions of each per week.

Respectfully disagree, body weight and isometrics can increase strength; did lots of it in the military and it works; especially for functional strength and endurance.

 

[DogDiver]

My routine aside from at least one 110 minute cave dive to 100 feet is. I swim one mile lap swims at a local pool twice a week. Can do the mile swim in 40 minutes. Not to shabby for a 70 year old.

 

[JBFG]

@Cuttlefish1990 I’ve trainers a lot of people in my job, ranging for top athletes to someone that couldn’t touch their toes. I can say that High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) would be one of the best exercise regime for you.

You can find lots on YouTube. PM me if you want some recommendations. You can do HIIT at home without any weights. Doing HIIT you will improve your cardio, build muscle, and increase core strength.
You don’t even need a long time, 30 min is more than enough!

 

[tarponchik]

Ideally, you should do what you need to do to become good in what you dream to do. If your dream job is to dig, nothing will prepare you better than digging pits or trenches with a shovel at least 8 hrs a day. If your dream job is to load and unload trucks and/or railway cars, nothing will prepare you better than loading 100 pd sacks of sand onto a platform. If your dream job is to be a courier on a bike, you need to bike. Etc, etc. Exercise, of course, is only a simulation of a job. So one has to think what kind of exercise is the best simulation of your dream job. I do not see how running or swimming in a pool make you fit for a DM. If a DM needs to carry lots of tanks and gear, and quite often they have to, running and swimming won't help.

 

[Wathdoc]

I am similar in height as you, and am not renowned for my muscular strength. I have always found that strength work has helped me more than cardio in my diving. This was especially true when starting tec diving. For cardio I have alway's found cycling the most useful with fin kicking and bodyweight exercises which can be very progressive in load.

 

[boulderjohn]

But, here is the KEY, stretch before any work outs, plenty of Youtube videos on stretching prior to working out. As with anything, start slow and build, keep a log so you can look back and see your progression.

This advice is controversial at best, and it is possible that more people disagree with it than agree with it.

Stretching before or after a workout: Only one of them is right

 

[jadairiii]

This advice is controversial at best, and it is possible that more people disagree with it than agree with it.

Stretching before or after a workout: Only one of them is right

This is the internet, you get what you pay for. But, in full disclosure, I will preface my prior post, I have used static stretching in one form or another since I was a cross country runner in High School, 41 years ago (sub 16 min 3 miler and a 4:20 miler). I still stretch every morning, static and dynamic. I am now 60, I swim masters now (3200 to 3400 yards in :50 min - interval per 100 between 1:25 to 1:30 average), twice a week and gym 3 times a week. All of my injuries never involved stretching. And I have had plenty of sports injuries.

Do what works for your body.