Running, Excercise and Diving.....

[flyingfrog1]

My 15 year old son and I got O/W certified last fall and really enjoy diving. Living in cold country, the YMCA pool is the best we'll have until spring.
My question is this: My son runs Track and Cross Country and will be running 25-35 miles a week on average all summer to train for fall Cross Country season. I've heard heavy excercise before or after diving is not a good idea. I'm a little concerned especially at his age. Any comments or thoughts?

 

[ScubaJorgen]

Have a can of beer. Before opening it shake it. Open it. Basically the same thing happens in a diver after excercising oison:.

Recent theory about bubble formation indicate that bubbles form during decompression at small cavities (called nuclei) that exsists in liquid. Shaking (beer) or excercising (diver) introduces more of these cavities.

I would stop excercising a couple of days before and after heavy diving. About my weekly dives at 30 feet/10 meter I am not worried: I just run and swim as well .

 

[Dr Deco]

Dear flying frog:

Running

The evidence does not indicate that exercise is bad for you, but I would not suggest running on the day of the dive. I would refrain from all heavy work and have a team of “roadies” carry all of my stuff. (Can you get a better deal than that?)

Fitness

It has been in the diving lore for decades that physically fit individuals are more protected from DCS than those in bad shape. We have all heard this.

[1] A group of researchers in France recently published a study on SCUBA divers and compared fitness (maximum oxygen consumption) with the amount of Doppler bubbles measured post dive. The more fit, the fewer bubbles in this hyperbaric study.

[2] In a study at NASA, we noted that fewer Doppler bubbles appeared in fit individuals than unfit ones in hypobaric [altitude] trials.

[3] Dr Brubakk in Norway has found that exercise trained rats did much better than their “couch potato” partners.

SO???

Exercise is good, but probably not on dive day – or post dive that day.

There was a time that I was a chamber attendant for hyperbaric therapy. I ran 6 miles to work, made two dives a day to 45 feet for two hours, and then ran home. I did this five days a week every weekday of the year for several years. I never had a problem with that regimen. Good shape or good luck?

Dr Deco :doctor: