Trim "too horizontal"?

[wKkaY]

I just bought some accessories for my Gopro and tried it out in the swimming pool to record myself.

I've realized for awhile that I hyper-extend my back while making fine tuning adjustments to hover in horizontal trim, but never actually took a video of it. I think that happens because my feel for trim angle is the line between the knees and shoulder, as opposed to the line between the knees and belly.

So I guess my question is - is it bad form to do this? I've been cautioned before that keeping this posture might not be sustainable for my back as I grow older.

When I get to the pool again, I'll try to rotate my knees down and relax the back to see if it's more comfortable.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Stop bragging.

 

[Kevrumbo]

My back begins to fatigue, and it aggravates a chronic pinched nerve condition in my neck -holding that extreme horizontal trim.

Hold that active hard horizontal trim for as long as necessary along with proper frog & modified frog/flutter kicks as needed to pass over a silty section of an Overhead Cave/Wreck, so as not to stir it up. Otherwise, go ahead relax your back & neck, let the legs/knees & head drop a bit and passively hover above the silt (or open water reef/sandy bottom) while looking around enjoying/examining the scenery.

The idea in the "passive horizontal hover" is to adjust weighting so that your whole body trim moves vertically up & down as a unit during breathing cycles, without your head & upper torso coming up & knees rotating down into the silt.

 

[Kharon]

I used to do that. Then I got some tank strap pockets. By moving the right proportion of my lead to them I no longer have to strain my back and I can hover upside down just like a trumpet fish.

 

[LiteHedded]

That does not look comfortable

 

[decompression]

As long as it's comfortable, keep it. For long dives I'll drop my arms slightly but just a little movement of any body part is usually enough to stay loose. I'm knocking on 50's door and I'll keep the position as long as I can.


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[uncfnp]

It would be interesting to get a therapist's or orthopedist take on this posture. I may show it to one when I go back to work just to see what they say. Certainly out of the water that back arched/neck extension position could cause some significant strain on the spine and supporting soft tissue.

But then again, if you've got the core strength to handle it...

 

[Diver0001]

This is a position I normally teach as a technique to bring the pelvis (and ergo the feet) back down to horizontal when they start getting too high. It's handy in the context of drysuit diving to compensate temporarily for getting out of trim. I've never tried holding this position for a whole dive but if it's working for you and you're not in pain then you probably answered your own question.

The obvious observation if you *need* to be in this position to stay horizontal is that you're not in trim. I would suggest moving any trim weight you have higher up on the set to the south.

R..

 

[RJP]

It would be interesting to get a therapist's or orthopedist take on this posture. I may show it to one when I go back to work just to see what they say. Certainly out of the water that back arched/neck extension position could cause some significant strain on the spine and supporting soft tissue.

But then again, if you've got the core strength to handle it...

The human spine is very happy to get a break from supporting weight in a vertical position. At least mine is.

To me, the main measure of "horizontal" is the femur. If your knees are bent and you femur is horizontal, unless you're a contortionist it's hard to go too far "head up" or "head down"

I can comfortably stay "very horizontal" overall with very little effort, but as you'll see from this photo my tank indicates that my back is not perfectly horizontal.

In very calm water I can - and have - nodded off during long deco stops in this sort of trim so I'm guessing it's not very hard on the body. Sort of like that light sleep when you're on an airplane. I had to be woken up by the guides on several dives in Truk back in March. By the third or fourth day of diving the guides knew how to tell when I was asleep vs simply hanging out. (When I get that trance-like feeling coming on and feel like I can go out I'll interlace my fingers around the line and sort of hold the line between my fingers and the top of my head.)

 

[uncfnp]

The human spine is very happy to get a break from supporting weight in a vertical position. At least mine is. ...//...

Yes, the weight bearing stress is off the spine and the water does lessen the core strength needed to hold such a position but it is still an unnatural posture for the human body. And there is a significant difference between his position in the photo and yours. His hip/legs are extended at the pelvis exaggerating the normal lumber curve and his neck is also hyperextended. Both place a greater degree of stress on the spine then the more neutral position in your photo.