Although every diver understands the need of good gear maintenance, diving calls for more than just a set of useful tools. Enjoying your dives and preventing injuries depend on your being physically fit. Frequent cardiovascular activity increases your endurance and enables you to have consistent breathing during dives. Among the good aerobic activities you could think about are swimming, running, and cycling.
One physically taxing sport requiring a great degree of endurance is diving. A good cardiovascular system increases your endurance, thereby enabling you to enjoy your dives without feeling totally tired both before and after them. Excellent activities for increasing your aerobic capacity include cardio ones such swimming, cycling, jogging, and walking.
To increase your cardiovascular fitness and build your muscles, you might also attempt high-intensity interval training (HIIT), a workout comprising brief bursts of hard exercise followed by brief rests. By helping you burn fat, this kind of activity will lower your air consumption during diving.
For divers too, flexibility helps to avoid stiff joints and achy muscles. Try yoga or include stretching into your regular exercise. The "monkey grab," in which you curl your toes around a pen or other object, is a terrific yoga pose that works your feet. This increases the muscles supporting your arch and might help to reduce foot cramps when you are swimming.
For a diver, flexibility is equally vital than strength. Stretching warms the muscles and can help avoid common dive-wrecking ailments such torn calf muscles. Lying on your back, perform a "seated" calf raise by straightening your legs and pointing skyward. Repeated two to three times a week, gently lower yourself until your toes contact the floor.
Regular exercise helps diving as well since it increases lung capacity and endurance. HIIT—high-intensity interval training—is one of the greatest workouts for this. This comprises brief workout spurts interspersed with rest times. Among the several variations are leaping lunges and jump squats.
Divers also have to eat healthily and keep hydrated during exercise. Eat lots of lean meats and healthy carbohydrates; steer clear of sweet drinks. And keep in mind that before beginning a new exercise program, it's usually wise to have a doctor's clearance. Any major cardiovascular problems can be found with a comprehensive examination before they become diving-wrecking crises.
Apart from enhancing buoyancy and stability, consistent exercise helps to increase confidence and lower the risk of common diving problems include muscular cramps and decompression sickness. Including strength training—such as our special underwater fitness sessions at Superpro Samui—into your routines can also help to raise your water comfort level.
For those who neither enjoy or have access to conventional land-based exercises, water aerobics and other pool activities offer a low impact cardio and strength-training workout. These motions' rhythmic quality might help you achieve a meditative state that calms mental chatter and lowers tension.
These water-based push-ups will test your core muscles and balance: Bracing your core and raising your body halfway out of the water, stand at the pool edge with your hands shoulder-width apart. Spend three seconds holding then lower your body back into the water. Three times through this as well.
