Many newcomers to diving assume that physical fitness isn’t all that important. Certain aspects of diving, like floating, drifting and breathing from a tank don’t initially strike folks as extremely demanding practices, but like most sports and activities, having a healthy level of physical fitness can dramatically increase your enjoyment of the overall experience.
There are a myriad of ways in which having a healthy heart and a proper level of cardiovascular fitness can improve your diving. Your lung capacity, for one, is greatly improved with proper fitness, which in turn extends your dive time per tank, meaning, on average you get more time in the water. Similarly, people with poor fitness levels consume oxygen much faster than those with a healthy heart and a strong lung capacity, making each dive shorter in length and more strenuous overall.
But what can you do to get in shape for diving? Luckily, the answers are pretty simple—although making lifestyle changes can be really hard. So, if you’re just getting started in diving and want to review your fitness options, here are some general guidelines:
1. Eat Right
Most people imagine that getting in shape and living a healthy lifestyle means doing endless cardio and spending hours upon hours in the gym. Exercising is certainly part of the equation, but the truth is that eating a nutritious, well-balanced diet is the best thing you can do to lower your blood pressure, increase general fitness and lose weight.
Everyone’s personal physiology is a little different and it’s certainly not a case of one-diet-fits-all, but generally, a great place to start is the maximum avoidance of sugar—especially processed sugar. Start reading ingredients on the labels of the products you purchase. Is sugar a prominent ingredient (more than 5-10g)? If so, you might want to consider finding a healthier substitute. Skip the candy bar and eat a piece of fruit.
Also, make it a habit to cook your own meals as often as possible. When picking up groceries at the supermarket, try to only shop on the outskirts and avoid the central aisles which are filled with heavily processed foods. As a strategy, try to only eat only real foods such as meats, fruits and vegetables and a limited amount of dairies and grains which are typically harder for your body to process.
2. Quit Smoking
Smoking can be incredibly detrimental to your physical fitness. Diving is all about breath control, and healthy lungs make that process much easier and efficient. Plus, when you’re smoking, carbon monoxide gets introduced into the bloodstream in greater levels than normal, which in turn limits the blood’s carrying capacity for oxygen and your body’s ability to purge unwanted gases.
According to the US National Library of Medicine, “Compared to non-smokers, chronic smokers are at increased risk of developing atherosclerotic vascular disease, myocardial infarction, unstable angina and sudden death. The acute systemic hemodynamic response to smoking includes an increase in the heart rate, arterial pressure, cardiac output and myocardial contractility. These acute effects are primarily mediated by activation of the sympathetic nervous system. In patients with heart disease, smoking may cause a deterioration in cardiac performance.”
3. Work Out
After eating well and limiting the amount of toxicity in your body, working out is the best thing you can do to get fit and healthy for diving. Many laymans commonly refer to diving as “a lazy person’s sport,” and while that can be true and some dives can definitely be relaxing, diving itself is a real calorie burner.
The human body’s tendency and natural process of thermoregulation means that you burn a ton of calories when submerged in water—especially cool/cold water. This is why, after a full day of diving, you’re often hungry, bordering on ravenous. On top of burning calories to navigate the dive site, your body is consuming calories just by being submerged. So the physiological demands of diving can be significant indeed.
To offset these demands, it helps to have a strong level of cardiovascular fitness. What’s a good form of cardio for you? That really depends on your baseline fitness, lifestyle, dietary choices, etc., but generally, anything that gets you breathing and your heart rate elevated is a great place to start.
Running, jogging and hiking are excellent forms of cardio, but if these are unrealistic for you, even taking a walk can be enormously beneficial. For exercise that works the body, but is less impactful on your joints, try various forms of yoga—especially helpful because they’ll teach and reinforce balanced, disciplined breathing techniques—a win-win for great diving health.