Weight Lifting to help with Scuba Fitness

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by Steve S

Hi D,

any strength training you do will help but I think you may be overweighted? with a single and drysuit I use 8kg in fresh water and 10kg in the sea and with a 3mm wetsuit only 6kg [sea] I reckon along with the training a better fitting suit would help.

Safe diving,
Steve

Good advice Steve. However, I'm a midget and I need 13k in a single and my neo drysuit

[Steve S]

Originally Posted by Buoyant Babe

Good advice Steve. However, I'm a midget and I need 13k in a single and my neo drysuit

I assume you got the suit 2nd hand from a giant? I had a similar problem to D when I first started with an 8mm semi but I still only needed about 11kg. I guess the female of the species has more air spaces than us blurkes

Safe diving,
Steve

[Woz]

Originally Posted by Steve S

I assume you got the suit 2nd hand from a giant? I had a similar problem to D when I first started with an 8mm semi but I still only needed about 11kg. I guess the female of the species has more air spaces than us blurkes

Safe diving,
Steve

And more buoyant fat.

[LadyD]

My lower body is much bigger than my upper body. As is typical with "pear shaped" women. My hover is upside down with my arse in the air which amused the divemasters no end.
Women have a much higher percentage body fat then men. Hence why it's easier for blokes to lose weight faster.
The benefit is I never get cold .

The amusement in scuba is that "light" legs are interesting. As I weight train I find my muscle proportion changes and pray that one day my legs won't keep floating upwards when diving.

[Woz]

Get some jetfins or Turtles and feel your feet sink again. Plus they are cheap and good.

[jonny200]

hi lady D what is your current exercise programme that your currently doing? if u want some advice on exercises for this just drop me a pm.

cheers John

[Ant P]

Originally Posted by LadyD

I've been working with my trainer and he suggested one arm lifts above the head with a 10-16kg dumbell. I can do 10kg at the moment.

Not quite sure what you mean by one arm lifts, but if you mean shoulder press, 10-16kg is a pretty respectable weight. Do it with a dumbell in each hand though which should help you balance. For all over strength and stability exercises like squats and deadlifts are also good and will make your kit seem less heavy. You also should work on arms, eg bicep curls and tricep pulldowns as that should make moving your kit around easier.

But as you have a personal trainer, you should really get the advice from them as they will be able to show you how to do the exercises properly. Good form is always essential to get the most out of weight training.

Cheers, Ant

[jonny200]

Originally Posted by Ant P

Not quite sure what you mean by one arm lifts, but if you mean shoulder press, 10-16kg is a pretty respectable weight. Do it with a dumbell in each hand though which should help you balance. For all over strength and stability exercises like squats and deadlifts are also good and will make your kit seem less heavy. You also should work on arms, eg bicep curls and tricep pulldowns as that should make moving your kit around easier.

But as you have a personal trainer, you should really get the advice from them as they will be able to show you how to do the exercises properly. Good form is always essential to get the most out of weight training.

Cheers, Ant

I assume she means unilateral shoulder press which is an excellent exercise for building core power.

Id reccomend you to stick to compound movements which involve the large muscle groups such as chest back shoulders quads hamstrings. No need to worry about the smaller muscle groups such as biceps and triceps as they take alot of the loading from the other exersices such as chest press and bent over row (back) any additional training to the arms will most likely overtrain the muscle group

[LadyD]

Cheers for the replies. Been checking out Jet Fins. I think my dad used to dive with those in the Navy. Interesting. Will chat to him on them as well.

On excercise: I have a personal trainer at work so it's been going really well. I am doing 1 arm lifts of 10-14 kilos from waist above head standing.
I can benchpress about 20 kilos at the moment. That's two dumbells of 10 kilos each. My PT wants me to work slowly up to 40kg.

I do 5 days a week split between cardio (bike, treadmill, rower, elipse), swimming, yoga, strength training(weights), aerobics etc.

My biggest weakness is my right knee my right quad is tighter than a drum and it really is a pain in the arse on that knee.

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by Steve S

I assume you got the suit 2nd hand from a giant? I had a similar problem to D when I first started with an 8mm semi but I still only needed about 11kg. I guess the female of the species has more air spaces than us blurkes


Safe diving,
Steve

Yeah, between my ears

Originally Posted by Woz

And more buoyant fat.

Of course, Adonis