Weight Lifting to help with Scuba Fitness

[LadyD]

Hi,

I'm looking for a bit of advice for upper body excercise to increase fitness. When I was down at Horsea a bit ago heafting my weight belt out of the water was a bit of a joke. I know I'm a girl but I should be fit enough to hold my own with others in the boat.

I excercise very regularly and have done for about 9 months before I got back into diving but I am no lightweight and need lots of lead to keep me down so in saltwater with a 7mm semi dry we are talking about 14-16kg of lead to keep me down.

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.

Also wanted to know if anyone had run into the issue of full legs of water in a semi dry. I look like I have HUGE ankles Again I was struggling to lift my steel tanks, and 7 mm semi full of water up that rusty ladder. Any advice besides bloody military squats with dumbells ? I have a weak right knee and after about 50 of those I can't walk down stairs for 3 days.

In OZ I'm hoping I can get away with 9-10kg (3mm full wetsuit or 5mil shorty) but we will see what the divemaster has to say.

Cheers

D

[Woz]

Get a job filling cylinders. You'll be swinging them round in no time.

[Crieagle]

Cant beat woz's advice.

Sounds like your semidry is not a good fit. Wetsuit should be nice and tight to prevent water flushing through it. Also sounds like your neck seal is not as good as your leg seals. Losing weight body wise will help you shift some of those kilos from your belt.

Those steps are hard to get up for lots of people, so you are not alone on that one.

Hope the rest of the advice is better than mine and woz's pitiful attemp

[Woz]

I'm serious about the cylinder thing.

We get an influx of new divers at this time of year and they all moan that the cylinders are "far too heavy" even a single 10 and are all a bit pathetic. Then an experienced wee laydee diver goes stomping past with twin 12's. It's all about continually lifting and swinging them about.

[big_si]

Agree with Woz here. When starting diving I couldn't believe people wearing twin cylinders when a single seemed heavy to me (and I'm a big hulking bloke)

These days lugging twins around is pretty easy. I make it hard for myself (train hard, fight easy) by carrying twins around in one hand as much as possible..... Plus it makes me look tough! Hehehehe

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by Woz

I'm serious about the cylinder thing.

We get an influx of new divers at this time of year and they all moan that the cylinders are "far too heavy" even a single 10 and are all a bit pathetic. Then an experienced wee laydee diver goes stomping past with twin 12's. It's all about continually lifting and swinging them about.

I was just saying this the other day at my LDS. I picked up a 12L dumpy and said "I can't believe I used to think these were heavy"

[LadyD]

Thanks guys for the advice so far. I work in the corperate world of IT so filling tanks would have to be something I did on dive nights. I gotta make the money to afford this expensive hobby ;-)

On the weight loss front I've lost over 11 stone so far and it's coming off slowly but not going to let that stand in the way of diving. I'm almost 6ft tall and I am never going to be tiny so gotta make do with what I got. I totally agree my neck seals suck on that semidry but it's my first cold water wetsuit and until I got money for a custom it's gotta work. Hmmm could see if there is anyone who takes in wetsuits I guess. It fits perfectly on the bottom but is big on top.

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by LadyD

Thanks guys for the advice so far. I work in the corperate world of IT so filling tanks would have to be something I did on dive nights. I gotta make the money to afford this expensive hobby ;-)

On the weight loss front I've lost over 11 stone so far and it's coming off slowly but not going to let that stand in the way of diving. I'm almost 6ft tall and I am never going to be tiny so gotta make do with what I got. I totally agree my neck seals suck on that semidry but it's my first cold water wetsuit and until I got money for a custom it's gotta work. Hmmm could see if there is anyone who takes in wetsuits I guess. It fits perfectly on the bottom but is big on top.

11 stone! WOW! Congrats

[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

[LadyD]

Ta from Titanic to mere trawler *laugh*