Staying dive fit - part 2

I did my best to have an austerity Christmas honestly I did. I ate a little less, drank a little less, stayed at home and shopped a lot less too. The trouble is, with all that lounging around I still managed to end up with the calorie imbalance of a slug. This month I have to renew my diving medical and prove that I really am fitter than the slug I feel like.

Having talked about dive fitness in December I thought I had better do something about it. If you're thinking the same way as me read on, but before the adrenaline kicks in a few words of caution. Rushing in to unfamiliar exercise may result in an injury - take my word for it as I have a chronic case of 'diver’s back'. So for this month’s Top Tips I've enlisted the help of an osteopath and a fitness instructor.

“One of the worst things you can do after a period of inactivity is rush straight into your usual activities – particularly where heavy lifting is involved,” says osteopath Dr John Griffiths who is a director of LEAF Osteopathy Clinic on Anglesey. Dr Griffiths regularly treats patients suffering from sport-related injuries especially of the back. “The key to avoiding back injuries and general joint strains is flexibility,” he said. “You can help to maintain this by doing gentle stretching and mobility exercises.” If you are generally fit and not suffering from a pre-existing injury Dr Griffiths recommends the following exercises while lying on a firm surface. Repeat each one five to ten times and do them slowly:

5 simple exercises to try

1. Lying down on a flat, firm surface with legs together, raise your knees but leave your feet flat on the floor. Gently swing your knees from side to side but keep your shoulders flat. The idea is to rotate the lower back.
2. Lying in the same position, lift one knee and gently 'hug' your knee to bring it towards your shoulder. Repeat for the other knee.
3. Still on your back with legs together, stretch your right arm straight out along the floor and turn your head to the right. Maintaining this position use your left hand to pull your right knee towards your left shoulder. Again, it's your lower back that will rotate to achieve this. Repeat for the left side.
4. This time lift both knees up all the way up over your chest and then back down. 5. Finish by repeating exercise one.

Leona Valliere-Evans is a professional fitness and Pilates trainer who agrees with this advice. She said: “Many sports injuries have their root in inadequate warm ups and also cool downs.” Leona acknowledges that a diver’s performance in the water depends on maintaining good circulation and breathing. She is an enthusiastic advocate of swimming. “Swimming is an ideal aerobic exercise that promotes stamina but there are other advantages too: You will maintain water confidence; unlike activities such as running and squash your joints are not being subjected to the impact of your weight when you swim.”

Pilates is a discipline that teaches control of core abdominal muscles. The benefits to supporting the spine and strengthening the lower back are clear. Both lifting of gear and finning make demands on your lower back. Pilates also teaches breath control and posture. Classes have become so popular that some instructors specialise in Pilates for golf, rugby, and equestrian sports. I checked this out and yes there are Pilates classes for divers available, albeit in the USA.

But of course there is no substitute for practicing your scuba skills as well. Why not pop along to your local dive centre or club to see if you can take part in an organised pool session.

5 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR SCUBA SKILLS

1. If your basic dive skills are really rusty, book a Scuba Review course.
2. Practice buoyancy skills – for example hovering but also look at your gear in fine detail and see if you can improve trim and balance by experimenting with the distribution of your weights and the position of your cylinder.
3. If your buoyancy and dive skills are okay, try combining them. Try regulator retrieval and mask clearing whilst hovering off the bottom without either crashing to the bottom or floating to the top.
4. Try an out-of-air exercise with a buddy, again whilst hovering off the bottom.
5. Try out different kit – it's good fun and quite educational to get a group of divers together on the pool bottom and have them all swap their masks, fins, and even entire aqualungs around!
6. No dive kit? No problem. With mask, snorkel and fins you can still practise finning and surface dives for stamina. You can even practise mask clearing at the surface.

CONTACTS

Sport Diver wishes to thank Dave Tommis at Holyhead Sports Centre, as well as John Griffiths and Leona Valliere-Evans for their help and advice. They can be contacted at:

John Griffiths
LEAF Osteopathy
Menai Bridge
Anglesey
01248 717744
www.leafhealth.co.uk

Leona Valliere-Evans
07968 551405
www.leonaspilates.co.uk
leonaspilates@btinternet.com