Physical Conditioning and Training

by Cameron Martz

Strength Training

 Technical diving means lots of heavy lifting.  From doubles to rebreathers to DPVs, nothing is light in this sport.  Strength training will not only make a diver more capable on the surface, but the resulting physiological changes may also reduce a divers risk underwater.

 Increased Physical Capacity

Strength training most obviously increases muscular strength, which means that a fit diver can manage large equipment more easily.  Besides meaning that you will require fewer trips to haul all of your gear, decreasing surface physical exertion leaves more energy reserves for the dive itself.

 Increased Bone Mineral Density

Weight bearing exercises, in general, stimulate bones to increase in strength, mainly through an increase in bone mineral density (BMD).  Special cells, called osteoblasts, are mobilized to areas of stress within the bone tissue.  The osteoblasts lay down a protein matrix which eventually calcifies into new bone tissue. 

The greater the stress placed upon the bones, the greater the increase in BMD.  Besides reducing the risk of stress fractures from walking around in heavy dive gear, an increase in BMD may also protect a diver from decompression-related osteonecrosis.  Decompression stress can impede the blood supply to the skeletal system, resulting in cellular death (necrosis) and a weakening of the bone tissue.  By starting with a strong skeletal system, divers suffering from DCS may experience less damage to the long shafts and articulating surfaces of their bones.  Additionally, divers that regularly stress their bones through strength training may heal any damage that occurs faster, as their bone modeling system is in a chronically higher state of activity.  

 Increased Thermogenesis

Lean muscle mass is also a source of heat generation for a diver on long exposures.  The more muscle mass you have, the more heat your body can generate internally to make up for that being lost to the water around you.  Keep in mind that both a calorie source and water are required for thermogenesis- for lengthy exposures, this means eating and drinking during your dive and decompression.

 Additionally, an increase in lean muscle results in an increase in resting metabolism, which can ultimately lead to fat loss.  As in the section on cardiovascular conditioning, an increased ratio of lean tissue to fat will result in a greater rate of gas diffusion into and out of the diver as a whole.

 Effective Strength Training

The most effective way to increase strength is to overload the skeletal muscles with external resistance through a range of motion.  In other words, lift weights.  

 Weight training does not require a 10,000 sq. ft. fitness facility, although there are many advantages to joining a gym when one is available.  First, a greater variety of exercises can be performed in a full-sized fitness facility.  Second, we are a social animal, motivated to perform our best when surrounded by our peers.  Lifting in the presence of others usually pushes us to work harder than we would on our own.  Third, getting out of the house reduces the chance youll quit before the work is done.

 Regardless of where you choose to train, the fundamentals stay the same.

 Begin with a Compound Movement

A compound movement involves moving more than one joint through a range of motion.  Examples of compound movements are listed in Table 1 for each body part.

 

TABLE 1	Compound Movements
Body Part	Exercise
Legs	Leg Press, Squat, Lunge
Shoulders	Military Press, Arnold Press
Biceps	Chin-up
Triceps	Dip
Chest	Bench Press
Back	Lateral Pull-down, Seated Row

Compound movements engage several muscle groups and help the body to increase the blood supply to the targeted body part.  Besides acting as a warm-up, this increased blood supply facilitates the removal of lactic acid during and after activity and allows the muscle to perform a greater amount of work.

 Additional compound movements can be included to complete the workout, or you can begin to isolate individual muscle groups with simple movements utilizing a single joint.

 The Sum of the Parts

Isolation, or single joint, movements can be used to fatigue specific parts of your body while reducing the effect of other parts that may already be fatigued.  You can build mass while increasing definition at the same time if you break large muscle groups into their parts and train them to complete fatigue.

 

TABLE 2	Isolation Movements
Body Part	Exercise
Legs	Quadriceps Extension, Hamstring Curl
Shoulders	Lateral Raise, Front Raise
Biceps	Preacher Curl, Zottman Curl
Triceps	Cable Triceps Extension, Dumbbell Kickback
Chest	Pectoral Fly (Upper, Middle, Lower)
Back	Rhomboid Fly, Straight Arm Kickdown

For example, a good biceps workout could begin with chin-ups, which is a compound movement involving the biceps, several muscles of the back, and several muscles of the shoulder.  The lateral head, or outer biceps, could then be targeted with dumbbell hammer curls, and the medial head, or inner biceps, could be targeted with straight bar concentration curls (see references below for exercise descriptions).  Such a workout guarantees that each part of the biceps has been completely fatigued and stimulated to grow.

 Table 2 lists a very small fraction of the isolation exercises available within an average fitness facility.  At last count, I rotate between 105 low-risk exercises with variations totaling over 250.

 Strength Starts from the Ground

In order to lift anything, the body requires a strong trunk and steady legs.  Neglecting leg and trunk strength is the biggest mistake made in every gym, every day.  In fact, if you can only do one workout per week, focus on your legs, lower back, and abdominals.  Youll be more capable in the long run than someone who focuses on his or her upper body.

 Here's a good test for the next time you carry a heavy object:  if you experience whole body fatigue or become winded before your arms feel like theyre going to fall off, you need more leg work, not more arm work.

 The Importance of Proper Form

The next time you are in a gym, observe how others perform various exercises and do your best not to look like they do.  In a gym with over 2,500 members, Ive seen fewer than 10 who really know what theyre doing without receiving training from me or my company.  Its not that the proper form for strength training exercises is that elusive- books devoted to this topic fill the shelves of every bookstore.  Rather, the more is better mentality is as prevalent in the gym as it is on the typical technical diver.  Most use too much weight for too many sets, requiring that they use a ridiculous amount of body English if they even manage to move the weight around their bodies rather than the other way around.

 Every exercise has a target muscle group or groups.  These are the only muscles that should be moving through a range of motion.  The rest remain relaxed or statically stabilize the body.  Proper form is merely the motion required to keep the target muscles moving, the rest of the body still, and joints and internal organs protected from injury.  

This is not just a matter of safety.  Just as importantly, proper form is what leads to maximum gains for the effort expended.  Once you break the proper form, you replace the effort required from the target muscle group with effort from entirely different muscle groups.  Though your fatigue may continue to build, you are no longer performing the same exercise, nor are you effectively training your body.

 Though many books depicting the proper form for various exercises exist, one series stands out as particularly accurate and thorough.  The Complete Book series, by the Brungardts will keep even the most motivated athlete busy for a long time.  These include:

 ·         The Complete Book of Shoulders and Arms, published by HarperPerennial 1997

·         The Complete Book of Butt and Legs, published by Villard Books, 1995

·         The Complete Book of Abs, published by Villard Books, 1993

 For those interested in even more techincal detail regarding strength conditioning, see the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, National Strength and Conditioning Association, edited by Thomas R. Baechle (Human Kinetics, 1994).  A 2nd edition is set for a 2000 release, though this edition is still one of the best references for the technically oriented athlete.  Basically, this is a graduate-level textbook better used for its explanations of how the body adapts to strength training, rather than as a how-to guide.

 Form Fundamentals

Each repetition should be on a 5 count:  two counts to raise the weight, pause for one count, then two counts to lower the weight.  The speed throughout should remain constant to limit the amount of momentum placed upon the weight.  This will ensure that you are stressing the muscle throughout its range of motion.

 Avoid relaxing the targeted muscle between repetitions.  Dont let the plates touch in machines, lock out joints (such as the knees in leg press), or dangle the dumbbells from limp arms (such as in biceps curls).  Maintaining tension on the muscle reduces elastic stress while increasing the fatigue generated by a given weight used.

 Use a weight that will result in complete failure of the targeted muscle in 10-15 repetitions.  Complete failure means that you are no longer able to maintain the proper form of the exercise for an additional repetition.  Lower the weight for subsequent sets if necessary to remain within the 10-15 repetition range.

 Recent research suggests that the great majority of strength conditioning comes from the first set performed for each exercise.  There are still important benefits to performing multiple sets, however.  First of all, each repetition burns calories.  The more reps, the more calories you burn.  Second of all, you condition your motor neurons through repetition, so the more reps, the better you will become at performing the technique of a given exercise.  Two to three sets per exercise balances efficiency of effort with a reasonable amount of repetition for learning and metabolic purposes.

 Training Frequency

For strength training, significant results can come from two days per week, either by splitting the body and doing some parts each session, or by doing fewer sets of every body part each session.  Adding a third day will result in even greater gains, but raw strength is not as much of an issue for the diver as is cardiovascular fitness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Avoid the Routine

Athletic conditioning depends upon the bodys ability to adapt to new stresses.  Eventually, however, the new stress becomes routine- the body habituates and ceases to increase in fitness.  By frequently changing the exercises used, an athlete can avoid strength plateaus.  With all of the exercises and variations available, there is no reason to repeat a workout.

 Not only is it easy to vary the exercises that you perform, but you can also change the method of exercise ordering that you use.

 Circuit Training

Circuit training involves multiple exercises performed with little rest between for the duration of the workout session.  The entire body can be exercised in a relatively short period of time this way.  Each exercise is performed for one set to failure, then followed by the next exercise with a minimum of rest.  The entire circuit can be repeated if multiple sets are desired.

Split Routine

Split routines focus on several body parts each session rather than the whole body.  Different muscles groups are targeted each session until the entire body is trained, then the routine is repeated.  Most split routines follow a two day or three day cycle.  Two day cycles typically split the upper body and lower body.  Two examples of three day cycles are shown below.

 Three Day Cycles

Day One	Day Two	Day Three
Legs	Back, Abdominals, Chest	Shoulders, Triceps, Biceps
Legs, Shoulders	Upper Back, Biceps, Abdominals	Chest, Triceps, Lower Back

 Supersets

Supersets pair two different movements with no rest in between.  Supersets can pair exercises involving the same muscle groups, such as performing a chest press immediately followed by a chest fly, or opposing muscle groups, such as performing leg extensions followed immediately by leg curls.  Use supersets to achieve maximum fatigue in a short period of time.

Push/Pull Method

The push/pull method pairs a pushing movement with a pulling movement.  These antagonistic movements can be alternated upon completion of all sets of each exercise, or combined into supersets by performing one movement and rapidly proceeding to the next with a minimum of rest.

 Push/Pull Exercise Orders

Chest Movement/Back Movement

Biceps Movement/Triceps Movement

Anterior Deltoid Movement/Posterior Deltoid Movement

Abdominal Movement/Lower Back Movement

Quadriceps Movement/Hamstring Movement

Calf Movement/Tibialis Anterior Movement

 Pre-Fatigue Method

The pre-fatigue method pairs a compound movement with a movement isolating one of the secondary muscle groups involved in the compound movement.  The compound movement pre-fatigues the secondary muscles, which are then taken to total fatigue with the second movement.  An example would be to pair chest press with triceps extension.  The chest press is performed to fatigue, which usually occurs upon failure of the chest muscles while pre-fatiguing the triceps.  This is followed by a triceps extension, which then fully fatigues the triceps muscles.  Like the push/pull method, pre-fatigue exercises can be alternated upon completion of all sets or combined into supersets.

 Pre-Fatigue Exercise Orders (Primary Exercise/Secondary Exercise)

Compound Movement for Any Bodypart/Isolation Movement for Same Bodypart

Compound Chest Movement/Triceps or Anterior Deltoid Isolation

Compound Back Movement/Biceps or Posterior Deltoid Isolation

Compound Leg Movement/Quadriceps or Hamstring Isolation

 Dealing with Heavy Gear

Over 70% of the population will experience lower back strain in his or her lifetime.  In the best cases, the strain can be treated with over the counter anti-inflammatories and rest.  The worst result in herneated or ruptured disks, which can never be fully repaired.  Keep in mind that this is not as much an issue of fitness as it is one of repetitive stress combined with improper technique.

 Dive equipment, with its cumbersome bulk, lends itself to create the exact type of stress that puts the lower back at risk.  A day of picking up doubles and scooters places a heavy strain on the ligaments that basically hold your vertebrae and discs in place.  You may not feel your back hurt with any given lift, but the strain will still take place.  If the ligaments get stretched enough, they can no longer support your spine and you can end up with irreparable disc damage.  This damage may then happen simply sitting in the car on the way home or bending over to tie your shoe.

 All dive gear can be properly managed with the right precautions and tools.  The following guidelines will greatly reduce the chance that you end your diving on the surface:

 1.       If you regularly carry heavy gear, invest in a heavy duty nylon back support like power lifters use.  Wear it whenever you need to lift anything off or place anything onto the ground.  These belts not only support the spine from behind, but the pressure placed upon the abdomen actually supports the spine internally through an increase in intrathoracic blood pressure.

2.       If you must lift an object off the ground, bend at the knees and arch your lower back to pre-engage the muscles protecting the spine.  You should look like youre sticking your butt out- though this may attract comments from onlookers, this is the same technique used to set powerlifting records and can make the difference between a successful lift and an injured back.  Be certain to tighten the abdominal muscles, which support the spine from the front as mentioned above.

 3.       Use carts or hand trucks, whenever possible.  The best advice Ive ever heard about moving heavy objects came from a farmer :

If you have to move it, roll it.
If you cant roll it, drag it.
If you cant drag it, carry it.
If you cant carry it, burn it.

4.       No matter how strong you are, you can greatly reduce your risk by asking for help when placing heavy gear onto a cart or into the water.  This is not the time to play tough guy.