Weight Training for Freediving
Posted By Cliff Etzel on 28 May 1996
Let's face it, not all of us have the luxury to dive everyday of the week. We all have day to day obligations that prevent us from diving everyday (unless you are blessed with a trust fund that allows you to spend all your time doing what we love most)
In the past, I have written several articles about various training topics, mainly dealing with spending time in the pool swimming laps. As many will attest, that can become quite monotonous in a short period of time. You can only do so many variations in the pool before you begin to dread getting in the same environment again, day in and day out.
Weight training for diving provides a break up from the repetitious grind of swimming laps in a pool.
Diving, no matter if it is freediving, or scuba, really demands an all body workout approach to exercising. And as with any exercise program, if you haven't already done so, you may want to get the ok from your physician before attempting these exercises, especially if you are over 30, are over weight, or have any type of condition that would necessitate seeing a physician.
Modest amounts of weight training, specifically aerobic weight training, allows you to improve muscle tone, adapt specific muscle groups to the sport and to provide an overall feeling of well being.
Do you need to have a membership to a gym in order to do this program? Not at all. In fact, all of these exercises can be done in the privacy of your home with little monitary investment.
Below is a listing of exercises I have come up with that have helped me not only become stronger, but I can personally claim that I have lost weight (17 lbs so far) and it has also given me more self confidence in myself and my appearance - and that is always a good thing :-)
Perform these exercises two to three times a week. To improve your stamina and strength, I would recommend doing them in rapid succession, with only about 60 seconds rest in between. Try starting out doing 2 - 3 sets of each exercise, and watch your body tone up within 3 weeks. Also, recent information indicates that a slow range of movement during each of these lifts will speed development of strength and definition of each of the muscle groups, by as much as 50%.
This also helps to reduce injury due to jerky movements while lifting.
I recommend a warm up period of at least 5 minutes, basically doing stretches and getting the blood pumping a little bit.
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