Northwest Dive Club

Solitary wrote:DAN says wait two hours just to be safe, despite no real data indicating that exercise after diving increases the risk of DCS.

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/medic ... ?faqid=166

You should always start off a dive well rested, with muscles that are cooled down and not calling for more oxygen and increased blood flow.

Exercise before diving may be your best bet. We all enter the water warm and take on nitrogen at a similar rate. Once in the water, we begin to cool, blood vessels constrict, and we take on less nitrogen. This means that after the dive, we are still cool and not offgassing as a mathematical model may predict. This would appear to favor a diving-after-exercise procedure. (For additional information, see “Thermal Facts: Dr. Bennett explores the relationships between cold, exercise and DCS risks” in the January/February 1997 issue of Alert Diver.)

In the 1990s, an altitude study by Mike Powell, Ph.D., showed that if you waited two hours to go to altitude after doing a series of deep knee bends, the number of Doppler bubbles produced at altitude decreased to a baseline level after a two-hour wait.

There is, in the final analysis, no definitive answer about diving after exercise. One might consider at least a two-hour wait as a guide for diving after exercise. A more conservative suggestion would be four hours to allow your body to cool down and rest before a nitrogen exposure.

We have documented cases of decompression illness in divers who exercise, work out or perform a strenuous task too soon after diving. Remember also to rehydrate after exercise. Although dehydration doesn’t cause decompression illness, increased fluid losses may contribute if a problem occurs, so be sure to get plenty of water on dive and exercise days.

Scubagirl45 wrote:Ben, you bring such a wealth of information to NWDC ; thanks for your contributions!

dsteding wrote: I think you misread this page: