Body builders and freediving?

[Mafnet]

Ok here's one for you guys. Recently I was talking to a friend of mine who happens to be a body builder. Some how the conversation lead to differant types of performance enhancers that are commonly used in his area of expertise. A supplement called Nitric Oxide was then braught up, a product which helps support blood flow. Seems like a good idea on paper. But then again so does the concept of taking a hit of pure oxygen before a dive, and we all know that if you go down more that 15 feet with pure oxygen than thats about the last breath you'll take.

Any ideas on this topic, you deeperblue docters always seem to come threw on my off ball medical questions.

Thanks And Happy New Year!!!

[jome]

Well, someone smarter will propably answer better, but my first instinct is to say that being a strong vasodilator, NO would only hurt freediving performances by countering one of the biggest benefits of the dive response (vasoconstriction of the extremities and thus also bloodshift and bradycardia).

Plus being a strong free radical, I'd not be too keen to consume it in large quantities.

But as we know, things are not always not that straight forward and simple. Things that may at first seem to do something fairly simple for the body, may trigger the body to adapt or counter that change in some other way no one has even thought of and cause even the complete opposite effect in long term. That is why I prefer to leave the science and research to those qualified and equipped to do it.

[sheepeck]

I personally don't want use any of these things - no matter if in gym or underwater.

BTW - you can go with pure oxygen down to at least 30 ft - for example some scuba divers use pure oxygen in this depth as decompression gas.

Edit: not at least to 30ft - in fact it's limit depth for pure oxygen

[jimy286]

Its not the best idea but aslong as you took a breath of pure o2 at the surface ud be ok.

Its if you continued to breath oxygen at a depth partial pressure would course it to become toxic coursing hypoxia.

Diffrent people can with stand it better then others but its not the best thing to test.

Shurly this suplament would course your body to burn the oygen quiker and more effective. I think it is use by sprinters?

[apneaboy]

I don't know what i was expecting when i read this thread but i'd steer away from 'O2 is good to 10m or 30ft'. Most SCUBA agencies recommend much shallower depths. Infact at a partial pressure of 1.4bar PPO2 it could be toxic to certain susceptible individuals especially when engaged in physical activity. Which you are not on a deco stop. I think i remember reading even on freediving deco stops (no physical activity) now Herbert is using a full face mask incase of an O2 hit (prudent!)

Its not the best idea but aslong as you took a breath of pure o2 at the surface ud be ok.

I'm sorry but I don't think that is right, can someone else just confirm that. As far as i'm concerned PPO2 increases if you take a breath of O2 and go freediving on it, you would have less volume at depth but PPO2 increases still.

[sheepeck]

I would say this:
Think about professional top freedivers - they go over 100m deep. Limit depth for diving with air as breathing gas is somewhere around 65m. So - will you also recommend to those freedivers not to go below that depth? In their case the PPO2 also goes up.

But I think that you won't insist on it. IMHO the amount of air in lung is so small that it's irrelevant.

Still, would be nice to have some entry about this matter from more experience diver.

[Mullins]

You use up a fair bit of 02 on your way down to 100m, so pp02 at that depth is not likely to be huge. You would use very little on a descent to 10m...

Having said that, a couple of the symptoms I've had on deep dives have been consistent with 02 narcosis and 02 toxicity (feeling depressed/emotional and shaking, respectively). I'm going to talk to one of the dive docs here in NZ to see what their take on it is.

[H.Balázs]

Hi Dave,

Could you please tell us, how deep is your personal best in CW now (and could you please give us some important stages about your depht in the past)? I suspected more than the 110m! How did you meaneged this progressive improvement in CW? I mean, what kind of equalisation technic do you use, and how did you learned so fast this?

Thanks in advance,
Balázs

[Mullins]

My pb is 110 in Sharm - prior to that it was my 106m training dive a few days beforehand. At the start of the year I did an 80m dive here in NZ, then when I got some proper training time in Egypt I took it up to 100m over the course of 3 weeks. Equalising has been the limiting factor all the way. Basically it's just been a case of getting the mouthfill right i.e. getting max volume plus keeping the neck/face relaxed. I suspect I'm lucky enough to have naturally high RV:TLC ratio so haven't had to spend heaps of time developing ribcage flexibility.

[apneaboy]

The scenario of a full lung of O2 at 10metres is the concern more than a deep freediver on air at a great depth.