[immerlustig]

specificity

before thinking about exercises and cross training you should first think about your goal. what do you want to do? max deep dives, easy repetitive shallow dives, etc. without specific training you will not reap any great benefit from your otherwise non-specific cross-training.

if you want to simulate the demand of a freedive in the gym you need to establish first what kind of effort you make during that dive, what muscle groups are involved, what intensity they are working, etc. afterwards you try to find exercises that closely simulate that. and don't forget there's apnea involved :-)

cross training will never be as effective as doing the real thing, so don't expect too much. aerobic training and gym training are nice to develop a base level of fitness, do that in your diving off-season. when you get to dive do dive training. the further you progress the more specific your training should be. finally you only do max dives (if this is what you want to do).

specificity is key. having said that i'd even go so far and claim that cross training is way overrated. making more effort to get wet will eventually be much more beneficial. but i'm not saying that greater personal fitness isn't a great thing, mind you!

personally i don't know anyone who does serious diving preparation in the gym. if you want to get serious about performance and improvements in freediving you have to spend quality time in the water.

my 2c

roland