• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 47,943+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 531,990+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,455+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Is it possible for a big(ger) guy to became a good diver?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 90 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
wladius

wladius

Member
Jun 17, 2014
28
10
18
39
#1
Though I'm not really fat anymore I'm still a bit bigger (185cm, 97kg, 17-18%BF, planning to get at least to 11%). I do strength training, HIIT, running, swimming ... I'm not aspiring to be a competitive diver, but I'd like to enjoy more time under water, do some underwater photography ... I want to get good at this.

Is it possible to get some decent results with body composition like that? Because most freedivers I can find are skinny as hell (at least compared to me).
 
#2
Not true.
Most freedivers are quite large and have a thick layer of insulation.

Dolphins, belugas and all other cetaceans / whales!

You can be built like a male elephant seal and still hold your breath for 6:00 - it's not your body composition that will hold you back. Sounds like you're healthy and getting healthier. That's the prerequisite.

You might not set a WR in dynamic, because of your hydrodynamics, but you can still set some unbelievably impressive numbers with training and out-swim the local toothpicks!

Be healthy, train hard, stay focused and the results will come.

Sorry - there's no excuse. ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: rakel
#3
Didn't know that:-) I don't know any freedivers personally and when I was searching for some galleries, all of them seemed a bit like stickfigures:-)

So far I have experience only with snorkeling but soon (maybe even this weekend) I want to take a freediving (and later scubadiving) course to learn the safety measures, training techniques and to meet some new people, sadly, none of my friends are interested in diving.
 
#4
A great plan of attack!

You'll want to find a handful of active divers, just to make sure 1 is available when you are for diving.

Big doods are perfectly fine in free diving, make good defenseman in underwater hockey and are AWESOME at underwater rugby!!!
 
#6
As with just about any sport, if you train hard at it, you will get in better shape from the new activity. However, freediving seems to be particularly effective at trimming away the fat. Deep apnea workouts will burn calories crazy fast. Don't be surprised if you start moving toward that stick figure yourself. It is not that you have to be a skinny stick to be a good freediver. It is that you have to train hard to be a good freediver, and that can cause you to become a skinny stick.
 
#11
It's very interesting though, I would have thought big body (especially muscular one) equals higher metabolic rate -> greater oxygen consumption. So small skinny guys would have an advantage of having to supply less mass with the oxygen. I know that part of the mammalian diving reflex is vasoconstriction but still ...
 
#13
wladius said:
It's very interesting though, I would have thought big body (especially muscular one) equals higher metabolic rate -> greater oxygen consumption. So small skinny guys would have an advantage of having to supply less mass with the oxygen. I know that part of the mammalian diving reflex is vasoconstriction but still ...
Click to expand...

The blood is a major reservoir for oxygen in the body. Often, people think it is only the lung capacity that matters. Keep in mind that the oxygen storage capacity of the body (blood + lungs) generally increases with the volume of the body (approximately proportional to the cube of the body length), whereas the drag of the body will approximately increase proportional the the square of the body length. When it comes to breath-hold diving, there is a mathematical advantage to being big. That is one of the reasons why whales are all so large.
 
#14
wladius said:
It's very interesting though, I would have thought big body (especially muscular one) equals higher metabolic rate -> greater oxygen consumption. So small skinny guys would have an advantage of having to supply less mass with the oxygen. I know that part of the mammalian diving reflex is vasoconstriction but still ...
Click to expand...
Not sure whether small skinny guys have a lower metaboliic rate (in comparison to their body mass). Small animals like birds, mice have a high specific metabolic rate, they waste a lot of energy....
 
#15
HLanger1955 said:
Not sure whether small skinny guys have a lower metaboliic rate (in comparison to their body mass). Small animals like birds, mice have a high specific metabolic rate, they waste a lot of energy....
Click to expand...
Hey guys. Interesting topic, so just some thoughts & observations: Firsts, thoughts: Larger organisms generally have slower pro-rata metabolism, including lower average pulse rate. In addition, recent medical research indicates that the relative strength of spleen contraction to body mass may be just as important to freediving ability as lung volume. And then there is training, diet and of course mental capacity - which seems to be an even bigger predictor of performance in the long run (all other factors being equal). But look, you can't ignore the fact that at the 'sharp end' of performance the athletes tend to have a relatively homogenous body type - smaller, leaner mesomorphs - but this kind of convergence counts for all sports at world-class level. Most of us just want to dive well, and to do that body type and size is just one of a number of factors. Just go google 'Antero Joki' and you'll see what I mean. As a last word, Will Trubridge also wrote what I believe should settle the matter for anyone worried about their apnea 'talent': http://williamtrubridge.com/writings/the-bane-of-natural-ability/. Enjoy!
 
#16
William Trubridge seems to be ectomorph rather then mesomorph. Umberto Pellizari either. Some people state that big muscles aren't that helpful in freediving. Being long, thin with big lungs is the best body type ?? (no chance for me, after all ;-).
 
#17
HLanger1955 said:
William Trubridge seems to be ectomorph rather then mesomorph. Umberto Pellizari either. Some people state that big muscles aren't that helpful in freediving. Being long, thin with big lungs is the best body type ?? (no chance for me, after all ;-).
Click to expand...
I suspect that if you called Umberto an ectomorph anywhere within earshot you might regret it... Seriously though: the definitive shape of an ectomorph is a marathon runner where shoulders and hips are the same breadth. Yes, they are lean super-lean so its easy to make the mistake, but neither Will nor Umberto have this build, they are classic mesomorphs with much broader shoulders than hips. But hey, let's not split hairs: the original post's question is amply answered by Antero Joki's body type and Will's piece on talent. Cheers
 
#18
Im defiantly no stick insect. But am very fit, i have trained many students of all shapes and sizes. and from what Ive seen i don't think body shape has much to do with it. One course i ran really stands out to me where i had a student 179cm and 150kg and he out swam and out dived all the other students on the course!
 
#19
wladius,

I am almost exactly the same length & weight as you, but my BF is about 25%....

During my beginner freediver course and with a borrowed 5 mm wetsuit on, I did have problems with duck dive due to VERY positive buoyancy: Ended up with 7 kg of led on my weightbelt... other than that no problems.

As others have wrote, big guys might even do better, and freediving training should help with burnin fat anyway.
 
#20
I'm pretty big, usually about 90kg at 182cm tall, and have certainly surpassed my own expectations I had when I started diving. I had to guys training with me last year, one was 110kg, the other weighed 70 after a good meal. They matched each other meter for meter in dynamic the entire time, very different techniques and very different body types. I think the mental side of things is so much more important. But as a disclaimer I did feel super fat when I first met Herbert Nitsch :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2026 DeeperBlue Global Media Limited.

DeeperBlue.com is an independent digital media platform dedicated to Scuba Diving, Freediving, Ocean Advocacy, and Dive Travel.

Since 1996, we’ve been informing, educating, and inspiring the global diving community through trusted news, features, and shared community experience.

ADVERT

Community platform by XenForo® © 2010-2025 XenForo Ltd.
Top Bottom
Back