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training tapers for competition

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Michael

New Member
Sep 12, 2003
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Having never trained for a competition before, I have some questions about tapering the workload before the competition. I guess it would make sense to divide the training into categories: cardio, anerobic, and apnea. Does anyone have suggestions about tapering the training, how long before the competition. Marathon runners stop any long runs 10 days to two weeks before the big race. Is it that important for freedivers? What about apnea training, should I stop doing statics and dynamics before the competition, and how long before?

Any suggestions on this topic would be very much appreciated.

Michael.
 
i'll offer my opion:
for cardio training i would do the same lenth taper as athletes of other sports do, or possibly a bit longer to allow for metabolic rates to drop as much as possible, so about 2-3 weeks if its a major(once or twice yearly) taper.

taper from hypoxia training? i'm waiting on an answer to that question from scientists at an IHT facility in Auckland. apparently IHT courses end about 3 weeks before race day(could be wrong), but i wouldnt worry about loosing gains overnight.

hypercapnia training i would not taper, but would carry on with untill the day of competition.

my opinion. i hope somebody else chimes in here.

b
 
I did my static pb the day after doing a very stressful apnea hike exercise. However, looking back at years of journal entries, I've never done a long static the day after cardio--two days after cardio, yes, but not before. Cardio causes two elevations of metabolism, one which lasts 4-6h, the other which lasts 48h. However, cardio can also cause immune stress, and the immune stress will elevate your metabolism until the immune system recovers.

Once you stop hypoxic training, your blood will start to revert to normal levels (reduced hematocrit AND reduced blood volume). I would personally allow no more than three or four days off from hypoxic training.

If your nutrition program sucks, then you might benefit in many ways from a longer taper.

Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
 
3-4 days it is then, unless anyone else convinces me otherwise.

one piece of first hand advice i can offer though: dont be fooled into thinking you are somehow off-peak after a week of no fitness training. i used to feel very unfit(psychologically speaking) after 2 days of no exercise. my taper is now nearing 3 months and ive not noticed any drop in performance(i am now diving every day though.)
 
I came lato to this thread.
How long before you will stop CW dives before the competition.

I ask you this, because I'll have my CW competition 24 july, but I'll be only from 20 july at the place of competition (only place for depht training).

What do you think?
 
After a deep CW dive, I get lots of lactic acid in my legs which takes FOREVER to go away. In fact, I would estimate I need nearly a week for my legs to fully recharge! If anyone knows a faster way to recuperate, let me know. I heard David Lee would get a massage right after the dive. Perhaps some low intensity cardio to flush out the waste products?


Eric Fattah
BC, Canada
 
You are right after your veeeery deep dives, the extreme blood-shift and the high anaerobic metabolism should be very high.

But I'm not so deep (yet), my target depht is just 48 meters, so things shouldn't be (but maybe are) the same?.

How it was when you was working on lower dephts?.

I was thinking the same: low cardio after CW training, and maybe 1-2 hours of rest with legs up.
 
Originally posted by efattah

Cardio causes two elevations of metabolism, one which lasts 4-6h, the other which lasts 48h. However, cardio can also cause immune stress, and the immune stress will elevate your metabolism until the immune system recovers.

Eric Fattah
BC, Canada


That's very interesting, especially the part about two elevations of metabolism. Never heard of that before. Do you know of any articles or other references about this? I'd like to read more about the subject.
 
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