Warming up for a deep CW Dive

[samdive]

Following on from my thread about Statics - I'm also interested to know how people prepare for a competitive constant weight dive.

My warm up usually goes something like this:

Pull down and hang for a minute at around 15m

Pull down to around 2/3 of my target depth

Fin down to around 1/2 my target depth

but I vary it a lot, especially when its cold when I hardly do any preparation dives at all

In putting together the saltFree UK Champs I have been asking people what depth they need the warm up lines to go to. The intriguing result is that all the "shallower" people I have asked want the warm up lines quite deep relative to their performance dive. All the "deeper" people say they don't go much past 15m on a warm up and save themselves for the dive

Some people do no in water warm up at all

Your views? I'm amazed how differently we all build up to the same kind of result

 

[Alun]

in the last few months my warm-ups have been very limited, due to the cold (5-10C). they consists of about 4x40sec passive exhale dives to 10-15m... that's it. i do those in 8-10mins, rest for 2mins, breathe for 3mins, then dive.... all done in about 15-20mins max.

key points: i try not to move my legs at all during warm-ups. i keep my surface interval between exhales and the max dive to the minimum (<5mins). note that i don't bother doing any statics or stretching.

this is just one warm-up that happens to work for me. it may not suit everyone.

now that the temperature is rising i have more time to do warm-ups so my routine is starting to evolve as i experiment with new methods.

 

[DeepThought]

My favorite warm-ups are pull-downs.
Get's me calm and in the groove. One minute static on the first pulldown might feel to much for me though, depends how I feel down there.
I also don't see any need to move my legs in the warm-up, it will only limit the vasoconstriction I think.
If exhale dives give you a good MDR response, then I suggest those as well, if not, then I suggest you leave them for training till they do give you a good diving response, then incorporate them.
I never competed so I never built my self a warm up routine for a max dive though. Just how I like to get in the groove sometimes.

Regarding being time spesific (for CW and static), I think that some play in the warm-up time won't hurt, since at worst case, you'll just breathe 1 minute longer before your max dive, can't really hurt....

 

[Walrus]

Sam I know what you mean about the
beginners usually wanting to warm up by doing normal dives, getting deeper each time. It's mostly a psychological thing. If you have just dived %75 of your target on a warmup dive then you feel like the max dive should be easy. I don't think this is the best way to warmup however.

What I have seen a lot of the good divers do is no kicking at all, just pull down's and hangs. A lot like your first warmup
Slow pull down to 10-20m, and hang then come up. Total dive time between 2.00-4.00 depending on the person. It's basically like doing a static at depth. You obviously don't do as long as a normal static but at least %50 at a guess. Some will also throw in an empty lung dive or two. I do that myself and the static hangs really work well. You can hear your heart rate get really low, and you just try to relax like you would on a static.

Cheers,
Wal

 

[Bill]

Sam
I can't add much to that kind of advice, but if the water is warm and time permits, there's nothing quite like doing a free immersion to your target depth about 10 minutes before the constant dive. Works for me.
Aloha
Bill