Freediving can make you fit. If you enjoy being active in the water, like the idea of physical and mental challenge, and have the dedication to master important techniques and training, freediving could be a good sport to take up in order to boost your fitness.
Freediving is a very physically demanding and mentally challenging sport which can help to build and maintain fitness. To start freediving you will need to be generally healthy with a good base level of fitness – you do not need to be an elite athlete. As a beginner you should build up gradually from shallower to deeper dives as your fitness and mastery of freediving technique increases.
The True Story Book of Freediving Champion Audrey Mestre and the Story of Her Death
View on Amazon: The Last Attempt (Opens new tab)
Top rated read
If you enjoy water sports and want to get fit, you might be wondering whether freediving could help. Our article tells you more about freediving and fitness including the muscles used, the impact of freediving on your body and how you can get in shape for freediving.
What muscles does freediving work?
Freediving is a good workout for a range of muscles throughout the whole body. This includes arm and leg muscles which are used to propel a freediver down and up though the water, as well as other muscles which must work harder as the dive gets deeper, switching from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism, and facing the burn of lactic acid build-up.
What does freediving do to your body?
Freediving has a wide range of short-term and long-term effects on the human body, many of them beneficial, and some of them potentially dangerous if not properly understood and managed.
Generally a good form of exercise for boosting broad physical and mental fitness, freediving increases lung function and capacity, and burns large numbers of calories. Regular freediving adapts your body to use oxygen more efficiently. There are also positive mental fitness effects with improvements seen in concentration, calmness and mental resilience.
Freediving exposes your body to massive pressures even when practicing at depths of only a few meters. The high water pressures compress airspaces in the human body (lungs, ears, sinuses). At the same time, breath-holding, or apnea, forces the body to use different mechanisms and metabolic pathways to conserve oxygen and protect the functioning of the brain and other vital organs.
During a freedive, the diver’s body will experience:
- Bradycardia: a reduced heart rate, which can fall by 50% in trained freedivers,
- Peripheral vasoconstriction: a reduction in blood flow to arms and legs, corresponding with the diversion of blood (and oxygen) to brain and other vital organs,
- Reduced oxygen levels: reduced blood flow to peripheral areas and a shift to anaerobic muscle working, means less oxygen in non-vital areas of the body.
Freedivers can face serious health risks. Training and practice are vital in order to be able to function properly in the presence of rising hydrostatic pressure, hypoxia (low blood oxygen), and hypercapnia (high blood carbon dioxide).
With proper training and practice, the physical benefit of freediving may well outweigh any risks. Elite athletes who practice freediving breath training are reportedly able to boost lung function by 10%.
Can you lose weight freediving?
Freediving can help you lose weight. It’s a rigorous sport burning anything from 400-1200 calories per hour. The total amount of energy expended will depend on factors such as water conditions, temperature, depth and length of dive, body size etc…
We’ve written a whole article on how freediving can help you lose weight (opens new tab), so if you want the full picture, check that out.
Freediving burns energy and contributes to fat loss through several pathways, including:
Core temperature maintenance
Keeping the body’s core temperature within a set range is vital for life and health and requires a significant amount of energy. Even when diving at a single point in still water, where divers are not doing very much swimming, their bodies will still be burning calories from their energy stores in order to keep warm. This could be the biggest reason for such high energy expenditures in freediving.
Freedives generally take place in deep open waters where the temperature of the water will be well below human body temperature. This temperature difference triggers internal mechanisms designed to stop core temperature from dropping too low.
Aerobic metabolism
Freediving is both an aerobic and anaerobic activity at different points in the dive, and often a mixture of both. If diving at multiple locations, or in water with a strong current, freedivers may also be making the physical effort to swim or simply stay in place. All movements will expend energy, through aerobic or anaerobic pathways, or both.
Anaerobic metabolism
While freediving the heart rate falls, oxygen-containing blood is directed to vital organs, and physical movements at depth require far more effort than when on land under normal atmospheric pressure. The body must burn high numbers of calories to power anaerobic activity in the muscles of arms, legs and other body parts.
Do you need to be fit to freedive?
You do need a good basic level of health and fitness to freedive but you certainly don’t need to be an elite athlete. Being able to swim competently and comfortably underwater and being able to hold your breath for 30-60 seconds may be all you need to embark on a beginner’s freediving course where you would learn to freedive up to 10-15 meters.
Some medical conditions will preclude freediving. You should consult your doctor first if you have heart, lung or other relevant medical issues. If you have a cold or similar respiratory infection you should not freedive until you are fully recovered. Colds could limit the ability to equalize pressure in the ears during the diving descent, which is essential for avoiding pain and/or internal damage to the ear.
If you want to dive more deeply, for longer periods, or to take part in competitive freediving, you should focus on building your physical and mental fitness and ensure you are well-trained. There are no short cuts to being able to freedive safely at a high level of performance.
How do I get in shape for freediving?
Freediving is a demanding sporting discipline, drawing on both aerobic and anaerobic metabolism, and requiring both mental and physical fitness. For the greatest safety in the water, and highest performance, freedivers should therefore give themselves a broad program of training which includes static and dynamic apnea exercises along with strength, cardio and mental resilience practice.
For a lot more detail, we’ve written a full article on how to get in shape for freediving (opens new tab).
Can you freedive If you’re overweight?
Overweight people can enjoy recreational freediving as long as they have the right training and are otherwise healthy with no significant medical conditions.
Whatever a freediver’s weight, they can boost their freediving performance with a broad training program including cardio, strength and mental resilience exercises. Apnea training is essential for all freedivers.
At elite freediving competitions, freedivers are not likely to be overweight because they regularly practice a physically demanding sport. Even slight excess weight at competitive level could have a negative influence on performance, making a competitor with more body fat work harder than others during the same dive (e.g. because fat is more buoyant than bone and muscle).