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Improve Your Fitness for Cave Exploring
from: Maxx Adventure TravelCave exploring, or caving, is becoming an increasingly popular sport. People try caving not only for physical fitness but also for scientific study. Like many sports, however, you need a minimum amount of physical fitness to get started cave exploring. Here's what you need to know about getting fit for this sport.
Get active
Due to the physically demanding nature of cave exploring, it probably isn't the first sport you should try if you've been physically inactive for some time. Be sure you're able to perform a moderately demanding aerobic or weights workout for a period of at least six weeks before you try cave exploring. If you have to pause for breath after climbing a flight of stairs, cave exploring definitely isn't for you.
Eat right
Follow a healthy diet if you intend to go cave exploring regularly. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can endanger your physical fitness and your safety inside a cave. If you have iron-deficiency anemia, your blood will have a difficult time getting oxygen to the different parts of your body, and you could experience light-headedness or physical exhaustion. A balanced diet helps protect you from vitamin and mineral deficiencies and ensure you're ready to go caving.
It's also important for you to eat a good meal before every cave exploring trip. Hunger will certainly impair your alertness and judgment, two things you'll really need inside a cave. Hunger may also lead to physical exhaustion. Physical exhaustion is a dangerous condition to develop inside a cave. It can prevent you from making it back to the surface and necessitate a rescue. Rescuing persons trapped in a cave is difficult and dangerous. It's always best to avoid the need for rescue altogether.
Don't smoke
Smoking reduces your stamina and impairs the efficiency of your respiratory system. Smokers are more likely to experience respiratory difficulty and physical exhaustion inside a cave.
Start slow
If you're an inexperienced caver, plan short trips for the first few times you try cave exploring. Consult experienced cavers about caves you're unfamiliar with to determine whether you're up to the trip. Whenever you're inside a cave and you think you can't go on, let your team members know immediately.
Cave exploring is going to work every muscle in your body, so don't try it if you aren't physically fit.
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