Ahh training secrets! There are so many but sometimes they span outside the professional training regiment and can benefit us all. Elle Linton walks us through Altitude Training and the benefits.
Sitting down and doing nothing is actually a workout…
Training on the POD (which stands for Pre-acclimatisation On Demand) is so easy: Even if you think you don’t have time to train – too many emails, not enough sleep, general can’t-be-bothered-today – the POD is the answer.
Training passively (which means no actual exercise is involved) on the POD can help to lower your blood pressure, improve your insulin response, aid recovery (from a hangover, or a hard training session) and boost your energy levels for the day.
Breathing through a mask for five minutes and then resting (breathing normally) for five minutes, for a total of one hour, you can sit quietly, answering emails safe in the knowledge that you’re also improving your health and fitness. Yup, it really is that simple.
You can still get a good workout even if you’ve got dodgy knees
If you’re coming back from injury and you’ve got to take things easy, a low-intensity steady-state (LISS) session at altitude will allow you to manage any dodgy bits whilst still maintaining your fitness.
In the lesser-oxygen environment, you can work out at a lower intensity (i.e., go slower) and still feel like you’ve done a hard session.
A session often recommended for those who are coming back from injury but still able to manage some load is 30-45 mins walking at a moderate speed with some undulating but gentle inclines. Because there’s less oxygen, you’ll still get the cardio workout without knackering your knees.
Get faster… Faster
Reducing the amount of oxygen in the air you breath whilst exercising provides yet another stimulus for your body to deal with and adapt to.
To cope with exercise at lower levels of oxygen than you’re used to, your body adapts by producing more red blood cells, which improves your ability to carry oxygen to your muscles, so you can work harder for longer.
In competition, this gives you the edge over other athletes who only train at sea level, and haven’t had this additional stimulus to deal with.
Clients from The Altitude Centre regularly set personal bests from 800m to ultra marathon distance, and win half marathons, bike races, multisport events and many more.
Keep it quick n’ dirty
With work, commuting, social life, family commitments (and soon, the darkness that is daylight saving), fitting in a workout is often pushed in to the realms of ‘wishful thinking’.
If time is of the essence, training at altitude is an excellent way to maximise your workout. Because altitude training is a lot harder than training at sea level, you don’t need to do as much. There are even got 10-minute protocols that will redefine your idea of a workout.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is advocated at altitude, a principal on which their classes are based being made up of 25 minutes of training hard; training fast, with quick rest periods and then get going again. After 25 minutes of HIIT at 14.9% oxygen, you’ll understand why altitude training gets so addictive.
You can train like a pro
Altitude training has long been the secret weapon of athletes, from Mo Farah (who’s trained at The Altitude Centre) to Bradley Wiggins (who has purchases an altitude tent from The Altitude Centre) and the Brownlee brothers (who also have an altitude tent).
When athletes jet off to winter training camps – in the Canary or Balearic Islands, South Africa or Kenya – they’re not just there for the beach: They’re off to train at approximately the same level of altitude as the chamber in London (2700m).
Whether you’re preparing for a race, or just want to see just how good you can get, when you’re exercising at altitude, you’re doing the same kind of training as the pros (sadly we can’t provide the beach holiday part…).
Elle Linton Personal Trainer www.keepitsimpElle.com IG: @elle.linton
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