Fit_Life_July_2017
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legal<br />
is altitude training the<br />
ultimate performance<br />
enhancer? sam rider<br />
climbs to 3 000m<br />
(indoors) to find out<br />
highs<br />
of Sport suggests that you<br />
can increase your red-bloodcell<br />
count by as much as 7%<br />
in just three weeks. In effect,<br />
it’s a natural way to reap the<br />
performance-enhancing<br />
benefits of banned hormone<br />
erythropoietin (EPO), the use<br />
of which has really dragged<br />
pro cycling through the dirt.<br />
The science is compelling,<br />
but in the short term, I’m more<br />
concerned about how these<br />
30-minute sessions will feel.<br />
‘They’re going to hurt more<br />
THE TEST<br />
How many sessions:<br />
Six 30-minute classes<br />
in three weeks<br />
What was measured:<br />
Body composition before<br />
and after, calories burned<br />
and heart rate per session,<br />
number of times the pain<br />
threshold was breached.<br />
than normal,’ warns Virgin<br />
Active instructor and triathlete<br />
Nick Beer, explaining that<br />
less oxygen means a greater<br />
build-up of painful lactate<br />
in your muscles until you get<br />
better at clearing it.<br />
Nick adds that the pain is<br />
worth bearing for the timesaving,<br />
fat-burning benefits<br />
it can offer. ‘At altitude, your<br />
heart and breathing rates<br />
increase, at rest as well as<br />
during exercise, meaning<br />
more blood gets pumped<br />
around your body, and your<br />
muscles have to work harder,’<br />
Nick says. This means that a<br />
30-minute session will feel<br />
like an hour session, and you<br />
will burn double the calories,<br />
plus more after.<br />
The air in the Virgin Active<br />
has a cool, artificial quality, but<br />
there is no noticeable lack of<br />
oxygen at first. The 30-minute<br />
Apex Sprint session follows the<br />
format of an interval session<br />
on the treadmill and Wattbike.<br />
We are strapped up to Polar<br />
heart-rate monitors and our<br />
percentages of max beats per<br />
minute flash up on-screen to<br />
make sure we’re not lagging<br />
in any comfort zones. I soon<br />
realise it’s hard to stay all that<br />
comfortable at altitude. Within<br />
two minutes at a gentle trot,<br />
my ticker is thumping at 75%<br />
of the max, proving my cardio<br />
system is having to work overtime<br />
in order to compensate<br />
for the lack of oxygen. Nick<br />
pushes us to crank up the<br />
speed for another minute to<br />
get above 80%, then gives the<br />
signal for a 30-second gutsout<br />
sprint to push into the red<br />
zone (above 90%), before he<br />
reels us back to a light canter.
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