Bronwen Rees- Wiedemann
Have you ever heard of athletes travelling to the location of an important competition early to adjust to the altitude? Do you know why training on a high mountain is so much more difficult than at sea level?
Whenever my team would travel for tournaments my coaches would set different guidelines on our training program leading up to competition. When we would travel to a place of high elevation my coach would instruct us to run in the heat of the day on a mountain, or run with many layers on. Although I have always known my location played a large role in how quickly I tired at training, I never truly understood why. Knowing that I will be travelling soon to compete in US Nationals, I decided to take a closer look at what really occurs when you change altitudes.
The higher one travels from sea level, the lower percentage of oxygen in the air. This means that there are fewer oxygen molecules in a unit of air and therefore the air pressure is lower. Oxygen is the fuel for our muscles. With less oxygen for our muscles to use, it is more strenuous for us to perform tasks that are normally fairly simple. Our body must adapt. Red blood cells are the part of our body that delivers oxygen to our muscles. We contain a hormone called erythropoietin which sends a signal to our body to produce more red blood cells. Athletes take advantage of this natural process by training in areas with lower percentages of oxygen in the air. Although training at a high altitude can increase the amount of blood cells one’s body produces and therefore allow for oxygen to be transported throughout one’s body more efficiently, there are risks with training at a high altitude permanently. It has been proven that when a body becomes too comfortable with this increased production of red blood cells, its metabolism can be affected. This impact on metabolism has been proven to result in athletes who are not able to train for as long or as hard as they were once able to.
Overall, training at a high altitude or in an environment with a low percentage of oxygen in the air can be extremely beneficial if timed correctly, remaining in an area with these factors for too long can be detrimental on performance and the body.
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