Altitude training vital cog in Ho and Meyer’s Olympic dreams
Two local swimmers have spent much time in the Prime Human Performance Institute's hypoxic chamber in the build up to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
TEAM South Africa long distance swimmers, Chad Ho and Matthew Meyer, placed great emphasis on the inclusion of cardiovascular benefitting simulated altitude training in their build up campaigns to the 2016 Olympic Games, which get underway in Rio de Janeiro on 5 August.
Through their involvement in the KZN Department of Sport and Recreation backed Elite Athlete Development Programme, 10km open water competitor and eight time Midmar Mile winner, Ho and 1500m freestyle star, Meyer, have made full use of Prime Human Performance Institute’s hypoxic chamber in recent months, the training technique aiding the in the pair’s conditioning.
“The body responds to stress that it is put under and in order to achieve optimal adaptation, the training exercise needs to be of a high enough intensity to create maximal stress. Training at altitude causes physiological adaptations in the cardiovascular system as well as locally within the muscles being exercised. We see a higher exercise tolerance as a result of the altitude training, mostly due to improved oxygen transport and lower lactate production, as well as a quicker recovery after exercise.
The biggest effect though is a secondary improvement due to the athlete being able to train harder as a result of the higher exercise tolerance and improved recovery,” explained Wayne Holroyd, Prime HPI physiotherapist.
While the effectiveness of the technique remains unique to each individual, Holroyd is confident that all sportsmen and women across all sporting codes and disciplines can benefit from altitude training.
“Despite sprint and endurance athletes having different cardiovascular requirements though, we have seen that by planning each of their training programmes differently, both benefit significantly from simulated altitude training,” he said.
Holroyd explains the variety of benefits Ho and Meyer, amongst others, enjoy through the hard work they put in in Prime HPI’s simulated altitude chamber.
He said when an athlete starts using the room, there is a period of about three to four weeks where the athlete becomes optimally altitude acclimatised and that period is usually quite intense with two to three sessions per week. Once they are optimally acclimatised, they then do one or two sessions a week to maintain the altitude benefits.
The altitude affects a variety of physiological processes in the body, from uptake of oxygen in the lungs and transport to the muscles, to the way the oxygen is used inside the muscles, the by-products that are produced by high intensity exercise in the muscle (mainly lactate), the clearance of lactate out of the muscle cells, and the processing of that lactate within the body.
Ho’s open water Rio challenge takes place on Tuesday, 16 August while Meyer will be in preliminary 1500m freestyle action on Friday, 12 August with the final taking place the following day.
