Training at altitude was once reserved for the top 1%, the elite, affluent sportsmen and women chasing performance perfection at alpine boot camps or in high-tech sports labs. It’s now more accessible, with centres across the country – recently including Virgin Active’s London Walbrook club – bringing the mountain conditions to the masses via hypoxic chambers, with claims that they’re as useful for helping shift stubborn belly fat as they are for shaving milliseconds off your triathlon time. Here we break down how training at escalating altitudes affects the human body.
0m – sea level
The human body can perform best at sea level where the atmospheric pressure and concentration of oxygen in the air (20.9%) saturates haemoglobin, the oxygen-binding red pigment in red blood cells.
1,344m – highest altitude in UK (Ben Nevis)
With less oxygen available, you get out of breath easier and lactic acid builds up in your muscles quicker. Above 1,830m the body exhales and perspires twice as much moisture as at sea level, meaning you get dehydrated quicker.
3,000m – hypoxic chamber (Virgin Active)
After 2,100m the saturation of oxyhaemoglobin begins to plummet. To make up for the drop in oxygen, your heart rate and breathing rate has to increase to supply it to your muscles and expel carbon dioxide.
4,810m – highest altitude in Alps (Mont Blanc)
Pulmonary artery pressure increases in an effort to oxygenate the blood. Blood flow is prioritised to supply the brain, heart and lungs. With more blood being pumped through the arteries to the brain, headaches are common.
6,000m – hypoxic chamber pod (offered at The Altitude Centre in London)
Non-essential bodily functions are suppressed, resulting in a decline in food digestion efficiency. Lack of blood flow to the digestive organs can cause nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite.
8,848m – highest altitude in the world (Everest)
Mountaineers refer to altitudes above 8,000m as the “death zone”, where no human body can acclimatise because the oxygen is too low to support life. Sleeping becomes very difficult, digesting food is near-impossible and the risk of death from fluid in the lungs and swelling of the brain increases greatly.
This content is from the experts at Men's Fitness magazine.
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