High altitude training systems make for better athletes
The heart-rate monitor shows my heart cantering at 100 beats a minute. But my body is absolutely still. A minute ago, it was a sedate 74 beats a minute. The glass chamber I am in is filled with ambient light; it appears no different from the air-conditioned room that envelopes the chamber. Catherine Zeta Jones isn’t anywhere close by. Jason from Friday the 13th too is not to be seen. What could these dark and invisible forces be that fill the heart with trepidation and force it to palpitate so?
When athletes train at high altitude, they experience low oxygen levels. That means less oxygen is reaching each cell. To counteract this problem the body starts producing more red blood cells, the body’s magnets for oxygen. As the red blood cells quantity goes up, they mop up every tiny bit of oxygen that is coming into the lungs. The lungs also undergo change to bring more oxygen into the lungs. Each of their 300 million alveoli that pull oxygen out from the air we breathe grows bigger. The larger the alveoli, the greater the chance of grabbing whatever little oxygen is coming through that “thin mountain air.” The heart too starts beating faster to deliver more oxygen to the cells.
(This story appears in the 05 March, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)