Getting High, Getting Down
Posted By Ant Williams on 26 February 2006
Disclaimer: Follow the recommended protocols for simulated altitude training unless a customised protocol is designed for you by a qualified oxygen provider. The practices described in this article can result in injury or death.
Training for freediving, compared to that for most sports, can be notably uncomfortable and at times almost impossible to endure. This being so, I was naturally intrigued by the idea, heard from other freedivers, that I could increase my breathhold ability by sitting at a table, casually breathing through a mask and reading a copy of Sports Illustrated. It all sounded wonderfully easy.
A number of articles (and forum threads) on Deeper Blue have discussed Simulated Altitude Training (SAT) . Here's my very own experience with this recliner-seat approach to preparing for a competition.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who will admit to trying almost anything allowable to improve breathhold times. You’re not really a freediver until you've gone for days without food, sculled citric acid with bicarbonate of soda, taken up yoga classes, deprived yourself of sleep and bought a flash speed suit in the hope of going just a little bit longer or deeper. I once drank a bottle of “oxygenated water” because a friend swore it would provide an immediate boost to the O2 stores in my body. It tasted unbelievably bad and made me nauseous for the best part of a very short static. From there on in I vowed to remember that O2 actually has to be breathed to work.
My first go with SAT came in the buildup to the BIOS event in Cyprus, 2004. I did the same SAT programme that any punter off the street would be given: breathe a low O2 mix at 5-minute intervals over the course of an hour. You wear an HR/O2 saturation meter and target specific O2 blood saturations. I had access to a hypoxicator tent but chose the sit-around-a-table method for the lower price tag and - let's face it - convenience.
Once in Cyprus I concluded that the SAT work I'd been doing had no beneficial effect on my breathhold ability for any freediving discipline. Not surprisingly, there were no markers in my blood profile to suggest that my haematocrit or RBC count had improved. I was on a standard SAT protocol which, in hindsight, was no more than a slight inconvenience to my body - which was already adapted to the highly hypoxic stress placed on it during regular pool and ocean sessions.
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