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Aerobic capacity is the ability of the body to perform longer and
harder before becoming fatigued. Recent research by the French and Japanese has
shown that being a high altitude for as little as four hours a day stimulates a
hormone, erythropoietin, that causes more red blood cells to be produced. This
increases your aerobic capacity. This known fact has led to the development of
the High Altitude Chamber that allows a person to get the benefits of "sleeping
high while living low" while you sleep.
This benefit to enhancing physical endurance is created when
specialized cells in the kidneys sense less oxygen circulating in the blood.
These cells then signal the release of the growth hormone, erythropoietin or
EPO. This hormone then travels from the kidneys to the bone marrow where it
stimulates production of red blood cells or RBC's. "If you increase the blood's
oxygen capacity illegally, it is called blood doping. But if you do it legally
it's called sleeping at altitude", notes Igor Gamow, Associate professor of
Chemical Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Included among the many benefits of sleeping at altitude are increases in the myoglobin, an iron containing protein which stores and
transports oxygen from the outside of the cell to the mitochondria, increases in oxygen dissociation which allows more oxygen to reach the
working muscles for an increase in performance and increases in muscle
buffering capacity which retards the quick build up of lactic acid in the
performance of shorter events.
With the use of the Altitude Fitness sleep chamber, or being at
altitude on the side of a mountain, there is a reduction in the fluid volume in
the body. During acclimatization water inside the body's cells as well as
outside the body's cells decrease resulting in a decrease in volume. Diligent
awareness of fluid intake at altitude, adequate rest and sleep should also be
paid attention to. Proper nutrition during use of the altitude training is
important to facilitate optimal blood growth, maintain health, and aid in
maximum body acclimation time.
"That is why we encourage everyone who uses one of our chambers to
drink plenty of fluids," says Bob Greska, engineer/designer of the Altitude
Fitness Chamber, especially after a nights sleep. As a matter of fact, you will
find that after about one or so hour into using the chamber at altitude you
will have to expel some bodily fluids. This expulsion of water from your blood
increases apparent the density of your RBC's in your blood. This is the body's
way to quickly adjust or "acclimate" to the new altitude, i.e., more, oxygen
carrying, RBC's closer together. This in turn triggers your body to produce
more Red Blood Cell's. |
