Ireland gets rarified chance to sample altitude training at UL

Irish athletes have been given a considerable lift in their efforts to compete with the world’s best following the opening of Ireland’s first Altitude Training Centre.

The University of Limerick’s state-of-the-art facility is intended to provide elite athletes across all endurance sports who already use the Olympic standard training amenities on campus to add altitude training on site. Rather than embarking on expensive trips overseas to natural altitude training camps, the National Altitude Training Centre, which was undertaken and funded by Plassey Campus Centre, brings the acknowledged benefits of such training to the doorstep of Irish track athletes, swimmers, rowers, cyclists, triathletes and boxers, as well as team sports such as rugby, football and hockey.

“The success of this mode of performance enhancement is underwritten by the fact that altitude training has been used by virtually every medallist competing in endurance-based sports over the past 10 years,” Professor Phil Jakeman, Director of the National Altitude Training Centre at UL, said.

“Currently, the most effective altitude training programme involves living at an altitude of 2,000 metres to 3,000m for a period of 14-28 days.

“This is normally achieved by athletes travelling abroad to high altitude camps away from their normal training environment and support structures.

“Athletes residing at this altitude find it impossible to maintain their sea-level training programme and therefore must undertake a daily trek to an altitude below 1500m to train, returning to altitude again overnight. Furthermore, this type of residential altitude setting provides only one altitude, a one-size-fits-all approach that defies best practice in terms of specificity of training.”

Jakeman’s centre at UL is a seven-bedroom house with simulated altitude which allows independent control for each athlete in their respective rooms ranging from sea level to 5,000m through an hypoxic air conditioning system. This will optimise the altitude response for each athlete.

Jakeman continued: “The launch of this facility has attracted the interest of Olympians from within Ireland and abroad preparing for London 2012. The R&D potential is also significant for applied sports performance research in Ireland.

“We expect significant international interest in the research capability of this facility in the future.”