Being officially one mile (5,280ft) above sea-level makes ‘The Mile-High City’ of Denver unique in all sorts of ways. One thing that visitors notice immediately is the air quality and, more specifically, the lower oxygen content. Tourists can find themselves feeling out of breath because the higher you are, the less oxygen there is in the air.
This affects athletes too. With less oxygen available than there is at sea-level, exertion and exhaustion are felt more quickly. In order to cope with the thinner atmosphere, the body needs to adapt and acclimate. High altitude makes the respiratory rate and heartbeat speed up, both during activity and while at rest. This helps offset the lower partial pressure of oxygen.
There are positive effects though, and this is why you see so many sportsmen and women head to Denver and the surrounding mountains for their training. Athletes of all disciplines love to train at high altitude because with the lack of oxygen, the body automatically produces significant more red bloods cells and haemoglobin.
Haemoglobin in the blood carries oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body where it releases the oxygen to provide energy to power the functions of the organism. So after training at high-altitude, athletes will enjoy a higher concentration of red blood cells for up to two weeks, which can create a huge competitive advantage.
Those who cannot travel to Denver or another mountain region to get the real-world altitude will often recreate it in the comfort of their own home via a tent-like sleeping-chamber, which recreates the effects of sleeping at high-altitude. Michael Phelps, arguably the best swimmer in the world, never travels anywhere without one.
Some training centers have high-altitude rooms, which are oxygen-deprived to mimic the effects of altitude. Athletes also sometimes use a training mask, which looks a little like a gas-mask and restricts air-flow. These have proven particularly popular with boxers, fighters and the world-class kickboxers you will see tonight.
GLORY 16 in Denver will be a great event with some of the best kickboxers in the world squaring off in pursuit of their dream to become a champion. Every fighter says they value victory more than life itself but actions speak louder than words.
There is a school of thought that believes sport is a substitute for war. History’s most successful generals were famous for their careful planning and preparations. The successful sportsmen of today emulate that. We are in the era of sport-science and the specialist training advisers; this is future-war.
Preparation will be tonight’s key to victory. Those who have researched the location, understood its demands and trained accordingly will be in good condition to perform at their athletic maximum. Those who haven’t will have a problem. They will be handing their opponent a huge advantage and they will learn that Denver is the graveyard of the poorly prepared athlete.
