These last few month's I've really tried to improve my fitness. No, it's very unlikely I'll get abs, and I'm just not genetically blessed with long limbs, but I wanted to improve my overall health, stamina, and yes, build some muscle and shed some body fat.
One of the things I really struggle with is stamina. I suck at cardio, and get out of breath pretty quickly.
So to try and improve this, I went and tried the latest workout craze, Altitude Mask training, with Skinny Rebel at The Conrad hotel. The one thing I will say is. I'm no fitness buff, I'm an average girl, who probably eats too much. So this video is no master training plan. It's to give you an idea of what it would be like to train with one But also if I can do it, so can you.
What is it?
The mask mimics being high in the mountains where the air is thin, and so there is less oxygen. The idea is that with less oxygen, you body has to work twice as hard to perform the same exercise. It's basically a more efficient way to exercise. The idea is also that it get's you to breath correctly over time, so that you effectively utilise your lung capacity correctly and to it's max when you work out.
Why would I do it?
Take the example of Kenyan long distance runners. One theory is that the reason they out perform most of the time in comparison to British runners is that in Kenya in the mountains there is far less oxygen than in Britain. Over time they train their bodies to become effective with less oxygen, making their lung capacity greater.
When they race over somewhere else where their is a much greater supply, their bodies are suddenly flooded with far more oxygen than they need to run at the same efficiency than out runners, and so they can run harder and faster than ever before.
Therefore, if you trained 90% of the time with the mask, then when you workout without it, your stamina and performance should be far greater.
What did I think?
I was sweating like I have never sweated before.Within 10 minutes I was so out of breath. It feels like something is compressing on your chest, stopping the air getting to you. It really does feel like you can't breath properly. Simple exercises like burpees left me needing to rip the mask off. I felt like I had worked out so hard, and so whilst I was left dying on the floor, I felt so good afterwards.
Where can you train with one?
Skinny Rebel offer personal training or small classes of 5 people with the altitude mask at The Conrad hotel in St James, London.
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I had to laugh because you said you have no stamina, but at the same time you say burpees are simple ;) I would do pretty anything if that meant no burpees ;)
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