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| The latest fashion ancil to your country excursion? |
The O2 Trainer is available online. This small piece of kit could help people train whilst on the road, find out more.
I have always wondered what it is about Sherpas and people from high altitudes that allows them to sustain their energy with lower oxygen. People struggle going up and seem to perform better if they have come down from altitude. Some have said it is to do with the amount of red blood cells produced. Once a Gurkha told me “Our blood doesn’t get thick, we can carry more oxygen.” Whatever the reason, people have tried to capture this effect with different techniques. These can be expensive, such as altitude training, or depleted oxygen housing (crazy, but apparently some people want to sleep like that!)
I have always wondered what it is about Sherpas and people from high altitudes that allows them to sustain their energy with lower oxygen. People struggle going up and seem to perform better if they have come down from altitude. Some have said it is to do with the amount of red blood cells produced. Once a Gurkha told me “Our blood doesn’t get thick, we can carry more oxygen.” Whatever the reason, people have tried to capture this effect with different techniques. These can be expensive, such as altitude training, or depleted oxygen housing (crazy, but apparently some people want to sleep like that!)
The Bas Ruttan O2 trainer is not like hypoxic masks that
claim to be set to altitudes. Whilst I have read some research that these masks
can increase stamina in some conditions, and may well be worth training in for
Fireman and Soldiers, they don’t seem to increase the efficiency of oxygen use.
When people are tested in hypoxic chambers rather than with the mask on, they
don’t seem to have any advantage over people who don’t train with hypoxic
masks. This implies the use of hypoxic masks won’t allow you to drop into Nepal
anytime soon and skip acclimatising!
Bas Ruttan believes this is because they limit the
exhalation, which causes not only a laboured in breathe, but a downward spiral
caused by adding resistance to the out breath. The end result is shallow
breathing. He has claimed he was inspired by his Asthma. His lungs were only
ever constricted on the intake, but he could always breathe out fully. This is
a little bit similar to some yogic breathing exercises, or inhaling through the
nose, and exhaling through the mouth. He noticed very starkly after a period of
asthma suffering his track times got quicker. “How was it possible?” he
wondered.
It may have something to do with the fact the lungs are
forced to suck harder, strengthening the supportive muscles in the back and the
diaphragm. If that was the case, what if he made something that only limited
the intake of breathe, but allowed people to breathe out all the way?
The result of this is the O2 trainer. After having run with
it a few times, I have experienced this concept in action. It is written in the
online description “you might feel some ache in your back, this is your lungs
breathing to a fuller capacity.” At first this seemed hard to imagine, but in
fact I have felt this. This is possibly the fact my lower traps and rib cartilage
have not been forced to extend so far before. The mouth piece really forces me
to breathe with the bottom of my lungs, slowly and steadily. The whoosh on the
way out tells me exactly how full my lungs have been. If there isn’t much
sound, my lungs were empty by the time I made the out breath, thus I know I
need to breathe in deeper next time!
It is very interesting, my shoulders have dropped since I
have been using the trainer. I think this is somewhat down to the way it
massages my lower trapezius and lats from the inside, as my lungs fill deeper
like bellows. Like many people after most runs I have felt tight in my
shoulders, contrarily after running with the mouthpiece my shoulders actually
feel looser.
The mouthpiece itself is a small rubber mould that has two
chambers. One chamber is the inlet, where one of 14 filters can be attached, with
each numbered filter adding resistance to the in breathe. On the other side, a
tiny cat flap like fold stops air coming in, but allows it to go out freely.
The sound on the exhale really lets you know if you have been using the device
properly. If it doesn’t open fully and sharply as you breathe out, you probably
need to reduce the filter to a bigger hole and use less resistance.
I would recommend this device to people wishing to improve
their stamina. There are some user issues that may make some feel
uncomfortable, which include a build up of saliva and perhaps the feeling of
being “exposed” when running around with a mouth piece. However, there are at
home exercises that just focus on breathing. This may suit some people more
than others.
SUGGESTED EXERCISES WITH O2 TRAINER:
Hill sprints
Kettle bell swings
Breathing exercises
Tabatas
Skipping
Boxing bagwork
SUGGESTED EXERCISES WITH O2 TRAINER:
Hill sprints
Kettle bell swings
Breathing exercises
Tabatas
Skipping
Boxing bagwork
