Reaching New Heights Under Low Pressure
Increased athletic performance thanks to vacuum
An Olympic sprinter is at home on flat ground. But by swapping the smooth surface of a racetrack for the rocky heights and thin air at the top of a mountain, athletes can experience an incredible increase in performance. Low-pressure chambers using vacuum pumps from Busch emulate these conditions to give the same training effect – without the climb.
Scaling a mountain takes its toll on the human body. But it’s not just the effort. Above 2,000 m, the oxygen levels in the air drop rapidly. Even the fittest and best-trained mountain climbers need to acclimatize to the new heights they reach. However, what sounds like a disadvantage can also be exploited to create a much greater competitive advantage for athletes.
Record-smashing conditions
The 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City were the first time that the effect of altitude on athletic performance could truly be studied and understood. The city lies at an altitude of 2,240 m – a point around the same height as Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia. As a result, there were many theories before the event about how the high altitude and lower oxygen levels would put athletes at a disadvantage. For the first few training sessions, this was exactly what happened. However, once the athletes had acclimatized, the complete opposite became true. Instead of worse performance, record after record was smashed. By putting the athlete under the stress of lower oxygen levels, the body goes into “survival mode” and produces more red blood cells. These are what transport oxygen to the muscles – and when more are produced, performance increases, even after returning to normal altitudes. It opened the gates for research into how this effect could be used to improve athletic performance. One technique is training in a low-pressure chamber.
Low-pressure training
On top of a mountain, the air is naturally thinner; inside a low-pressure chamber, it is a vacuum pump that creates this performance-enhancing atmosphere. Once the athlete closes the door, the vacuum pump gradually reduces the pressure. Not to a complete vacuum, of course, but to the equivalent oxygen levels met at altitude. The usual pressure for training is the equivalent of around 3,000 m. This is enough to activate the positive effects without too much of the negative; however, some low-pressure chambers can transport athletes to over 8,000 m – a height equivalent to the top of Mount Everest. Apart from the views, the biggest difference between training on top of a real mountain and inside a training room is the oxygen supply. In the great outdoors, the air is constantly being refreshed, but a sealed room will eventually run out. To avoid this, fresh oxygen is continuously pumped in. This means that the vacuum pump has to run continuously to maintain the correct pressure. And under this pressure, athletes can reach new heights without ever setting foot on a mountain.
Record-smashing conditions
The 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City were the first time that the effect of altitude on athletic performance could truly be studied and understood. The city lies at an altitude of 2,240 m – a point around the same height as Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain in Australia. As a result, there were many theories before the event about how the high altitude and lower oxygen levels would put athletes at a disadvantage. For the first few training sessions, this was exactly what happened. However, once the athletes had acclimatized, the complete opposite became true. Instead of worse performance, record after record was smashed. By putting the athlete under the stress of lower oxygen levels, the body goes into “survival mode” and produces more red blood cells. These are what transport oxygen to the muscles – and when more are produced, performance increases, even after returning to normal altitudes. It opened the gates for research into how this effect could be used to improve athletic performance. One technique is training in a low-pressure chamber.
Low-pressure training
On top of a mountain, the air is naturally thinner; inside a low-pressure chamber, it is a vacuum pump that creates this performance-enhancing atmosphere. Once the athlete closes the door, the vacuum pump gradually reduces the pressure. Not to a complete vacuum, of course, but to the equivalent oxygen levels met at altitude. The usual pressure for training is the equivalent of around 3,000 m. This is enough to activate the positive effects without too much of the negative; however, some low-pressure chambers can transport athletes to over 8,000 m – a height equivalent to the top of Mount Everest. Apart from the views, the biggest difference between training on top of a real mountain and inside a training room is the oxygen supply. In the great outdoors, the air is constantly being refreshed, but a sealed room will eventually run out. To avoid this, fresh oxygen is continuously pumped in. This means that the vacuum pump has to run continuously to maintain the correct pressure. And under this pressure, athletes can reach new heights without ever setting foot on a mountain.
Read more – Pressure down, volume up
Big televisions, screens integrated into exercise machines, and music – these are essential parts of a modern fitness studio. For professional athletes and normal folk alike, they provide a welcome distraction while breaking a sweat. But in a low-pressure chamber, the volume needs to be turned up higher than in your standard gym. Why? For exactly the same reason that altitude sickness happens: The thinner air.
It’s a well-known fact that there is no sound in space. A low-pressure chamber is effectively the middle ground between space and typical ambient air. It’s not a complete vacuum, so sound still carries – however, it struggles. Sound waves need particles to travel. When sound travels through the air, it collides with gas molecules, causing them to vibrate and transmit the sound further. With the pressure lowered, there are fewer such molecules to collide with. This limits how far and how strongly the sound can travel, causing all sounds to be quieter than in the outside world. As a result, what would be a comfortable volume in the average living room could be a mere whisper to an athlete on the treadmill in a low-pressure chamber.
Big televisions, screens integrated into exercise machines, and music – these are essential parts of a modern fitness studio. For professional athletes and normal folk alike, they provide a welcome distraction while breaking a sweat. But in a low-pressure chamber, the volume needs to be turned up higher than in your standard gym. Why? For exactly the same reason that altitude sickness happens: The thinner air.
It’s a well-known fact that there is no sound in space. A low-pressure chamber is effectively the middle ground between space and typical ambient air. It’s not a complete vacuum, so sound still carries – however, it struggles. Sound waves need particles to travel. When sound travels through the air, it collides with gas molecules, causing them to vibrate and transmit the sound further. With the pressure lowered, there are fewer such molecules to collide with. This limits how far and how strongly the sound can travel, causing all sounds to be quieter than in the outside world. As a result, what would be a comfortable volume in the average living room could be a mere whisper to an athlete on the treadmill in a low-pressure chamber.