Team adopts a ‘live-high train-low’ regime during nine-day visit to world class hospital. Doha, 08 May 2014: Members of Australia’s 2014 Commonwealth Games swim team recently underwent an intensive training programme at Aspetar in preparation for the Glasgow games in July. Utilising the Hamad Aquatic Centre and the Aspire Zone facilities for their training sessions, the team committed itself to a nine day ‘live-high train-low’ programme at Aspetar in conjunction with the use of altitude tents prior to their arrival, in order to take advantage of Aspetar’s advanced altitude-inducing normobaric hypoxic (oxygen reduced) rooms. Additionally, during their stay, the athletes were given complete access to the hospital’s sports medicine experts, and were able to benefit from their extensive hypoxic training knowledge. Commenting on the training camp Dr Khalifa Al Kuwari, Director General of Aspetar, said:

“We are delighted that members with Australia’s 2014 Commonwealth Games swim team visited Aspetar to use our services that are specifically designed to enable athletes to reach their maximum potential. The normobaric hypoxic chamber is but one example of the progressive facilities on offer here at Aspetar”.

Widely regarded as one of world’s strongest swim teams, the Australian selection is comprised of internationally recognised athletes including Belinda Hocking, Ellen Gandy, and Travis Mahoney. The swimmers spent up to 14 hours-a-day in the normobaric chambers at Aspetar in order to ensure proper exposure to a high altitude environment. They conducted the swim and dry land training at sea level. Aspire Zone regularly organises camps for top-tier athletes and sports clubs. By providing a year-round indoor climate-controlled training facility, it aims to nurture elite sporting talent, allowing athletes to compete at their maximum potential. Aspetar’s purpose-built normobaric hypoxic dormitory features 25 rooms and a large communal living area. The chamber, which utiliises a complex filtration system, reduces the concentration of oxygen in the air to replicate altitudes ranging from 100 to 4,000 metres. This process traditionally requires athletes to spend significant amounts of time at high altitudes in order to reap the benefits of improved physiological capacity, which leads to the overall enhancement of their athletic performance. Over the past few years a number of clubs have taken advantage of Aspetar’s normobaric hypoxic facilities, including the French national swim team led by Olympic gold medallist Florent Manaudou and Carlton FC, an Australian Football League team Meanwhile, the team is also set to return to Doha in September to undergo another ‘live-high train-low’ programme ahead of the 12th FINA World Swimming Championships to be held in Qatar in December.