Tag : training

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Heart Rate A Barometer Of Health

Introduction

This article is inspired by an athlete you’ve probably never heard of, yet was at one point the greatest athlete in his sport, in addition to being analogous to the greatest athletes of all time. David Palmer, a professional squash player from Lithgow, Australia recently retired from the sport at the beginning of November, having had one of the most illustrious careers ever seen.

David’s story is a lengthy one; however the focus of this article is a period in his life from 1992, where he had to choose between the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) and Joe Shaw, a coach who pioneered the use of, at the time, highly advanced methods for the development of elite athletes. David chose Joe to the annoyance of the AIS, and subsequently became one of the greatest athletes of all time.

Joe used many methods to monitor David’s progress, and whilst these are now mostly common practice among elite athletes such as using binaural beats to alter the brain wave zone and implant positive affirmations, at the time they were revolutionary, and some still are.

The Resting Heart Rate

A key training aid which can be employed by a variety of athletes (stretching from recreational to elite) is that of the resting heart rate (RHR). Most people who exercise can tell you how to measure the pulse, and also that a low pulse can in theory denote a good level of fitness. Most people however are unaware of the full potential of the RHR to describe the current and future states of their body.

Joe Shaw used this expression to explain the reasoning behind measuring the RHR:

IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT, YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND IT. IF YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND IT, YOU CAN’T CONTROL IT. IF YOU CAN’T CONTROL IT, YOU CAN’T IMPROVE IT.

If we take the example of most exercisers from above, most can measure the pulse, however most people’s knowledge of that system stops at understanding.

The pulse rate can be thought of as not just an indication of fitness, but also as an indication of vitality. It’s essentially a barometer of the body.

There are limitations however and these need to be understood in order to realise the importance of the RHR.

Firstly, it is natural for some people to exhibit symptoms of arrhythmia. Arrhythmia is a condition whereby the heart beats faster than normal (tachycardia), or slower than normal (bradycardia). This point shows the main limitation of using RHR as an exclusive measure of fitness. For example, you may test untrained subjects at random, and find that some have a RHR of around 50bpm. You may then test well trained subjects, and find some of these also have a RHR of 50bpm. Whilst this is an extreme example, it shows that RHR’s are highly variable and specific to the individual.

Levels of Fitness

So whilst it may not be scientifically accurate to compare between subjects, the RHR can be used very accurately to measure within subject fitness (the fitness of an individual). Many formulas exist to determine various zones of heart rate, and also as a predictor of fitness based on the RHR, however the most important measurement is the starting RHR; that is the very first RHR that you take and record. With this number, fitness can be measured very accurately providing several factors are met. Firstly, the RHR should be recorded daily, and secondly, the heart rate should be measured (preferably when you wake up) at the same time each day to ensure consistency.

On taking the RHR for a period of around 4 weeks, you can begin to understand your own pulse rate better, and even pre-empt and prevent overtraining which is explained later.

A trap many people make the mistake of falling into, especially at the beginning of a training programme, is expecting the heart rate to fall down too quickly. When no decrease is noticed after a week, they get disheartened and stop their training.

A lowering in RHR is brought about through long term training, resulting in athletic bradycardia/ventricular hypertrophy (enlargement in the heart muscle). This can often take many months, with shorter term changes such as increases in red cell volume occurring first. Once the RHR starts to decrease, it’s important to always refer back to the initial RHR value, since this will show your true progress, and be much more informative that a generic heart rate zone table used to describe the general population. These should generally only be used as a rough guide.

A Barometer of Health

Another feature of the RHR which is relatively unknown by the majority of athletes is that the RHR is generally very stable, and usually fluctuates only, and very precisely, at the onset of illness, so the RHR in this respect can be thought of as a barometer of health.

An extract from Joe Shaw’s journal illustrates this:

“I cannot stress the importance of this measurement strongly enough. The RHR is an indicator and a barometer that informs you of problems before they occur. If his RHR rises from 37 to 40 overnight then there has to be a reason. David assesses what he did yesterday, how he feels, tired or whatever, what he ate, and establishes a reason. If he cannot, then he monitors the RHR the next morning and it has risen to 42.  He immediately stops training because he has an illness about to commence, or it has by now commenced, and he requires medication or rest.”

Whilst this may seem a very extreme example (it must be remembered David made his living from sport), it illustrates the point that the RHR, when measured in a consistent way can advise on whether or not to train, and whether the current training regime is resulting in improvements to fitness.

Crucially for more regular exercisers, the RHR can give indications of the onset of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is important to note that contrary to popular belief, anyone partaking in regular exercise has a risk of developing Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, especially if the individual partakes in heavy bouts of high intensity, short duration sprint or power exercises. Another extract from Joe Shaw’s journal illustrates this:

“[David’s heart rate has risen from 37 to 42 in two days.] It may be that he is overtraining, and the warning signs have been given. You can bounce back from exhaustion in 2/3 days but overtraining is a state of prolonged fatigue and can destroy your athlete. One AIS pupil ran 400 meters in 75 seconds, 30 times in the morning, considering that essential to his fitness. He finished with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and in my opinion these runs did not help him at all.”

“Overtraining may be defined as a state of prolonged fatigue caused primarily by excessive training and characterised by decrements or stagnancy in performance despite continuous training (Costill 1986 & Kuipers and Keizer 1988). Overtraining is the result of short term balance between stress and how your body adapts to it (Michael Yessis Ph D .Sports Medicine)”

Using expression the if you can’t understand it, you can’t control it etc… through not understanding the actions of the RHR, an athlete could mistake a sudden increase in heart rate as a sudden drop of fitness, or conversely, could train exceptionally hard but not detect any noticeable decrease in heart rate. Both these situations require a thorough evaluation of the training plan:

1) Am I doing the correct type of training which is specific for my needs? 2) Am I giving my body enough time to rest and recover? (A fundamental part of training) 3) Am I eating and drinking to sufficiently replace the nutrients I have lost? 4) Is my training regime sufficiently varied? 5) Am I being realistic? (Remembering that it can take several months to notice a decrease in RHR)

From the above examples and current literature, it would appear that the monitoring of RHR is imperative if you are serious about maintaining health, and increasing fitness levels.

http://www.davidpalmer.com/Coaching/CoachJoe-01.htm

http://squashclub-karlsruhe.de/infos/palmcoach/coach_inhoud.htm%20

DAVID+PALMER[1]

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Scottish Winter 2011

Photos courtesy of Zac Poulton, James Morrison and Mark Scales

So having just returned from my first Scottish winter, I thought now would be a good time to share the experience.

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It’s hard to know where to start, as packing my bags for the trip seems a lifetime ago. I guess a good place is in fact the packing. So having seen the kit list from AP, and confident I had most of the kit; I set about the challenge of packing all the kit into two bags. This went strangely to plan, and left me with only my boots which would have to be worn on the plane. Being yellow, I knew they wouldn’t fail to turn heads in the exotic departure lounge of Luton.

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Being on the flight was a relief, as I hadanticipated being questioned about having an ice axe and crampons in my luggage. I spent half the flight amused by the Scottish dictionary that Easy Jet had kindly provided, so you could navigate your way around the Scottish slopes like a pro.

I then spent the rest of the time with the realisation I had a 5 hour wait at Buchanan bus station in the centre of Glasgow, how bad could it be?

The bus station was an interesting place, where birds came for the relative warmth, but then realised it was colder inside the bus station than outside, so spent half an hour trying to operate the bird proofed automatic doors. As all this excitement unfolded, I sat on a low backed metal bench, the most uncomfortable type of bench possible, shivering away for 5 long hours.

Eventually the wait was over, the bus to Onich arrived, and after a long drive through dark wilderness, I reached the hotel about 6pm, after a 16 hour journey. This gave me an average speed of 23mph, which is incredibly slow given the 600mph ground speed of the airbus.

That night after settling in at the Onich hotel, I finally met my course companion, James, a first officer for Ryan Air; and our guide/instructor Zac. Also having a passion for flying, it was great to meet James, the first pilot I have ever met, which was a great talking point for the week. After discussing our hopes and aims for the course, sleep soon followed.

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Up early the next day, we drove out to Glen Coe, but after realising the snow was far from ideal, we drove back up to the Fort William Ski Centre, and took the Gondola up to about 700m to begin practicing the basic boot work skills. This then progressed to the famed ice axe arrest, with all the possible variations, including the possibility of being handed an axe whilst hurtling down the mountain at break neck speed. Eventually, we donned crampons, and with great aesthetics, plodded up to Aorrach an Nid, the high point of the day, before eventually descending to the van, and meeting a guy from the SAIS, who told us the snow pack was ‘one finger, pencil, four fingers’. After dinner, Zac gave us a lecture on avalanches that padded all the information we had been given throughout the day, and even explained the ‘one finger, pencil, four fingers’ as a way of ‘exploring’ the snow pack.

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Both James and I gained a great deal of respect for avalanches, but also a variety of methods we could use to create a good picture of the snow pack, to help avoid avalanches in the future. We also found out that James is a trained meteorologist, which was a great addition to our weather forecasting system, and unlike many weather presenters, gave a excellent forecast for the whole week, and being a pilot, he would say to 96.725% accuracy. At some point that night, I managed to vaguely sort my kit out into a rough drying system, that I would go on to perfect in later days.

The second day saw the introduction of a rope, to protect on steeper ground. This day also saw the introduction of the infamous walk-ins, which by the 4/5th day, I actually began to enjoy. Over the 5 days, I got particularly well acquainted with the walk-in to Stob Coire nan Lochan, which was the walk-in of choice for day 2. This was quite a shock to the system since the last walk-in consisted of a 5 minute walk to the gondola.

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Eventually we reached a grade I gully that led up the North West face of Gearr Anonach, and after gearing up like only a guide and 2 ‘students’ can (students taking at least twice as long after putting on the harness backwards, and crampons on the wrong feet), we started up the gully to practice bucket seats, and rope work. Reaching the top of the gully, we then unroped and climbed up the ridge to our first main summit, Stob Coire nan Lochan at 1115m. We then climbed down to the top of Broad Gully, created a snow bollard in the soft, wet snow, and abbed down the first pitch, before descending the rest of the gully in a very un-Ueli Steck style, and eventually found a snowman at the bottom.

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A final presentation from Zac on an expedition to Baruntse, gave me a much more professional insight into the preparation I would need for the northeast ridge on Everest, and in a few days, completely changed the way I thought about my preparation schedule.

From this point onwards the course became far more climbing orientated on steeper and more exposed ground. The previous day’s snow was soft and wet, but from the third day onwards, the temperatures dropped, and on the fourth and fifth days especially, hard névé formed, and the avalanche risk dropped.

The third day was our first introduction to steeper ground, on the grade II ledge route.  Of course the first obstacle to most climbs is actually getting there, so we began the walk-in, roughly four times the length of the previous day, but much more manageable thanks to its steady incline. I did develop a worrying method of passing the time in my head, by counting the pattern of streams that crossed the path. Most were path, rock, stream, rock, path; however double rock crossings are also encountered leading to a path, rock, stream, rock, stream, rock, stream, rock, path pattern, however this was rare… moving swiftly on.

On reaching the CIC hut, we geared up, and started into the snowline. The snow was still soft, but the forecast was improving all the time. After completing the first two pitches, and seeing 3 people solo up past us, we gradually improved, and learnt the various methods for protection, and moving together. Having said that, I am still not sure the method of arresting a fall on a ridge by jumping off the other side counts as a straightforward method of protection. The weather was gusty with the occasional shower of spindrift. I assumed it could get much worse, after all, I was still unexpectedly warm and dry.

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We eventually topped out on ledge route and onto Carn Dearg at 1221m. The Ben was still in the clouds at this point, and it would soon be dark, so we abbed off the metal flag marker of number 4 gully, and through the cornice which had been painstakingly cut a day or so before, leaving it just wide enough for a climber to squeeze through.

On the way down, we progressed with a bit more finesse than the previous day, and met up with Mark Scales, the guide just for the next day. After seeing Mark and his partner speed down the path to the car park, I became slightly worried at the pace the next day’s walk-in would be conducted.

After reaching the car park just after dark, we had time to think about what we had just achieved. A grade II route in Scottish winter conditions, not bad after 2 days on crampons.

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After a deep sleep, and plenty of rehydration, I was just about ready to battle the next walk in. Mark in no way believed Zac carried the rope the previous days, but that was worth a try. After leaving, we headed over to Stob Dearg to try something on the north face, but the snow was far too patchy, turning the first half of the climb into a rock climb.

So we headed back towards the three sisters, and set off for the second time for Stob Coire nan Lochan.  The pace as expected was high, and half way through the walk in, I was constantly dripping with sweat, which says something when the valley temperature was around freezing. We made our way over the coire and up into the snow line, and geared up. Dorsal Arête was the climb of choice; however there was another group at the base of Broad Gully, so we set off for a grade III variation on the lower fan-shaped buttress. On the way, we practiced some of the more advanced foot work methods, and the techniques needed to climb the mixed ground of the arête.

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Now armed with 2 axes, I belayed mark up the first section, struggling to give him enough slack. Eventually, after taking at least twice as long, I reached the belay, and repeated the process. Being 6ft, Mark was able to place all the protection high on the rock spikes. Being nearer 5ft, removing the protection was a nightmare, although the axe does become a useful extension of the arm. Eventually, higher up, we decided to stick to the arête proper, giving Mark an ideal opportunity to place more ridiculously high protection. After a bit of mixed, and ‘Fred Flintstoning’ on the rocks, we reached the final pitch, where I just randomly asked if I could lead. The reply was ‘yes, but you will fall twice as far if you slip’… Although not the best confidence booster, it meant every step counted.

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The view from the top was amazing, with cloud free summits on all but the highest mountains. It was in fact the first time we had seen the sun all week. After climbing over to the top of the lost valley, we descended down some steep névé which was the best snow we had seen all week.

De-gearing still took annoyingly longer than the instructors, but it was improving. We then raced down the lost valley at what felt like running pace, and 45 minutes later, were back at the van before dark.

Conversation at dinner that night revolved around James’s and my fascination of flying which truly is a never ending subject.

Friday was soon upon us, and that marked our final climbing day. The day before, I had decided to stay an extra night to avoid a 48h journey back home, which involved waiting back at Buchanan bus station for an hour, then sleeping over night at Glasgow airport, then waiting for my flight at 7pm the next night.

Fridays climb back again with Zac would oddly be our first Munro of the week, Stob Dearg, also known as The Beuckle, which was lower than previous climbs, but had the necessary prominence to count as a Munro.

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The climb was relatively straight forward, up a gully to the col, then across to the summit. However today we focussed on moving without the aid of a guide, and making our own decisions. The snow conditions were still good, with the widespread frost making for good climbing, and the lowest avalanche risk of the week.

In an effort to show how to look the part, Zac demonstrated the art of coiling the rope, as true guides look. I noticed if you combine this look with a few hexes on the rack, you can both look and sound like a guide.

After summiting, we then raced around to Stob na Doire at 1011m, although still not a Munro. After racing back to the col, we abbed down the gully, and after watching two people foolishly try to climb a buttress without ice axe and crampons, subsequently dislodging a melon sized rock, we de-geared and made our way back.

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That night was taken up with chatting to Zac about his invaluable advice for my next 2 trips in preparation for Everest, sharing all the photos from the week, and eventually talking to James about flying.

The next day, after finally saying goodbye to everyone, I was left in the hotel by myself waiting for the coach to Glasgow. The place was deserted, but it was the first time I had seen the place in the light, giving me a chance to see the beauty of the surroundings. The coach trip was the same, giving me chance to see and reflect on all the climbs we had done around Glencoe.

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Arriving at Glasgow airport, the place was surreal, there was no one to be seen; the whole of Glasgow International Airport was empty! I counted the flights on the board, there were 7 flights for the whole night shown on a 3 screen board that had the capacity for 60 flights!

As James had predicted the flight was short and smooth; my car journey however was 6 times as long as the flight it’s self.

My first Scottish winter was over.

I could not possibly detail everything that happened. Even though I have almost written more than my dissertation, and even though it was a short 5 day course, so much truly happened. I experienced some of the best days on the mountains in this time, and really found the magic of Scottish winter climbing. Climbing over the week with 3 great people, I had the best week I could have asked for.
Special thanks goes to Zac, Mark and Adventure Peaks, who I will be joining in July 2011 to climb in the Tien Shan. I would recommend them wholeheartedly. You can find out more here:

Zac Poulton – http://www.zacpoulton.blogspot.com/

Adventure peaks – http://www.adventurepeaks.com/