As many rounds as possible in 10:00 minutes of:
10 Sumo deadlift high pulls 95#(65#)
10 Box jump overs 24″(20″)
10 Front rack reverse lunges 95#(65#)
Post rounds and reps to comments and BTWB
Training at altitude is the best. I only wish our elevation was higher. – Said by no one ever
By Courtney Shepherd, with the assist of some far more educated folks than myself
The great state of Colorado is certainly gaining its fair share of transplants over the years, and CrossFit Verve is quite lucky enough to have many of them walk through our doors. But, as soon as these fine folks walk through our doors, something happens. They begin to call in to question their level of fitness. Why is it so hard to breath? I can usually do this workout unbroken and I literally had to stop and take a knee. . . twice. Where’s the oxygen? All valid statements we’ve heard more than once. Moving to a state of altitude is unlike anything most people have ever done before, but most people don’t realize it unless they come from a background of regular fitness, like fellow CrossFit enthusiasts. And every time altitude knocks someone on their butt we get a lot of questions: How long does it take to feel better? What can I do to speed this process along? Both of which are great questions, and not one single person likes, or even believes, both of the answers I give to those questions: 3-6 months (maybe even more), and nothing beyond simply working out consistently (unless you wish to start a regiment of EPA doping).
The look of shock and disbelief about those answers comes from a lack of understanding what exactly is happening to our bodies when we are introduced to altitude. Hence why I want to take a brief moment to nerd out with you on some anatomy and biology:
There are two major kinds of environmental stresses at high altitude for humans. First, there are the alternating daily extremes of climate that often range from hot, sunburning days to freezing nights. In addition, winds are often strong and humidity low, resulting in rapid dehydration. Second, the air pressure is lower. This is usually the most significant limiting factor in high mountain regions.
The percentage of oxygen in the air at two miles (3.2 km.) is essentially the same as at sea level (21%). However, the air pressure is 30% lower at the higher altitude due to the fact that the atmosphere is less dense–that is, the air molecules are farther apart.
When we breathe in air at sea level, the atmospheric pressure of about 14.7 pounds per square inch (1.04 kg. per cm.2) causes oxygen to easily pass through selectively permeable lung membranes into the blood. At high altitudes, the lower air pressure makes it more difficult for oxygen to enter our vascular systems. The result is hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation. Hypoxia usually begins with the inability to do normal physical activities, such as climbing a short flight of stairs without fatigue. Other early symptoms of “high altitude sickness” include a lack of appetite, vomiting, headache, distorted vision, fatigue, and difficulty with memorizing and thinking clearly.
When we travel to high mountain areas, our bodies initially develop inefficient physiological responses. There is an increase in breathing and heart rate to as much as double, even while resting. Pulse rate and blood pressure go up sharply as our hearts pump harder to get more oxygen to the cells.
So in non nerd terms, we have the same amount of oxygen in Colorado, however the pressure here is lower, making it more difficult to get oxygen where it needs to go. This creates a feeling of hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen to the body. AT REST people new to altitude can have an increase in their breathing rate and heart rate DOUBLE. That means your body is working twice as hard to get oxygen in and to all the right places . . . while you are not doing anything physical, just sitting there, resting. Perhaps now we can start to appreciate why adding even a small amount of physical activity crushes our will to live. This is why coming to Colorado means you are not able to do the things you use to at your old gym, it takes 3-4 x’s as much effort. This is obviously not permanent. But it does take time. Your body has to adapt to this constant feeling of hypoxia, it has to begin to create more red blood cells to help carry more oxygen, in effort to solve the problem. This DOES NOT happen over night. This DOES NOT happen in a few weeks. Most literature will tell you it takes 3-6 weeks, I’m here to tell you it takes 3-6 months. In 3-6 weeks your internal blood work will have made the necessary changes, but as far as feeling and performing like you use to, 3-6 months.
What can you do to help yourself along in this process? Workout. Workout regularly. Workout regularly and heavily scale your workouts. Wait, what?!?!?! I don’t scale workouts. I’m an RXer all the way. If I want to get better faster, I need to keep using all the heavy weights and still do all the reps, even if it takes me 3 x’s as long to finish the workout. If I don’t do the heavier weights and all the reps I’m going to lose all my gains.
Yeah. No.
When you are new to altitude, you need to drive the adaptation internally. You need to create the demand for oxygen and make your body work hard to fill it. You need to keep moving. You need to cut the reps, cut the weight, and put yourself in a position to keep working and keep moving. I know that you feel like the workout is hard and intense, your heart is beating a million times a minute and you are struggling to breath. . . but you’ve also been taking that knee, resting in the middle of the workout for about 3 minutes. You are providing your body a moment of comfort to catch your breath and in turn tell yourself, I’m good. I got all the oxygen I need. Any time I feel like I’m out, I’ll just sit and rest until I’m full up again. Your body is now getting use to doing interval work. You have created a work to rest cycle where there should not be one. This slows your adaptation.
You will not lose your gains. Please, everyone, get over this statement. It’s fitness. It ebbs and flows with life. Your CrossFit journey is not linear and constantly moving upward. This is simply a pin in your CrossFit timeline, a moment when you maybe had to take a set back from your regularly scheduled program of RXing workouts in an effort to take several steps forward in helping your body adjust to it’s new environment.
So unless you know someone that can hook you up with Lance Armstrong’s people and get you some solid EPA to boost those red blood cells stat. . . . just chill. Come to class, get a solid workout in, and let nature do it’s thing. We promise, it gets better.
*Italicized info courtesy of Adapting to High Altitude
