Twenty eight student athletes from ASPIRE, Qatar’s Academy for Sports Excellence, have returned from a major sports and athletics camp held in Potchefstroon, South Africa, conducted as part of an exclusive sporting program designed to provide a world-class level of training and development.
Working at Puk University, one of South Africa’s leading educational institutions, the students – which included athletics, squash and multi-sports athletes – were put through a unique program designed to improve their physical and athletic capabilities through mid-altitude training.
Mid-altitude training sees the athletes put through a series of exercises at 1,200 meters above sea level, in the picturesque hills of Potchefstroon. Training at this level increases the number of red blood cells and helps to enhance general aerobic fitness.
In order to assess the effectiveness of the program and ensure that participants were staying healthy, student athletes were checked with heart rate variability (HRV) tests, to measure the level to which they had adapted to the altitude and the training.
