England's Football Stars Sleeping in Oxygen Deprivation Tents to Prep for World Cup

And by football, we of course mean soccer ... er, football.

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 04.15.2010 at 9:55 am 6 Comments

Altitude Tent It's like a workout for the lungs, except without moving

Athletic training needs a 21st-century twist when World Cup glory is on the line, and especially when the main event of football (soccer for U.S. folk) takes place in high-altitude South Africa this summer. That means some members of England's star football squad will catch their shuteye inside special altitude tents designed to acclimate their body to the lower-oxygen conditions, according to the Daily Mail.

Tests showed that some of England's footballers had more difficulty coping with the thinner air at the high altitudes for six of the 10 World Cup stadiums. That select group would spend eight to 10 hours per night for three to four weeks inside the altitude tents, so that their body can produce more red blood cells to compensate for carrying oxygen to their muscles.

Each hypoxic generator flushes 100 liters of air per minute through the tents at a set altitude. Other national competitors for the World Cup have also reportedly adopted the same practice.

David Beckham -- currently on temporary leave from the LA Galaxy to play with AC Milan -- spent some time in one of the tents to speed up recovery from an injury before the 2002 World Cup. And other footballers have similarly used the devices to help boost fitness and recover faster.

The Spoiler football blog notes that the World Anti-Doping Agency once considered whether the tents might represent an unfair advantage on the level of blood doping, but dropped the subject. Considering the race to keep up new blood-doping drugs and even gene therapy treatments, it probably has enough troubles on its hands.

[via Daily Mail and The Spoiler]

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6 Comments

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tribexcJH

04/15/10 at 2:08 pm

David Beckham used a hyperbaric chamber. Hyperbaric chambers add oxygen to the environment in the tube supposedly for healing.

The Altitude Tents are hypoxic for less oxygen. This actually hurts short term recovery, but over time boosts the production of red blood cells. Thus, the athletes are better able to perform at high and low altitudes. They are two different things.

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tribexcJH

04/15/10 at 2:37 pm

Sorry, if the comment can be deleted, please do it. Articles online go back and forth calling beckham's therapy an altitude tent or hyperbaric chamber. I give up on figuring out which one.

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animemaster

04/15/10 at 3:28 pm

I'm sure you can use the same tent in different ways, you can probably set the oxygen level allowing for it to be like an altitude chamber or hyperbolic chamber. It really isn't either but could simulate some aspects of them.

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animemaster

04/15/10 at 3:30 pm

I'm going to meh when the thing breaks down when someone is sleeping and they are found dead in the morning. Man I'm heartless aren't I.

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Jeremy Hsu

04/16/10 at 10:59 am

@tribexcJH @animemaster Good points, and yes. Altitude tent probably applies in both cases, just with the different generators/settings.

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tybris

04/17/10 at 2:23 pm

Reminds me of the tropics training the Dutch team (the reigning European champions including van Basten, Gullit, Rijkaard and Koemen) had in preparation of the 1990 world cup. They did not survive the first round.

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