Craig Bellamy Goes Hypoxic to Beat the Injury Bug

By: Laurie | October 9th, 2008

Craig Bellamy, oft-injured West Ham striker and captain of Wales, is ascending to new heights in an effort to stay fit. Or at least that’s what he’s trying to make his body believe.

The Wales captain Craig Bellamy has installed an altitude tent in his home and is sleeping in it in an effort to improve his injury record and prolong his career.

“I sleep at altitude every night,” the West Ham striker told the BBC. “I’ve got my own tent and everything. It’s supposed to speed up your recovery. It helps your endurance, helps your speed - it makes you a fitter athlete. So we’ll see in time.”

Basically, Bellamy — who hasn’t played for Wales in a year, and who has played all of 7 games for West Ham since he joined the team in summer of ‘07 — is using altitude simulation to convince his body that it’s neither aging nor injury prone.

And in case you’re wondering what an “altitide tent” is? Wikipedia is, as usual, your best friend.

An altitude tent, also known as an altitude simulation tent or a hypoxic tent, is an enclosed living space which simulates high altitude by maintaining a lower oxygen concentration. It is used by athletes and by high-altitude mountain climbers to stimulate the body’s natural adaptations to altitude, including an increase in the number of red blood cells and enzymes. Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body; athletes benefit from increased delivery of oxygen to the muscles, and mountain climbers can avoid altitude sickness by better utilizing the diminished amount of oxygen found at higher altitudes.

The basic concept of living or training at altitude is to cause the body to adapt to the lower oxygen content by producing more oxygen-carrying red blood cells and hemoglobin. This improves the athlete’s ability to perform work, because more oxygen is available to the working muscles.

(I’m tempted to include the whole Wiki article, because it’s really interesting. But I’ll let you click on the above link if you want to learn more. And in case you were wondering, that’s an altitude tent ad photo. It’s not really Craig Bellamy. Just fyi.)

This strategy isn’t new — Real Madrid’s Raul reportedly does the same thing. And even though it wasn’t enough to get him included on Spain’s Euro-winning squad last summer, he did manage to score 23 goals last year (all competitions) — almost double what he scored the year before. Not bad for a thirty-ish player.

We wish Mr. Bellamy the best of luck with his oxygen deprivation experiment.

(But what we’d really like to know is where his wife sleeps.)