Exercising at High Altitudes

by Neil Anderson

This week on the KSL Travel show: your excellent hosts and fellow GPPrs Doug Wren (DW) and Brad Call (BC) discuss high altitude travel.  They invited me to discuss the physical demands of travelling to places like Machu Picchu and Mt. Everest.  Very cool stuff.

It is amazing how just a little training will improve your chances of enjoying an epic high altitude vacation.  It is even more amazing how little or no preparation can ruin your trip...maybe even your health.  This can be temporary and/or permanent. 

To enjoy a high altitude vacation there is no substitute for training at high altitude (over 8000 ft.).  Sleeping at high altitude is also suggested.  Some (super rich types) use hypobaric chambers.  

If training at high altitude is out of the question, consider adding more specific cardiovascular exercise (running, biking, swimming) to your workouts.  We suggest you do this daily for 30-40 min.  Using a HR monitor and keeping your HR between 125-150 bpm (depending upon age) works best.  You should do this for a minimum of 14 days.  The better your cardiovascular capacity, the better your chances of adapting to the altitude is.  

It taxes your kidneys to adjust to high altitude activity so while you are at elevation we suggest you stay well hydrated.  Also consider a high carbohydrate diet and backing off alcohol consumption. 

DW and BC do an amazing job of fitting mounds of useful travel related info into 2 hours.  Check it out every Sunday from noon - 2 pm MDT. 

Organic Exercise...

by Neil Anderson

Organic Exercise?

I like this term, a lot. It is interesting that we spend so much time and effort denouncing the pitfalls of unnatural and refined foods (and rightly so), yet the parallels between refined foods and refined exercise have not been as widely recognized. 

While the quality of our food continues to deteriorate so does the quality of our exercise.  Over the past 25 years, exercise recommendations have been reduced from natural movements to superficial attempts at improving on nature.  Machines and technology are being wrought upon by the masses to more easily achieve the look of health. The end result is a look which is anything but healthy.   

Acquiring the appearance of health without establishing proper foundations is a short lived, injury prone/diseased existence leading to a significant reduction in quality of life.  

Using reductionist science to superficially engineer healthy foods and active lifestyles is equally as destructive.  Regrettably, many who fall victim to unhealthy lifestyles are then further exposed to even more reductionist techniques for the cure.  GPP believes the more naturally occuring (organic) exercise and nutrition is, the more healthy you become.

10 Aspects of Fitness

We have admired coaches Bruce Evans and Jim Crawley of Dynamax for years.  They pioneered and created the 10 General Physical Skills that GPP (and MANY others) uses daily in our programming.  These are: Cardiovascular Endurance, Strength, Stamina, Flexibility, Power, Speed, Agility, Coordination, Balance and Accuracy. 

Their athletic training techniques and understanding of the physical needs of moving the human body is second to none.  If you get a chance, check out their training tips HERE. Makes you miss them, eh?  We are saving our pennies...