The Altitude Centre

Delta Sports Dome is delighted to unveil Ireland’s first and only Altitude Centre. The Centre is a sealed room that reduces oxygen for many benefits see below:

• Simulated altitude training enhances athletic performance, improves recovery, prepares people for trips to high altitude and supports general health, weight loss and well-being.

• We are here to help you achieve your goal, be it at altitude or at sea level. Our team of experts can work with you on your training and provide simulated altitude

• Our hypoxic machine filters oxygen out of the air which is then delivered to you within an altitude (hypoxic) chamber. Hypoxic training kick starts the pre-acclimatization process if you are off to high altitude, preparing your body to the conditions you will encounter. If you are training for sport, it will enhance the oxygen transport and utilization system and enable you to clear waste products from physical exercise, such as lactate, more efficiently.

• Hypoxic training is also an important part of rehabilitation. Training in hypoxia enables you to unload the muscle groups whilst maintaining a high cardiovascular and respiratory load, thus maintaining fitness whilst injured.  This unique training also increases the production of human grown hormone that helps the body to recover. Research in the area of bone healing is particularly interesting, and it has been shown that hypoxia can increase mineral density to make bones stronger and speed recovery.

• Training at altitude is like giving the body a tune up. You feel better, you have more energy, can run faster and further and there is less wear and tear on your internal engine. You achieve more, by doing less.

Siobhan Brady has recently set the Guinness World Record for the Highest Altitude Harp Performance. In preparation for the trip to the Himalayas, Siobhan and her father Sean Brady attended The Altitude Centre at Delta Sports Dome for Hypoxic training.

“Here are some photos to show the Altitude gym at the Delta Sports Dome that Siobhan and I used for 3 months to prepare for the challenges in the Himalayas.  This is referred to as Hypoxic training which is a is a sealed room that reduces oxygen to create the simulated atmosphere at 4800m. During this intensive training, our diet includes iron rich foods such as Kale and Spinach to increase our red blood cell production and we were advised to drink plenty of liquids including green tea when we were acclimatizing in Leh along with carbs like pasta and bread to help with the effects of altitude.

Siobhan and I really felt the benefit of the Altitude training when we reached 5000m which is at 12% oxygen compared to 21% at sea level where 2 of the team required oxygen and one of the team had to be brought down quickly and rushed to hospital due to breathing difficulties. Another team member, Neil Latchman ( Opera singer ) had not sufficiently acclimatized and was advised not to make the ascent and, sadly, the Project leader, Desmond Gentle developed thrombosis and died shortly after the attempt which was contributed to his time at altitude without sufficient attitude training as he continued to stay at high altitude after the Highest Harp Concert by visiting the remote site in the Himalayas where he had delivered a piano 2 years before which was featured in the award winning movie ‘Piano to Zanskar’.

The location of Leh which was our base camp for acclimatization and where the performers rehearsed the harp concert is one of the highest airport in the world where planes are often grounded due to low air pressure and the runway is at an angle to give the planes greater lift when taking off. Even here the altitude can be dangerous as the actor Chris Hemsworth almost died when he visited this location in 2016.”

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