EXTREME MOUNTAINEER
The ascent is steep, the rucksack is heavy – and the longed-for hut is still nowhere in sight. In moments like these, hiking becomes torture. The right breathing technique can help. An experienced mountaineer explains how. If you prefer less extreme sports try your finger muscles at https://betlabel.com/en/mobile.
Take a breath and start walking: Correct breathing plays a major role in hiking and mountaineering. “Our performance on the mountain also depends on breathing correctly,” explains high-altitude mountaineer Alix von Melle.
Her tip: on hiking tours, you should breathe through your nose and not huff and puff through your mouth. “It has been proven that breathing through the nose is more effective,” says the sportswoman. “Our organs are better supplied with oxygen and we have more energy.” This is because breathing in and out through the nose increases the oxygen saturation of the blood by 10 to 15 percent.
However, this breathing technique is not so easy during very strenuous activity – and should be practiced consciously. You can try it out while walking, jogging or doing yoga, for example. “And then you can continue practising on hikes,” says the sportswoman.
Train correct breathing technique: Pay attention to your step rhythm when hiking
A certain step rhythm can help you to use the correct breathing technique: This involves breathing in through your nose for one step and out through your nose for the next two steps. It is important that your breath dictates your stride – and not the other way around.
“Your breath shouldn’t be panting after your step,” says the mountaineer. As soon as your breath quickens again, you should slow down and take smaller steps. If you feel fitter, you can adjust your pace. “Then you can also breathe in for one step and breathe out for one step.”
Breathing with your mouth closed is possible up to an altitude of around 5,000 meters in easy terrain. At extreme altitudes or on difficult passages, however, it is best to switch back to mouth breathing, recommends von Melle. She should know: The high-altitude mountaineer has already scaled seven eight-thousanders.
STRENGTH TRAINING IS GOOD FOR THE HEALTH
From the age of 30 onwards, our muscles go downhill. If we don’t train them sufficiently, they break down. And this happens rapidly: we lose around one percent of our muscles every year. This is dramatic, as around 30 to 50 percent of muscle mass disappears by the age of 80.
Muscle training can help against this and ultimately also protect against the need for care in old age. And that’s not all: strength training also has a positive effect on blood pressure and metabolism and reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes, dementia and cancer.
Typical endurance training includes swimming, jogging and cycling. Muscle strength is typically trained with exercises that strain specific muscles or with sports equipment.
In medicine, the focus is usually on losing weight and therefore on endurance sports, says the expert. Some people, on the other hand, gain weight when they start muscle training because muscles are heavier than fat. Nevertheless, muscle training would benefit your health, Froböse emphasizes – among other things, because training reduces visceral fat in the abdomen, which is harmful to health. “Muscle training is therefore the better and more sustainable strategy for promoting long-term health.”
If you don’t have the capacity for endurance sports and muscle training, the expert advises you to opt for strength training.
The latter have less muscle mass than men, which is why strength training makes particular sense for them. In addition, muscles are lost particularly quickly during the menopause – you have to build them up beforehand and continue training after the menopause.