If we ignore the current trend in professional sports to seek external, pharmacological help, there really aren’t any magic fixes for athletic performance enhancement. If our training techniques are optimal — and that’s a big “if” — then the methods available to try and take yourself to the next level are limited.

As usual, the trick is to get more fitness while preserving your health. Check out some earlier articles in this space to understand how the drive to improve our fitness can potentially negatively impact our health.

So, within these constraints, how do you get an edge? There are several techniques that have been used by both Olympic teams and weekend-warriors. Some are more available to the amateur athlete than others.

We’ll explore a few, break down the basic concept behind them all, and then finish off with a technique that can be used by anyone in day-to-day training.

More Air Please

Not too long ago the US Olympic Speedskating team was rumoured to have used supplemental oxygen to train its athletes. Team members put on masks that supplied oxygen at levels above normal atmospheric concentrations while they performed their usual workouts.

The idea was to provide “extra” oxygen to the athletes’ muscles, allowing them to engage a higher percentage of muscle fibers than they would otherwise. In so doing, the thinking went, they would be able to more effectively train a larger percentage of their muscle fibers than they would without supplemental oxygen.

Given the phenomenal success US Speedskaters had at the 2002 games in Salt Lake, many believe the technique is effective. It was an idea born out of the now popular “live high, train low” approach of having an athlete perform workouts at a lower elevation, enabling him to work out harder, while living at a higher elevation, reaping the benefits of the increased ability of his blood to carry oxygen after acclimatization.

Cool Down First

Everyone knows that you tend to get warmer when you exercise. In particular, the harder you workout the hotter you seem to get. It should come as no surprise then, to learn that world records in endurance sports are routinely set in cooler conditions.

Well, what would happen if you had a way to keep your body temperature cool, or even pre-cool it prior to exercise? This is exactly what the Australians did prior to the 1996 Olympics, with the development of a special ice jacket for their athletes.

The jacket was supposed to keep an athlete’s body temperature down in hot and humid conditions. With the body working under artificially cooler climes, it might be able to produce performances akin to the world record results seen when the mercury drops well below a normally comfortable 72 degrees.

Suspend Your Activity

When the media covered the amazing story of the thoroughbred Barbaro’s win at the Kentucky Derby and subsequent on-the-track injury, we were bombarded by video and photos of the horse suspended by a special pulley system to facilitate his movement and recovery (see http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0605/gallery.barbaro/content.1.html).

Similar contraptions exist for humans, too, when recovering from injuries that render us unable to support our full weight when we walk.

These devices support the pelvis, effectively reducing the weight that our legs have to bear while we walk on a treadmill. We can thereby retrain muscles that have lost strength due to trauma.

Instead of being used after an accident, what if we used such a device in training for competition? By removing a mere 10 lbs. of the load our legs have to bear under normal circumstances (and if you don’t think that’s a lot, try heading out for a 30 minute run carrying a 10 lb. weight next time), we’d be able to perform workouts at a much higher intensity, engaging, and thus training, a higher percentage of our muscle fibers.

And the Connection Is?

What do all these things have in common? Reduced stress. The technique applied reduces the stress from gravity, heat, or lack of oxygen.

In all cases an attempt is made to free the body of what is a common stressor, one that under normal circumstances would be considered unavoidable. In so doing, physiological resources become available to be applied to a not-so-common variable: the stress of training.

Unfortunately, all of these require specialized equipment and training to employ. So how can you and I get in on the action?

Go Downhill

Dr. Phil Maffetone, coach of six-time Ironman World Championship winner Mark Allen, recommends using a normal training tool: hills. Only this time, you’re not concentrating on going up the hill for its physiological benefit, but down the hill. The very thing that makes going downhill easy — lack of gravity stress — is what will allow you to push your muscles that little bit extra for an added training effect.

Whether doing this on the bike or on two feet, choose a long, gradual downhill section that will allow you to do some moderate intervals for at least 3-4 minutes. The longer the better.

Your pace should be right at the edge of your aerobic threshold. If you’re coming up on racing season and you’ve spent a few months steadily building your aerobic base, doing anaerobic threshold intervals downhill are appropriate too.

Play it safe, though. You can pick up a lot of steam headed downhill on the bike, so stay aware and keep your hands close to the brakes.

Improper form running downhill is also a great way to pick up a case of plantar fasciitis. The repetitive pounding on your calcaneus, or heal bone, is a common way to knock that bone out of position and inflame the connective tissue on the sole of your foot, the plantar fascia. Shorten your stride and stay off your heals, which is a good plan no matter what your running terrain.

Remember, it’s the downhill portion of the interval that’s important, so take it easy headed back to the top, spinning in a light gear on the bike, and jogging lightly, or even walking, when on foot.

This isn’t all to say that working the uphill portion of your terrain is useless. The strength-building benefits of uphill intervals are well known. Using the other side of the rise is a great way to change up your training and add a little extra to your routine, with little added stress.

Finding ways to effectively lower your total stress and still achieve good training adaptation will keep you healthy long enough to get optimally fit! Have fun!