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hamtocrit??

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Farmer Mat

New Member
May 5, 2003
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hello its me again....
another question from me to our apnea experts....
what does this this ratio excactly show?
does a context exist between freediving and the hematocrit-value?
thanks once again!!
greets and good night...
 
percentage of packed red blood cells in whole blood.

if you spin blood in a centrifuge it will split into two main parts. densely packed RBCs and watery plasma. if you have a 10cm test tube then the bottom 4-5cm will be RBCs and the remaining upper part will be plasma. i.e normal hematocrit is typically 40-50%

higher hematocrit means you can store more O2 in your blood. so generally speaking higher hematocrit should improve freediving performance.

increasing your hematocrit without doping can be a very difficult thing to do. it's much easier to improve your performance by working on your technique, diving regularly and analysing your diving carefully. i.e. minimising O2 consumption, rather than increasing O2 storage.

you don't need very high hematocrit/hemoglobin to dive to world class standards. many world class divers have normal/average blood stats. e.g. Sam Still (my buddy) who did 68m in Vancouver yesterday (one the best cold water freedivers in the world) has a Hb of around 15g/dl... perectly normal/average. (generally your hematocrit is about 3 x your Hb... e.g. Hct 45 = 3 x 15 g/dl.)

you can increase your hematocrit by taking EPO. this can boost it up to 55-60%. such levels can be dangerous because the blood becomes very viscous and the heart has to work harder to pump it around the body.
 
Thank you Alun

hi alun,
thanks for your helping answer... i wasn`t sure about how important hematocrit is for freediving and what it is excatly!
i have to hurry with starting my training, if i want to be able to present result at the end of it....
so thank you once again for your fast answer
greets mat
 
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