Carlton’s pre-season training program has undergone a radical overhaul this year, with the players currently one week into three-week high performance training camp in Qatar.

The Club’s Elite Performance Unit (EPU) identified the ASPIRE Academy for Sport Excellence in Doha as a unique location to mix heat and high altitude training.
 
The brainchild behind the operation, Carlton’s Senior Fitness Coach, Justin Cordy said that unlike other AFL teams high altitude pre-season camps, the facilities in Qatar enabled the players to utilise a high altitude sleeping facility.
 
“The benefits of the approach that we are taking is that we are sleeping and living at altitude between training sessions,” Justin said.
 
“Living in the conditions where there is less oxygen in the air stimulates red blood cell production. When the players are resting and increasing red blood cell mass, it increases their oxygen carrying ability, which in turn increases their aerobic fitness.”
 
Justin said the that training at altitude permanently, as a number of sporting clubs do, requires the intensity of the training to be reduced.
 
“We have avoided this by holding high intensity training sessions at sea level in the day and sleeping in hypoxia (altitude) at night,” he said.
 
ASPETAR, Qatar's Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, where the team is staying is a 50-bed orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital, which aims to set new standards in the diagnosis and treatment of sports injuries and research.
ASPETAR facilities also include an environmental chamber and 24 normobaric hypoxic rooms that can accommodate up to 48 people in an environment that reproduces a high altitude setting
 
“There are few facilities of this nature in the world and this facility enables us to sleep the whole squad of players at 3000m altitude in one place,” Justin said.
 
“In addition to this, we also have access to some of the world’s leading sports science and sports medicine researchers and practitioners, which combined with the extensive range of the facilities has allowed us to individualize the player’s treatment and training during this period.”
 
The Carlton players will be in Qatar for two-weeks before a week’s training at Abu Dhabi as part of this pre-season high performance pre-season training camp.