Norway’s elite triathletes are renowned for leaving no stone unturned when it comes to performance. But Olympic and Ironman 70.3 world champion Kristian Blummenfelt has taken it up an octave or two by revealing he has improved his VO2 max by becoming a devoted choir singer.
The 29-year-old has extended his 45hr swim, bike and run training week to include additional sessions of choir practice with a local amateur group in his hometown of Bergen.
Rehearsals for the Sancta Sunniva Chamber Choir are held on a Tuesday and Thursday evening and handily take place close to the headquarters of the Norwegian Triathlon Federation.
“When Kristian said he wanted to improve on his scales, we initially thought he wanted to lose weight,” said a source close to the camp.
“Then he started disappearing quickly after our evening threshold runs and we heard evensong coming from a nearby church. Honestly, I quite liked it. He has the voice of an angel.”
Blummenfelt the baritone
Blummenfelt confirms the rumours and it transpires that his coach, Olav Aleksander Bu, was responsible for suggesting the initiative.
A triathlon boffin, Bu is known for his lateral thinking alongside more traditional sports science and mixes techniques such as blood lactate testing with examining his athletes’ faeces for caloric uptake. But even he was surprised by the results.
“When I didn’t have an oxygen mask strapped to his face, Kristian often liked to sing in the lab,” Bu revealed.
“On one occasion I observed how this would raise the amount of millilitres of oxygen consumed in one minute per kilogram of his body weight.
“We tested it and the results were off the charts. Kristian’s VO2 Max was already high. Now it is well into three figures.
“Even more exciting is that while Kristian is a baritone, we feel even greater gains could be made if you used this protocol on a tenor such as Gustav.
“Unfortunately Gustav is a terrible singer.”
He changes the lyrics to ‘When Bergere bites. When the Yee stings. When I'm feeling Blu… I simply remember my Olympic gold medal and how I’ll smash all of you.’
Norwegian team employ voice coach
Bu is so confident that choir singing hits all the right notes when it comes to improving VO2 Max, he has even sanctioned its use on training camps such as on recent trips to the Sierra Nevada in Spain and the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.
With Blummenfelt and his training partner Gustav Iden spending much of the year training at altitude, a voice coach has been brought onboard to conduct supplementary sessions with Kristian while away – helping him engage the diaphragm, expand his ribcage and increase the economy of oxygen used.
While many athletes choose altitude training to boost the body’s ability to use oxygen, the Alpine-like terrain also gives Blummenfelt the chance to belt out classics from the Oscar-winning movie, The Sound Of Music.
Reportedly his favourite film, it’s alleged he has a poster of Julie Andrews frollicking over the Austrian Alps next to one of Mark Allen and Dave Scott on his bedroom wall and can recite all the big hits from the soundtrack.
Blummenfelt's favourite film
“Kristian does have a fine voice, but it gets a bit much every time we summit a col and he bellows Climb Every Mountain at the top of his oversized lungs,” a source said.
It’s also alleged that on a 6 x 2km interval run he changes the lyrics of Favourite Things to ‘When Bergere bites. When the Yee stings. When I'm feeling Blu… I simply remember my Olympic gold medal and how I’ll smash all of you.’
Bu and his research partners, sports innovation firm Santara Tech, are expected to release official data from the studies on choir singing soon.
He adds: “The other great thing about choir singing is the confidence it gives Kristian. He says it makes him feet like he’s 10-feet tall.
“Although we are working on some new running shoes that will also give him that feeling.”
Top image credit: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images for Ironman
