Sleep apnea of course.

Cigarettes: the new performance enhancing drug!

The reaction to reduced blood oxygenation is to boost red blood cells. Cigarette smoking is probably the dumbest way to try to boost hematocrit for the sake of performance. Other athletes choose altitude training, restrictive breathing masks, and all other sorts of things to naturally boost red blood cells.

blood doping. EPO.

living at altitude

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

Altitude tent, live-high/train-low, yadda-yadda.

Hello Rider17 and All,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2796409

Excerpt:

"In conclusion, the data presented here indicate that strength training can induce growth hormone and testosterone release, regardless of age, but that the elderly response does not equal that of the young."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/...articles/PMC3897047/

and ....... increased Testosterone results in increased hematocrit.

QED

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

25's holding your breath under water, lots and lots of them...

Old News:

Cigarette smoking: an underused tool in high-performance endurance training
Kenneth A. Myers, BSc

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001541/

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I talk a lot - Give it a listen: http://www.fasttalklabs.com/category/fast-talk
I also give Training Advice via http://www.ForeverEndurance.com

The above poster has eschewed traditional employment and is currently undertaking the ill-conceived task of launching his own hardgoods company. Statements are not made on behalf of nor reflective of anything in any manner... unless they're good, then they count.
http://www.AGNCYINNOVATION.com

daily, regular max apneas do actually seem to increase V02max, for some reason.

and if all you want to do is increase hematocrit, i guess you could just get really dehydrated. but increasing haemoglobin at the same time would probably be what you're after.

in that case, move to altitude and eat lots of iron. i endorse blood pudding for breakfast.

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____________________________________
https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I would hazard that breathing a hypoxic gas regularly for extended periods would have the same effect without the tobacco smoke effect.

Need custom mixed dive gas and mask to wear 18-24 hours a day.

Dipping strong smokeless tobacco has a similar effect but with less statistically significant side-effects.
I was introduced to it when I rode for Supermercati Brianzoli by a Norwegian teammate that swore by it.
I still dip Copenhagen to this day regularly and maintain a hematocrit of 47-49.

Hello Bernoullitrial and All,

Bernoullitrial wrote in part: "Dipping strong smokeless tobacco has a similar effect but with less statistically significant side-effects."


American Cancer Society disagrees:


https://www.cancer.org/...okeless-tobacco.html

and Wiki:

"Smokeless tobacco causes cancer. Overall, people who dip or chew get about the same amount of nicotine as regular smokers. They also get at least 30 chemicals that are known to cause cancer. The most harmful cancer-causing substances in smokeless tobacco are tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs).Nov 13, 2015"

and these are not particularly nice cancers:

Mouth, tongue, cheek, and gum cancer
Cancer in the esophagus (the swallowing tube that goes from your mouth to your stomach)
Pancreatic cancer

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

This is just begging for cancer

This makes no sense. I post some dumb stuff, but how would this effect blood content?

Dehydration increases HCT.