A friend lent me an altitude tent and mask setup. This is a machine generator and not a restriction mask. Lots of whooshing and pumping.:0)
I borrowed it to get acclimatized to high altitude for a trek I am contemplating in March.
And I was also curious about how well it works for endurance training, which I won’t do until the summer.
Using only the mask (no tent) I spent 3 days (set at 8,000) gradually using it for longer periods. Thought I would start slow.
From a total of about half an hour (3-10 minute sessions) to a little over an hour (2 - 30+ min sessions) with some minor exercise (chair squats) and a little acoustic guitar playing for fun.
Although, during use, I experienced no problems or shortness of breath. A couple of things happened later.
On the third day, a nasty little headache developed later and my average resting heart rate over 24 hours went from low 50’s to mid 60’s.
(and it did nothing for my guitar playing, which is only at the 3 chord level in any case, imagine Darth Vader playing “I Saw Her Standing There”).
The following day it remained higher (above mid 60’s, asleep) than normal although I stopped using the system.
I have a Garmin and it monitors 24 hrs. Perfect for my level of OCD.
HR returned to more usual levels after another day and a bike session showed negative side effects.
In all seriousness, who has tried these machines and what side effects did you experience.
What surprised me was it persisted and the periods I used were deliberately short. I read a fair number or articles in advance and that’s a starting range for altitude and way below any conditioning time frames. Which is why I was curious about other peoples experiences, such as yours?
Dont use tents, but real altitude. And if I go to 8000ft from sea level, it is drastic what happens immediately. 8K is very high to start at, so having side affects very quickly is not that uncommon(and I’m in the top 1/3 of easy adapters). And you could be in the 1/3 of folks that are not good at altitude and its acclimation to begin with, and that would exacerbate your conditions.
If you want to acclimate, you will either have to go through these problems, or start off slower and lower, and do it for longer…
The slower and lower had occurred to me, also the possibility that persisting may have also resolved the issue. But being a wuss, I thought I would check with the experts before taking that route.
It’s pretty flat here in the “center of the universe” and the tallest thing around here is the CN Tower at 553m (1800’), going to altitude to check it out is impractical.
However the possibility of being a slow adapter had also occurred to me, which is why I started the whole process. Finding out just after I land at Lukla aiport alt.2860m (9,400’) with nowhere to go but up, made me nervous.
Finding out just after I land at Lukla aiport alt.2860m (9,400’) with nowhere to go but up, made me nervous. //
As you should be, those altitudes are no joke. I had to carry an old girlfriend down from 11k ft on a hike once, and it looked like she was going to die. Severe altitude sickness is no fun, I have flirted with it in the past, but like I said, I’m a born adapter to it, so it has to be really traumatic, or my body is just off for it to sideline me. But I also recall a Colorado trip dan and I took, in 8 days in was feeling like superman, he was hugging a toilet and vomiting everything he took in. A complete ruined week for him starting on day 2, one of the best I ever had, go figure…
Maybe you could get your doc to get you some EPO? And there are a couple other drugs that high climbers take to stave off the affects of really high altitudes. Just dont enter any races in the meantime!!! (-;
My baseline and active hr definitely jump up even with lower levels of altitude along with compromising workouts fairly easily. Using these to acclimate is basically another stress that can be more or less depending on the person. It sounds like it was significant for you despite the brief exposures to start with so I’d say it’s smart to start farther out in advance like you are to be able to build into it.
My experience agrees with Monty’s in that the range of response to different altitudes is huge, i.e. one athlete can get their SpO2 to come down to 90 at 5500ft, while, for others, it might take 11,000 ft to get that low! Needless to say, if a 5500-footer cranks it up to 11,000, the effects aren’t good
It can change quite quickly over time too, i.e. after 3 or 4 of weeks adaptation, it may take an athlete another couple of thousand feet to get the same response.
Looking at desaturation (as opposed to altitude) as the primary metric helps to even the playing field so responses are similar among athletes (& continue over time).
You lost me in there. sorry.
I looked up SpO2 and that’s not something I was doing (yet) .
Just altitude and HR.
As a trial run I did short intervals, simply to gauge reaction, which I fancy, for me was a little over reaction.
Also, the friend didn’t leave me the O2 monitor, if that is what you were thinking.
Other thing that I would highly recommend is getting blood work prior. Sufficient iron/ferritin is essential to getting a good response to any altitude block. I found this out the hard way when my ferritin tanked to 17ng/ml when I first moved to Colorado!
My experience agrees with Monty’s in that the range of response to different altitudes is huge, i.e. one athlete can get their SpO2 to come down to 90 at 5500ft, while, for others, it might take 11,000 ft to get that low! Needless to say, if a 5500-footer cranks it up to 11,000, the effects aren’t good
It can change quite quickly over time too, i.e. after 3 or 4 of weeks adaptation, it may take an athlete another couple of thousand feet to get the same response.
Looking at desaturation (as opposed to altitude) as the primary metric helps to even the playing field so responses are similar among athletes (& continue over time).
Hi Alan,
Have you or any of your athletes tried sleeping in a altitude tent over night whilst living at sea level over a longer period of time?
I’m curious about the longer term benefits or drawbacks.
Assuming I can get my iron/ ferritin levels up beforehand, I’m tempted to invest in a tent.
I was being a bit “thick” when I read over this the first time, I sort of thought to myself, there must be two kinds of EPO. But reality sunk in later.
Never thought I would have a situation where I would consider taking a PED. But then again, it ain’t cheating if it saves your life, I guess.
I did the 3 pass trek a week after doing IMLOU a little over a year ago. I can’t tell you about the tents as I am able to play in the mountains up to 11K’ here without much issue. I think the most important thing going into your trek is overall fitness as opposed to trying to climitize in a high altitude tent. Work on being in the best shape possible and your body won’t have to work as hard. We didn’t take any rest days but a couple shorter days of just a few kilometers on our way up. The hardest part was from Lukla to Namche.