Does anyone know specifically how training at altitude works? Obviously, it is putting more stress on your body by decreasing the amount of oxygen going into your lungs, but… I swim at a pool at about 5 feet about sea level. The pool is very poorly ventilated. At the end of the workout it’s tough to breathe, and therefore, other pools with good air flow and outdoor pools feel better and easier to train and compete. Can someone explain physiologically, why altitude training is better than this?
The pool still has the same available oxygen regardless of the air quality. At altitude there is less oxygen in the air. The body adapts by making more red blood cells to carry more oxygen. This won’t happen swimming in a pool with poor ventilation.
Ric
Who says training at altitude works? I think most of the “benefit” of altitude comes from the lower partial pressure of oxygen = hypoxia. At sea level most healthy people rbc’s are 98%+ saturated. At 8000 feet - that drops to 92% or so. People try to mimic this with tents/hypoxic rooms where they try to sleep or work-out. A hot/steamy indoor pool just feels bad - not sure what it is - more concentrated chemicals in the air - more humid? Hot? But it does sure make swimming harder/slower. I don’t think it has any benefit at alll - I think it just makes it hard to swim well.
The running camp seems to believe in altitude training…at least most of the fastest runners and their coaches seem to think it helps…there may be some cachectic (muscle wasting) effects at 8000 feet which would help runners - in addition to the increase in rbc’s. Running is also a cachectic sport.
Cycling - seems like the loss of power at altitude would hurt more than help.
Swimming - seems like the loss of intensity in training would also hurt more than help.
The debate of how high to sleep vs. train continue. Most now quote, “sleep high, train low”. Quality of sleep can also be affected by altitude which hurts recovery.
I think altitude training is very over-rated. I train/sleep/live/work at 8000 feet and I think it MAY help running but it hurts swim/bike more…but thats not very scientific.
Dave
All good points by Dave. I know it works for me. There is no doubt I get a big bump in fitness. It could be over rated but if you look at say everyone who has won IM since 1989 - there are only three athletes who may not have traineda at altitude: Faris, Norman, and Thomas. Of course this doesn’t mean it works but the IM Champs have altitude training in common…so you can make your own assumptions.
I trained for a while at Colorado Springs, which I believe was around 7000 (?) feet. I noticed a big difference at first. Not specifically the altitude, but I was just much slower and felt like garbage. By the end of an intense 2 week training camp, I was swimming pretty good times. The next week, when I went back to sea level, I swam some of the fastest times in my life. I believe there is definite merit to it, but I don’t have experience with the bike/run aspect.
Does anyone have an opinion of which “altitude simulation” type devices are best for training at sea level? Keeping in mind the price of these items, I’m not interested in dropping $20K on T.O.'s hyperbaric chamber. I don’t think moving to the west is an option for me right now, but I’m interested about how much I’d have to spend vs. how good the simulation of altitude would be.
So, most long course athletes have trained at altitude, do you have any stats about what percentage of top short course triathletes (Olympic distance) train at altitude? How does this compare to the percentage of swimmers, bikers, and runner who train at altitude?
There is some info on the Hypoxico and CAT sites:
http://www.hypoxico.com/athletics.htmhttp://www.hypoxico.com/athletics.htm
http://www.hypoxico.com/images/pdfs/live_low_train_high.pdf
http://www.hypoxico.com/images/pdfs/Molec_Adapts_in_skeletal_muscle_to_endurance_training_in_hyp.pdf
http://altitudetraining.com/main/science/research/exercisingAltitude/EffectsofTrainingHigh
Haim
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