'hard science' question: altitude tents

Triathlon Forum
1

I think most of you have probably heard about Colorado Altitude Tent (CAT) high altitude training sleep tents (if not, they got an $8,000 one shown in the gear section of TriAthlete Mag). I think there are several companies that now make these tents. If you live at sea level (or close), train outside, and sleep in the altitude tent, you are supposed to get a “train low, sleep high” effect, or so the story goes. I understand that the tents only simulate high altitude by reducing the O2 content of the ambient air (as they are obviously not hypobaric chambers).

It has been a while since I took my physiology classes, so my question is this (especially for folks with University and Physiology Dept. access): have these goofy things ever been reliably studied? I.e., has any unbiased, peer-reviewed research been published which used a decent sample size and a control group with a placebo? My focus here is not on whether the tents simulate high altitude adequately (I would guess that they do), but whether such ‘train low, sleep high’ training with an altitude tent actually has ANY verifiable effect on race speed and performance?

If you know of any such studies, can you post a link or list the journal, date, researcher(s), etc.? Thanks!

2

I don’t know anything about these studies, but I found the following:

http://www.medicdirectsport.com/athletictraining/default.asp?step=4&pid=439 (you could lookup the articles listed at the bottom)

http://www.insidetri.com/train/tips/articles/2201.0.html

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/coachsci/csa/vol84/rushall1.htm

http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/coachsci/csa/vol84/rushall2.htm

http://www.usaswimming.org/USASWeb/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=307&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en&mid=436&ItemId=324

Google turned up enough info that you could really have your work cut out for you. So you’re looking for free epo?

3

Anecdotally speaking, there was a nice fella from Ohiop who had one and raced locally- can’t recall his name. He was an excellent athlete, very fast.

4

Thanks for the reply.

So, according to Dr. Jeffrey Sankoff (of Inside Triathlete) he says in his “short answer” to this question: living at altitude definitely causes changes in human physiology, but the effects of these changes on athletic performance remain controversial and for the most part unproven.

So, I guess the next question is: why do all these goofy guys buy the damn things (the altitude tents)??

5

Oxygen depravation brings on some cool dreams?

6

Greg,

While hypobaric training has been studied, restudied, and triple studied over the past 25 years, and there has been quite some extensive research done by certain individuals (i.e. Dr. Joe Vigil former U.S. Track & Field Endurance coach), the problem is…none of those studies have made their way online. Unless someone was to retroprint many of them, we would have to rely on new studies, and I believe most in the scientific community either: a) accept the studies that have been done (essentially exemplifying that train low, sleep high works - or train high/sleep high works), or b) don’t believe it and don’t feel compelled to study it further.

However, with that said, there are a bunch of professionals out there (the International Society of Biometeorology) who still dabble in some specific physiological benefits from hypobaric training. You can go to the Journal of Biometeorology and find different studies (http://link.springer.de).

Personally, I’ve read much of what is online (sorry, didn’t save the links as I perused them latenight ;-), and do believe that the next evolution will be with a product called CVAC (Cyclic Variations in Altitude Conditioning). Unfortunately, the original researches of this type of work (not only performing hypobaric changes, but also changing air pressure AND temperature as well during these cyclic variations), were from the old eastern block countries in the 30’s and 40’s, and as far as I know, only one man currently has developed this technology over the past 20 years.

For more information, you can go to www.cvacsystems.com to find out some general information, but if you’d truly like to find out more, you need to speak with the guy who has been developing it. His name is Carl Linton and is located down by San Diego. Once the company finally gets funding to go mass production, I believe you will see CVAC pods popping up all across the country. Right now, I believe the University of Hawaii (one of the pre-eminent universities on altitude research) and the U.S. Dept. of Defense are looking at doing some studies…but not sure if they’ll be made public or not.

I believe you can contact Carl directly from the website to get more info. If, for some reason, you get Hartmuch Loch instead (he is the president of the fledgling company), request to speak with Carl. If you’re in S.D. area, go see them…Carl loves to talk with people who are open to the possibilities.

FWIW, I would fully expect someone from CAT to get on this forum and make some comments about CVAC. They have some long known animosity towards Carl, but from what I’ve heard, they know nothing of the technology (never been in to test for themselves).

If you’d like to chat more, please feel free to email me at craigzilla02@yahoo.com. If you’d like to purchase a CAT tent system, I think I know a couple of pro triathletes looking to sell theirs still (and they only purchased them about a year ago). Nothing wrong with them, just didn’t fit their particular needs (and I know almost all the named pros racing Ironman distance have them, and all of them pretty much use the same routine from what I understand).

7

Here’s a study for you:

Levine BD, J. Stray-Gunderson. A Practical approach to altitude training: Where to live and Train for optimal performance enhancement. Int. J. of Sports Med. 13:S209-S212, 1992.

8

Ben Levine & Jim Stray-Gunderson are two of the top guys in altitude research. They have some good literature out there. See the “Altitude Bibliography” at www.hastc.nau.edu I was fortunate enough to attend the HASTC/USOC Altitude Training Symposium where they presented. http://www.hastc.nau.edu/symposium.htm

Basically yes the tents work. With the caveat that you have to be a responder. They’ve found the gene, HIF-1, I do believe, that separates responders from non-responders. Data was presented with a clear trend identified. 4 weeks of sleeping in the tent at simulated elevation of 2000-2500meters gets the best adaptation, 3 weeks is still good. The effect lasts for ~3-4 weeks. All the data that was presented was usually ended with “great individual variation.”

fwiw, I’ve been in a CAT tent for the past 3 weeks. My lungs seem to have an extra gear… but my recovery is slower so the legs are definitely tired. Am I faster? Not yet, but I think I will on 01.August…

9

heard that UH (I’m a student here) will possibly be doing a study. I have to follow up, initially I was asked to participate.

10

Let me preface this first by saying that I’m not a doctor, or physiologist. What I am, is a 25 year veteran of triathlons who strongly believes in high altitude training. Virtually every great pro that was, and is, in the sport trains at altitude during the year. Here is my problem with these tents. When I go high and train, I get the training effect. Basically growing more red blood cells. That I have documented with blood tests of my own, and I believe it is accepted that this occurs in most individuals. The problem is, that when you sleep high, it seems that sleep patterns are off, and recovery is not as good. So I may be missing something, but to train all day at sea level, and then go sleep high, doesn’t make sense to me. You break yourself down, and then hamper the recovery and sleep cycle. What I have found works best, and most other pros do the same, is that you go to 4000 to 5000 ft. to live. You train up from there all day, and then come back down for your recovery. This way you get the training effect during the day, and after a few weeks you will recover well at the moderate altitude you are living. I suppose that if I was not training at all, or just lightly training, the tent might make sense. I just don’t think it makes sense during intense training and racing periods. Just my observations in what happens in the rarified air… Besides, how can you replicate running through a tree lined forest, on the soft pine needles, listening to mother nature, in a tent, in your garage…

11

research has shown that living high-training low is more efficient than living high-training high. While you sleep at “altitude” (reduced partial pressure of oxygen), your body will produce more RBC through the EPO mechanism. Since the reduced oxygen availability can limit your training, better results were observed when the individuals trained at or near sea level. That’s the reason altitude tents are so popular. It’s easier to sleep in a tent where altitude is stimulated, than live up in the mountains and go for a trip towards sea level for training. But reduced recovery from the reduced oxygen availability might be an issue.

I think that there are just too many variables for a study to incorporate everything. I believe that once you have the tent it’s up to you to find the perfect combination, maximize altitude exposure without limiting the recovery process. Since people react differently to altitude exposure, I think that optimizing exposure is very individualistic as well.