So, I was thinking. Blood doping is when you take your blood out, store it, and then put it all back in prior to a big event…
My question is, what if you always donated blood, and maintained your training while you were SHORT on blood? Then maybe 3 weeks before your event, you start your taper, and stop donating blood, and your blood count starts to come up, so by the time you hit race day, you have more blood in you than you normally had during training, but it’s not adding in more.
Yes and no. Yes I understand what your thinking, and no it wont work. Blood doping puts more red blood cells than you would normally have into your body so you can transport more oxygen. Your idea would just get you back to neutral. To my knowledge there is no adaptation that occurs that would give you an added benefit.
So, I was thinking. Blood doping is when you take your blood out, store it, and then put it all back in prior to a big event…
My question is, what if you always donated blood, and maintained your training while you were SHORT on blood? Then maybe 3 weeks before your event, you start your taper, and stop donating blood, and your blood count starts to come up, so by the time you hit race day, you have more blood in you than you normally had during training, but it’s not adding in more.
It makes as much sense as any other senseless idea.
You could also swim with your clothes on, cycle with your brakes pulled, run in military boots until race day… And hey presto you become faster on race day.
Its somewhat akin to always training at altitude, but always racing at sea-level.
Not necessarily the best method.
Both training with decreased “blood function” and at altitude will limit the intensity that you can train at. While they may lead to a natural EPO production, your daily workouts will be of lesser quality than could be achieved at sea level. This is why its “Live High, Train Low” and not “Live High, Train Higher” (although that could be used as a tool as well…).
We often find that people who live at altitude feel great when they go to sea level (cycling power 7-10% improved), they can often have a hard time hanging with the group on high intensity segments.
to the OP - the last poster got it right when he said the quality of your ‘reduced blood’ training would simply be of lower quality. when your blood replenishes you will possibly come back to a lower level than before but lots of factors here as well e.g. CTL. nice try though - always good to think outside the box
I went to school in Colorado and I’m from California. I came home every year at Thanksgiving and we played flag football. Once you live at altitude, your body adjusts. Coming down to sea level seemed to give me a SLIGHT advantage, but nothing significant. I played water polo and when we went to Colorado Springs to play AIr Force (those dudes might have been more committed to swim-sets than we Buffs), I felt like I was sucking wind at just 2000 feet higher.
The moral of the story is that you really suffer when you go up, but going down has only a slight benefit. Like someone else said, it may be like the “train heavy, race lite” mentality, but I don’t think you’ll really be stronger with less blood.
So, I was thinking. Blood doping is when you take your blood out, store it, and then put it all back in prior to a big event…
My question is, what if you always donated blood, and maintained your training while you were SHORT on blood? Then maybe 3 weeks before your event, you start your taper, and stop donating blood, and your blood count starts to come up, so by the time you hit race day, you have more blood in you than you normally had during training, but it’s not adding in more.
Does that make sense?
“It is well known that the donation of a unit of blood (450ml) stimulates the natural production of erythropoietin (hEPO), which doubles or triples for the duration of 2-4 weeks, until the Hb-mass recovers the initial values.”
Does not work well. In order to achieve an equal workout to whatever you were previously capable of, you have to actually do a workout…harder than it sounds, given how many red blood cells your body is missing. After donating most athletes feel crappy for a week or so.
“It is well known that the donation of a unit of blood (450ml) stimulates the natural production of erythropoietin (hEPO), which doubles or triples for the duration of 2-4 weeks, until the Hb-mass recovers the initial values.”
… not sure if the identity of the author helps, or makes it likely to be a red herring.
Neither. The last part of the quote about initial values nullifies everything the OP wants. You get back to initial levels, there is no “spike and rebound” effect.
The normal effects of chronic aerobic exercise training is to increase the plasma (fluid) more than the cellular content. Thus viscosity is “thinner” and easier to pump. Doping to add more cellular content will increase the viscosity. Add the effects of dehydration/sweat losses and the blood viscosity increases further and induces the risk of abnormal physiological responses.
You’re depleted while training so you’re training isn’t as good as it could be. You’ll feel better on race day but it’s relative to your crappy training.
Just go train and stop with all this nonsense. There is no magic bullet. Train, recover, train again. And so on.
Its somewhat akin to always training at altitude, but always racing at sea-level.
Not necessarily the best method. Both training with decreased “blood function” and at altitude will limit the intensity that you can train at. While they may lead to a natural EPO production, your daily workouts will be of lesser quality than could be achieved at sea level. This is why its “Live High, Train Low” and not “Live High, Train Higher” (although that could be used as a tool as well…). We often find that people who live at altitude feel great when they go to sea level (cycling power 7-10% improved), they can often have a hard time hanging with the group on high intensity segments.
People who regularly donate blood (because of their unique blood components or for the money) adapt and regain normal function despite the transient pseudoanemia. Their bone marrow becomes a “super” supplier, much like the OP is asking.
People who regularly donate blood (because of their unique blood components or for the money) adapt and regain normal function despite the transient pseudoanemia. Their bone marrow becomes a “super” supplier, much like the OP is asking.
Would love to read the research paper(s) for the last sentence in particular. EPO from the kidneys drives red blood cell production from the bone marrow. Is there evidence that the bone marrow produces more red blood cells per unit of EPO - 'becomes a ‘super supplier’?
The normal effects of chronic aerobic exercise training is to increase the plasma (fluid) more than the cellular content. Thus viscosity is “thinner” and easier to pump. Doping to add more cellular content will increase the viscosity. Add the effects of dehydration/sweat losses and the blood viscosity increases further and induces the risk of abnormal physiological responses.
The normal effects of chronic aerobic exercise training is to increase the plasma (fluid) more than the cellular content. Thus viscosity is “thinner” and easier to pump. Doping to add more cellular content will increase the viscosity. Add the effects of dehydration/sweat losses and the blood viscosity increases further and induces the risk of abnormal physiological responses.
Yeah, like winning TdFs.
That is why there is a lot of documentation of young and healthy cyclist experiening sudden death. Doping is not only cheating it is playing around with Mother Nature.
… not sure if the identity of the author helps, or makes it likely to be a red herring.