I buy a lot of stuff from CT and I noticed this on their front page. At first, seemed pretty cool. I don’t know much about the mechanisms of high altitude training, but I have benefited from training low and sleeping high elevations at times. My understanding is that the lower oxygen percentage in the air causes your body to adapt by creating more red blood cells and thus, especially when one goes to lower elevations with higher oxygen, the body can provide more oxygen and thus more work for a period of weeks after training.
Is this correct? That would explain why oxygen tents while sleeping work.
The high altitude mask seems to work by just making it more difficult to breathe. From the description:
Essentially, it provides resistance training for your lungs. Through the use of an adjustable valve system, oxygen intake is restricted during exercise. This restriction of oxygen intake forces your lungs and diaphragm to work overtime and ultimately more efficiently, resulting in a pulmonary system that can process more oxygen, more effectively.
So, total bullshit, or is there a benefit to making your lungs work harder?
Essentially, it provides resistance training for your lungs. Through the use of an adjustable valve system, oxygen intake is restricted during exercise. This restriction of oxygen intake forces your lungs and diaphragm to work overtime and ultimately more efficiently, resulting in a pulmonary system that can process more oxygen, more effectively.
So, total bullshit, or is there a benefit to making your lungs work harder?
Resistance training for the lungs would be like an outside force pushing against your rib cage or lungs while they try to inflate. This would strengthen some of the inspiratory muscles.
You’re correct that training at altitude for prolonged periods is beneficial in that it provides less oxygen in each breath and CAN improve your body’s ability to create or utilize RBCs (delivery of O2 to muscles) and function during the same demands. From what I gather the mask is an attempt to reduce the overall amount of each breath and thus simulate an oxygen deficit to simulate the same training effects at altitude. So its deficit training for your CV system to become more efficient.
Might be bullshit, might not be. Id want to see RCTs. Haven’t looked to see if there are any.
Dont train with it…but sleep with it on. Let us know how it goes.
I believe…
1). It will not improve lung capacity.
2). The muscles used for respiration will get into shape on their own…this device MAY facilitate getting those respiratory muscles adapted a little sooner…but not BETTER than your natural state. And you could argue that…IF it did get those respiratory muscles in BETTER shape…would it really matter because the limiting factor is going to be elsewhere in the chain of physiology…not in your repsiratory muscles. (for a normally trained person).
3). The device will probably make you exhausted sooner…now you cant finish your workout with quality.
4). as for increasing Eurythrocite production…you would have to walk around all day and sleep with it while NOT working out with it as I joked above. Please dont sleep with it on. Even then…the results would be questionable.
5). If you did wear it all day and sleep with it…well…there goes recovery for the day. Give yourself a 100$ bill because you just screwed yourself.
Inspiratory muscle training is a real thing and has been shown to improve performance.
However, the studies I have seen on inspiratory muscle training specifically mentioned that the resistance is high and that you should do sets of 30ish inhalations. A mask which increases breathing resistance but only a small amount so you can continue to exercise - I’ve never seen studies of, though that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
IF I were to try this out I’d use it only while riding my trainer in
the privacy of my own home. My cat already knows I’m a tool, no
need to broadcast it to the world.
Yea, I see people using these in the gym and I just cringe.
If you’ve hit the point where doing more miles isn’t giving you the gains you desire…and you happen to be the top in the world, then maybe you can wear this.
fwiw, the “directions” say not to wear it while sleeping. I have one, use it from time to time….you can feel the increase in difficulty of breathing in your lungs, it doesn’t jack my heart rate up much when I run as I thought it would, and I am not sure of the benefits from using it, I just throw it on when I am on the treadmill for a few miles….maybe once a month when I reach a certain level of boredom and want something to occupy my brain while trotting away.
So my understanding is that for training the ideal situation is to work out at low altitude and sleep/live at high altitude. The increase in red blood cells get attained through living at high altitude and you get increased workout intensity by exercising at low altitude.
This is the whole idea behind the hypobaric chambers (altitude tents) that athletes like Phelps and the runner in the Nike house in Oregon train under.
So with that in mind, this contraption sounds like a load of BS to me…
