HYPOXIA TRAINING

Hello friends, we are here again, this time to bring you a new training method, which for many, perhaps, unknown sea. This is training in hypoxia, whose relationship with the latest messages about VO2max and mountain training is completely direct.

Hypoxia training is a legal, safe and effective training method (there are studies that support it) to improve physical performance. It is a method whose main characteristic is to train with partial pressures of gases in the air, which are decreased, either by the height of the mountain or simulated by technological devices. This leads to changes in uptake and respiratory processes, producing different physiological adaptations in the athlete's body, especially, increasing hematopoiesis.

This training method has three variants, and all three seek the same benefit:

- Stay at height (LHTH): live high and train high

- Stay at height and train low (LHTL)

- Stay low and train high (LLTH). Within this method we find IHE (Intermittent Hypoxic Exposure) and IHT (Intermittent Hypoxic Training).

To carry out this training, oxygen saturation in the air is key. For this, using any of the three methods mentioned above we can achieve it. In this case, it is necessary to simulate or practice the sport specifically at heights that exceed the threshold of 2000 meters above sea level. To start this type of training, it is very important to have stable iron levels, since it is in charge of the transport of oxygen and the production of hemoglobin, and therefore, a deficit in it, this method can be ruined. Once this aspect is assured, it is important to have good training planning, that is, a training adapted to hypoxia, where performance, especially the first days, will be negatively affected by up to 25%. We need to leave our body a few days of adaptation or acclimatization. The number of days depends on the athlete, there are those who adapt faster (responders and non-responders). During the stay it is very important to hydrate very well, since one of the characteristics of the altitude is dehydration, in addition to carrying out supplementation and nutrition adapted to this method. In complete safety, this nutrition will have an extra carbohydrate, since consumption during hypoxia is increased.

I leave you here a video of my friend Álvaro, where he talks about the previous methods and tests an investigation of the IHT method:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqcWWBnCAVo

To conclude, clarify that the simulation at heights above 2000 meters is not better or worse, but that the height must be specifically adapted to the sport and the athlete.

Before dismissing the post, I leave you this image of the CAR (high performance center) of Sierra Nevada, where you can do hypoxic training.

https://www.granadadigital.es/preparacion-altura-sierra-nevada-deportistas-diferentes-disciplinas/

• Robert F. Chapman et al. J Appl Physiol (October 24, 2013). Defining the “Dose” of Altitude Training: How High to Live for Optimal Sea Level Performance Enhancement.

• Eckardt KU et al. Appl Physiol 66:1785-1788, 1989. Rate of erythropoietin formation in humans in response to acute hypobaric hypoxia.

• Hun-young Park, et col. The effects of altitude/hypoxic training on oxygen delivery capacity of the blood and aerobic exercise capacity in elite athletes – a metaanalysis. J Exerc Nutrition Biochem. 2016;20(1):015-022.