moosh

OK, finish reading Chuck Liddell's autobiography. Not the most fascinating read ever, but some interesting views on altitude training namely that you lose all the benefit after 2 days back at sea level. any thoughts?

Brydon

Seems logical to me. The theory behind altitude training is the lower oxygen content in the air forces your body to adapt by making more red blood cells and improving circultory and respiratory function. This increased ability to get more oxygen into the blood is then supposed to translate to lower altitude higher oxygen content of air, meaning your taking more oxygen from the low altitude air as your body has adapted to the high altitude air where it needs to take in more oxygen to survive.

I would'nt be surprised at all if the effects wore off after 2 days as the human body adapts to small changes of environment very quickly.

I should add that I am far from an expert, this is just my limited bit of knowledge on the subject and I could well be wrong.

N1™

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BazDaManUk

I think people who are born there have an advantage as they have more lung capacity etc. thats cos their body has adapted over the years etc.

training there should improve your fitness, it will get you tired quicker but if the body adapts back to the normal altitude then it would seem pointless, maybe the person needs to it because they would rather be out of breath after 3 miles then 5miles?

I dont see a few weeks changing your body much though, but im not an expert in this field either.

name goes here

It'd be interesting to hear from an expert.

HexRei

I don't see how your body could purge itself of extra red blood cells that rapidly.

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His helmet was stifling, it narrowed his vision. And he must see far. His shield was heavy. It threw him off balance. And his target is far away.

byukid

I have spoken at length to a PhD in biology and a PhD in physiology about this because I was in Utah training at the time (going to college and training).

Short answer: yes. But it's not such an incredible thing and you need to train at high altitude for 1 or more weeks. Incidentally, you can get this same benefit by simply living at that altitude for 4-6 weeks.

wukkadb

Supposedly it's much better to train at sea level and then live/sleep in higher altitudes.

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Cyclist

I wouldn't go as far as saying training at altitude is bull but yes the idea that training at altitude makes you a superior athletic conditioning has been refuted years ago.

The only people who really need to be doing much training at altitude are athlete who are involved in sports that span different elevations during the course of an event.

If you want to increase your max Vo2 you can do that with the proper training at both high and low altitudes.

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