Altitude training is a great way to boost endurance running performance. It’s also a fun and exciting way to get in shape, whether you’re an experienced runner or just getting started.
Altitude training involves spending time at high altitudes (usually above 2,500 meters) to increase your body’s ability to adapt and perform more efficiently when exposed to lower oxygen levels.
This can result in increased VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilize), improved efficiency with each breath taken, better fat-burning capabilities during exercise, faster recovery times between workouts due to less muscle damage caused by lactic acid buildup during intense activity such as sprinting or hill climbing–and even reduced risk for injury because there’s less stress placed on joints when running downhill than there would otherwise be if no altitude training were involved!
What is Altitude Training?
Altitude training is a method of improving endurance running performance by exposing yourself to lower oxygen levels. This can be done by living at a higher elevation or visiting an altitude training center where you can sleep in an environment that replicates those conditions.
The main benefit of this type of training is that it increases red blood cell count, which means more oxygen can be carried throughout your body and delivered to working muscles during exercise. This has improved sea-level performance and high altitudes (above 8,000 feet).
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How Does Altitude Training Affect Endurance Running Performance?
Altitude training is a proven way to boost endurance running performance. The benefits are numerous, including:
Increased Oxygen Delivery – Your body’s ability to deliver oxygen to working muscles increases with altitude. This allows you to run faster and longer without feeling fatigued.
Improved Metabolism – At high altitudes, your body will burn more fat than usual, using fewer carbohydrates (your main energy source). This means that even if you’re not eating as much during a race or training session at high altitudes, your energy levels won’t suffer too much because there isn’t as much need for carbohydrates anyway!
Improved Muscular Performance – Because there’s less oxygen available at higher elevations, muscles must work harder for them not only to stay active but also to keep up with the demands from other parts of the body like lungs and heart rate.
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High Altitude Training
High altitude training boosts endurance running performance by exposing your body to the effects of higher elevations. The idea is that since there’s less oxygen in the air at higher altitudes, you’ll have to work harder to get enough oxygen into your blood. This will help build up your muscles and improve their ability to use oxygen efficiently, making them more efficient at getting energy from food or other fuels like fat.
The benefits of high altitude training are pretty straightforward: if you live at sea level but want to run faster than anyone else on Earth (and who doesn’t?), moving somewhere with high elevation may be just what you need! But how exactly do we do this?
Low Altitude Training
Low-altitude training is the opposite of high-altitude training. The lower the altitude, the more oxygen there is in the air. Therefore, your body can get more oxygen per breath. This means your body can train harder at lower altitudes than higher ones (like when running up a mountain).
Low altitude training has many benefits:
You’ll be able to run faster because your heart doesn’t have to work as hard to pump blood around your body with less oxygen available in every breath of air.
Your muscles will recover faster from workouts since they don’t have as much damage due to lack of oxygenated blood flow as they would at higher elevations where there isn’t enough air pressure for adequate respiration rates needed for optimal performance levels during exercise activities such as running long distances without frequently stopping alongside roadsides or trails so that we can catch our breaths back quickly after each step taken forward before continuing onwards again towards our destination point!
Simulated Altitude Training
Simulated altitude training is a method of boosting endurance running performance by simulating the effects of high-altitude training. The idea behind this type of training is that spending time at lower altitudes can help you prepare for races at higher elevations, where the air is thinner, and there are fewer oxygen molecules in each breath you take.
Simulated altitude training involves spending time at an elevation lower than your race’s starting point but still high enough to make breathing harder than usual–usually between 4,000 and 5,500 feet above sea level (about 1,500 meters). You’ll need access to a facility with an altitude chamber or tent (or if you’re lucky enough to have one at home) and some way to measure your heart rate during exercise to know whether or not it’s working hard enough.
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Altitude Training and Elite Athletes
Elite athletes have used altitude training for decades, but it’s only recently that the science behind it has been fully understood.
The benefits of altitude training are numerous:
- Improved oxygen delivery to muscles
- Better recovery from workouts, allowing you to train harder and longer
- Increased red blood cell count (which enhances oxygen delivery)
Altitude Training and Olympic Games
Altitude training can be used to enhance performance in the Olympic Games.
It’s a common practice among elite athletes, who use it to boost their endurance running performance and prepare for competition at high altitudes.
To understand how altitude training works, let’s look at some examples of how Olympic athletes have used it in the past:
In 2016, Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge trained at high altitudes before competing in the Rio Olympics marathon and won gold! His time was 2:00:24 (4:38/mile), more than 30 seconds faster than his previous personal best set at sea level five months earlier.
Ethiopian distance runner Genzebe Dibaba also trained at high altitudes before winning gold medals in 5000m and 10,000m races during the 2016 Rio Olympics games. Her 10k time of 31:16 was almost two minutes faster than her personal best set just two weeks prior on an indoor track.
Altitude Training and Human Kinetics
Altitude training is an effective way to improve your endurance running performance. It’s also widespread among professional athletes, who use it to prepare for high-altitude competitions or races.
The benefits of altitude training include improved oxygen delivery and utilization, which allows you to run faster at lower heart rates than you would be able to otherwise. This means that when you return home from your stint at elevation and resume normal training activities, your body will be able to maintain its new level of performance without requiring as much effort from the cardiovascular system.
Many top runners have used altitude training over the years; some examples include:
- Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), who set world records in both 5K and 10K distances while living at an altitude above 7500 ft (2134 m) during his teenage years
- Paula Radcliffe (Great Britain), who trained at high altitudes before winning gold medals at three consecutive Olympic Games
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Altitude Training and VO2 Max
Altitude training can improve your VO2 max, the maximum amount of oxygen you can use during exercise. This is especially important for endurance athletes because it helps them run faster and longer before fatigue.
Living at high altitudes for several weeks or months is the most common way. For example, many professional cyclists live in Colorado Springs and train at altitude before races, such as Tour de France (they also have access to some pretty cool bikes). The benefits are so great that some people even go on vacation to train at higher elevations!
If you’re not interested in moving across the country or spending money on plane tickets, there are other ways to simulate an increase in elevation without leaving home:
- Go for walks around hills or mountains where there's less oxygen available than sea level would provide.
- Run laps around your neighborhood park until your heart rate reaches 80-90% of its maximum capacity.
- Do high intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions where each interval lasts only 10 seconds but includes sprinting as fast as possible followed by walking slowly until recovered enough before repeating again.Altitude Training and Aerobic Performance
Altitude training is a popular way of improving aerobic performance. It involves spending time at high altitudes, where less oxygen is available to the body.
The idea is that this will force your body to work harder to get enough oxygen into your muscles, which increases their ability to use oxygen more efficiently during exercise. In other words: it makes you better at running!
Athletes who use altitude training include athletes who compete in events lasting more than one minute (e.g., runners) and those who compete over shorter distances with intense bursts of speed and power (e.g., sprinters).
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Altitude Training and Endurance Training
Altitude training is a great way to boost your endurance running performance. It can help you build up your lung capacity, increase the amount of oxygen that reaches the muscles and reduce muscle fatigue.
Athletes who use altitude training include:
Kenyan runners who live at high altitudes and train at sea level. They then compete in races at lower altitudes where they have an advantage over their competitors who don’t live at high altitudes or train there regularly
British cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins (who won gold medals in both the 2012 Olympics and 2016 Olympics) used it to prepare for his Tour de France victories
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What Are the Benefits of Altitude Training for Endurance Running Performance?
Altitude training is a great way to boost your endurance running performance. It can help you improve your VO2 max, oxygen utilization, running economy, and lactate threshold.
There are several benefits to altitude training, including:
Improved Oxygen Delivery: The air contains less oxygen at higher altitudes than at sea level. This means your body must work harder to deliver oxygen to your muscles. Over time and with repeated exposure, this increased need for more efficient delivery will increase blood volume and red blood cells (which carry oxygen). This leads to better endurance performance because you can run faster without getting tired as quickly as before.
Increased EPO Levels: Another benefit of living at high altitudes is an increase in EPO levels–the hormone responsible for boosting red cell production within the bone marrow. This increased amount of EPO helps athletes perform better during competition by improving their overall cardiovascular system efficiency and reducing their risk of injury due to lower impact forces on joints during exercise sessions such as running or cycling.
Improved Athletic Performance
| Benefit | Description |
|---|---|
| Improved oxygen delivery | Altitude training improves oxygen delivery to the muscles¹ |
| Increased red blood cell production | Altitude training increases the production of red blood cells¹ |
| Improved lactate threshold | Altitude training improves lactate threshold¹ |
| Enhanced endurance performance | Altitude training enhances endurance performance¹ |
Sources:
(1) The Effects of Altitude Training on Endurance Performance. https://bravewerk.com/the-effects-of-altitude-training-on-endurance-performance/.
(2) The basics, benefits, and limits of altitude training. https://worldathletics.org/personal-best/performance/altitude-training-advice-tips.
(3) Hypoxic training methods for improving endurance exercise performance. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095254615000836.
(4) High Altitude Training | What It Is & Benefits for Endurance Athletes. https://www.myprotein.com/thezone/training/what-is-high-altitude-training-benefits-endurance-athletes/.
(5) Altitude Training: Does It Work and How to Do? https://www.healthline.com/health/altitude-training.
What Are the Risks of Altitude Training?
Altitude training can be risky. The most common side effect of altitude training is altitude sickness, which can cause headaches, nausea, and vomiting. Dehydration is also a risk factor for athletes who live at sea level but train at high altitudes. This can lead to muscle fatigue and injury risk if you’re not careful about hydration during workouts.
Altitude Sickness: You may have heard of “the bends” or decompression sickness–this is what happens when nitrogen bubbles form in your bloodstream after rapid ascents in elevation (like climbing Mount Everest). In extreme cases, this can result in paralysis or death! But luckily, it’s rare for healthy adults who aren’t scuba divers or deep-sea divers with preexisting conditions like chronic lung disease or heart problems; however, it’s still something you should be aware of if you plan on doing any prolonged physical activity at high altitudes (like hiking).
Who Can Benefit from Altitude Training?
Altitude training is a great way to improve your endurance running performance. Whether you’re an elite athlete, recreational runner, or amateur athlete, altitude training can help boost your performance.
Elite athletes: Elite athletes who live at sea level may benefit from altitude training because it allows them to train harder and longer than they would be able to if they were not living at high elevations. This allows them to increase their VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen that can be taken into the body per minute), making them faster when competing against other elite runners who have also trained at high altitudes.
Recreational runners: Recreational runners who live at sea level may benefit from altitude training because it allows them to train harder and longer than they would be able to if they were not living at high elevations.
Amateur Athletes: Amateur Athletes who live at sea level may benefit from altitude training because it allows them to train harder and longer than they would be able to if they were not living at high elevations.
Endurance Athletes: Endurance Athletes who live above 5,000 feet above sea level could potentially see improvements in their VO2 max by spending time exercising in lower oxygen environments such as those found near mountains or hillsides
How Can You Implement Altitude Training?
The first step to implementing altitude training is to ensure you’re in an environment with lower oxygen levels. This can be done through a variety of methods, but the most common methods include:
Altitude camps. These are often located at high altitudes where athletes live and train for several weeks. They provide access to facilities like treadmills, bikes, and weights so athletes can still get their workouts in while they’re away from home.
Altitude tents/chambers. These devices typically provide a controlled amount of oxygen (usually between 13% – 18%), simulating the effects of living at higher altitudes without traveling anywhere! They should only be used under supervision because they can cause serious health issues if used improperly or incorrectly sized for an individual’s body type.
What Are Some Examples of Altitude Training?
Altitude training can be done in many ways, depending on your goals and training time.
Live High Train Low: This type involves spending a few days at a high altitude (around 7,000 feet), followed by a few days at sea level where less oxygen is available. The athlete then repeats this cycle several times throughout their training program. This method allows for better recovery than higher-intensity workouts because it allows more time between workouts to rest and recover from the stress placed on muscles during exercise sessions at high altitudes.
Moderate Altitude: This method involves staying at an elevation between 5-7 thousand feet above sea level for several weeks or months while continuing with normal training routines such as running three times per week with some cross-training mixed in between runs (such as biking or swimming). You may also want to increase your carbohydrate intake during this period so that your body has enough fuel for physical activity and recovery afterward!
Conclusion
Altitude training is one of the most effective ways to boost your endurance running performance. You can do it at home, and it’s not as expensive or time-consuming as you might think.
You’ll need a treadmill with an incline setting, which will simulate the effects of altitude on your body. If you don’t have access to one, there are other options–but they’re not quite as good! The best way to get started is by reading this article from start to finish (or at least until the end).
References
Exercise and Elevation – American College of Cardiology
These are acute mountain sickness (AMS), high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), and high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). 16 AMS is the least severe form, occurring in approximately 10-25% unacclimated.
Altitude Training: Does It Work and How to Do – Healthline
A 2016 study comparing the effectiveness of altitude training versus sea-level training found that altitude training can help muscle fatigue by increasing erythropoietin (EPO) production..
The Science Behind Altitude Training – Affinity Altitude
It has been found that athletes who lived at an altitude of 2500m for 4 weeks demonstrated 1: increased red cell mass (≈7–8%) over their sea-level baseline, as well …
Altitude training: Study puts some data behind … – ScienceDaily
This study suggests that an athlete may perform best at 18 to 22 days because the extra breathing goes away and the body gets re-acclimated to a lower altitude. “
How high-altitude training can benefit elite endurance athletes like …
The advantage of altitude training is that the muscles get a natural boost when more oxygen is available during lower-altitude competitions. The disadvantage is that athletes can’t train as …
Alex is a passionate fitness enthusiast dedicated to helping people lead healthier, more active lifestyles. He encourages small – sustainable changes over drastic transformations and works with people to create customized wellness plans. His mission is to help others benefit from the most effective methods available, sharing tips, strategies, and health & fitness tools on Gearuptofit.com to inspire people to live their best lives.
