High Altitude Training What is high altitude training and how does it work?

High altitude training is a method of training that allows the body to use more oxygen per breath, and use it more efficiently High Altitude Training works by as the name suggests, training at high altitudes. Nothing special is required for this training an athlete simple needs to do their regular routine. The reason that high altitude training works is because there is less oxygen in the air at higher altitudes than at sea level. This is beneficial to athletes because as they spend prolonged periods of time training at a higher altitudes their body will adapt to the environment in order to compensate for the lower oxygen levels. This means the body will start to produce more Erythropoietin. Erythropoietin is a hormone that causes the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells. An increase in the concentration of an athletes red blood cells allows them to transfer more oxygen to the different muscles in the body faster, and more efficiently. This can give athletes the competitive edge when returning to compete at lower elevations because the amount of red blood cells they have usually wont return to normal until after 2 weeks of returning to a lower elevation. This means that after returning to a lower elevation they will have more red blood cells than normal, this combined with the increase in the concentration of oxygen in the air allows the athlete to consume and use more oxygen than normal allowing for more energy production when competing. Who would benefit from this? -Only athletes who compete in endurance type events like running, skiing, swimming, etc. benefit from high altitude training -This is because high altitude training does not help build any muscles more than regular training -high altitude training only help to improve the effectiveness of the aerobic system there for high altitude training does not benefit anyone who competes while using only their anaerobic systems What are the risks? -if the individual is healthy there are very few risks associated with elevation training -one of the only risks is that if an athlete trains at too high of and altitude for to long their muscle mass will start to decrease because of the body's natural response to consume the bodys muscle for energy and to decrease the amount of oxygen needed -the only health risk is if the athlete suffers from high blood pressure the thickening of the blood due to the increase in red blood cells can lead to blood clots which may lead to other serious problems