Training Mask
Autor: Rodrigo Poletto | Publicado: 2015-11-18T04:05:00-08:00



The Truth About Hypoxic Training and Oxygen Reducing Masks

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   Anthony Roberts


   Coach
















      

Hypoxic
 training, or the practice of limiting oxygen availability while 
training, has been used for decades to improve performance. The United States Olympic Training Center
 is located just south of Denver, Colorado, because it is the highest 
city in the United States, where the air is thinnest. Training in this 
environment will boost the production of red blood cells and aid 
stamina.







Over the past few decades, various methods of replicating the 
benefits of living a mile above sea level have been attempted, ranging 
from hyperbaric sleeping chambers, to low-oxygen tents, to portable 
hypoxic machines. If you're not a professional athlete, most of these 
methods will be fairly inaccessible to you. But a hypoxic mask might be 
within your budget (they retail for under $100). But before we 
get too far into the mask idea, let's talk about why masks have been 
around since 2009 and most people are only hearing about it now, in 
2014.




 Victor Conte and Your Training Mask
The idea of wearing a hypoxic mask got off to a rocky start when the first widely available version was introduced by Victor Conte, of BALCO fame.
 It looked similar to a dirty bar rag with face straps (while Conte's 
reputation in the athletic world is also similar to a dirty bar rag, 
face straps optional). Conte was notorious for introducing products with
 supposed science behind them that were later proven to do nothing, or 
at least very little.



When he first introduced ZMA
 (zinc magnesium aspartate) to the sporting world, it was done by 
claiming that it was the secret to his athletes' success, which we later
 found out was actually steroids. He even showed us a study that
 proved its efficacy, which he co-authored, and which was published in a
 reputable medical journal. Of course, we later found out it was a highly dubious online pay-to-publish journal.1



Subsequent independent studies showed ZMA supplements to provide little-to-no performance effect in athletes.2,3
 So strikes one and two against this product, at least in terms of 
reaching mainstream commercial viability, were the fact that it looked 
absurd and was introduced by a snake-oil salesman.




 The BS About Breathe Right
So, what about athlete testimonials regarding hypoxic masks and the people who swear that Conte's mask has helped them? Glad I asked.



Remember Breathe Right strips? They
 looked like little pieces of tape that went over the bridge of the nose
 and were supposed to increase airflow and therefore oxygen uptake. 
Everyone in the NFL, NHL, and half the other major sports leagues wore 
them for a season and swore the strips helped them perform better. But 
they didn't actually perform better. Nobody recorded significant 
improvements in any statistic their leagues track that could be 
attributed to the strips.



Moreover, studies not funded and/or performed by the Breathe Right company failed to show any benefit to the strips whatsoever:





  There were no effects on ventilation (rate at which air passes in and out of the lungs) or oxygen consumption4

  There were no significant differences in peak oxygen consumption or peak workload with and without the nasal strips5

  No difference between the strip and a piece of tape6

  No difference in post-exercise recovery7

  No difference for perceived exertion and perceived breathing effort during sprints8



Right. So that's why we only saw athletes wearing them for a season. Plus, they looked stupid. The original hypoxic masks also looked stupid. The new ones make you look like Bane, sans Sean Connery voice. We've seen numerous athletes training in them already, but are they a fad like the nose tape? And what does the research say?








 The Problems With Most of the Research
It's important to note that there isn't a tremendous body of literature on hypoxic training.
 In addition, the vast majority of existing research was done by having 
subjects exercise in a room that simulated atmospheric hypoxia 
(translation: the air didn't have as much oxygen).



Other tests had subjects strap a mask to their faces with a 
huge oxygen regulator attached by a tube to the other end (so they 
couldn't do much moving around). Those tests were typically 
limited to treadmill running or stationary cycling. The masks that we 
see being sold, well, if they work like training at altitude or in one 
of these special hypoxic rooms, then we can expect them to have the same
 effects.



Looking over the available research, here are some of the more relevant studies I found:





  Hypoxic sprint interval training (thirty-second sprints with four 
minutes of rest, progressing from four to seven over six sessions) 
showed no advantage with simulated hypoxia. But this study (six sessions
 total) seems too short to draw any conclusions.

  A six-week study demonstrated that sprint interval training in hypoxia
 upregulated muscle phosphofructokinase activity and the anaerobic 
threshold more than sprint interval training in normoxia, but still did 
not enhance endurance exercise performance.9 I believe this 
was also probably too short. I'm not saying a performance benefit with 
simulated hypoxia is certain, but if it's showing improved adaptations 
over normoxia after six weeks, it's not a huge leap to believe it could 
happen.

  However, a different study showed that hypoxic conditions combined 
with sprint training has the ability to stimulate glycolyitic enzyme 
ability, which would obviously impart a training adaptation if the 
effect were high enough.10

  Sprint training at hypoxia equivalent to 2,400m (five sets of 
three-minute work intervals) showed trends towards improving some areas.
 Rating of perceived exertion was higher and changes in bicarbonate 
levels and EPO trended towards possible improvement over normoxic 
conditions, but changes in 20m sprint time trended lower.11

  And yet another interval training study, this time in cyclists, found 
no differences with hypoxic training, either by performance or 
measurement of monocarboxylate lactate transporter expression.12

  In addition, fat oxidation was shown in one study to be slightly 
diminished (which can be a good thing, if we're looking for endurance 
and increased substrate efficiency), and had no additive effect on 
maximal measures of oxygen uptake (VO2peak) or time trial performance 
(measured under normoxia).13



Obviously, the results of acute hypoxic exercise are vastly different
 than what we see with long-term hypoxic living conditions, as we'd have
 with the United States Olympic teams, and even those studies have been 
all over the map with results. Still, with studies, the modality isn't 
the sole determinant of success (and I feel that most of the training 
protocols in these studies were awful). We also need to examine the parameters being used to measure results.



Put another way, the Westside
 Conjugate Method is great for increasing leg strength, but if we 
measured leg strength by having Westsiders run marathons...well, you get
 the idea. The metrics are just as important as rest of the 
protocol. And I believe both the training protocols and performance 
metrics have thus far been inadequate to accurately describe the 
adaptations possible with acute hypoxic training.




 An Interesting Study on Hypoxic Training
Let's look at a study that showed some reasonable improvements. The study that meets most of my criteria was performed at the Japan Institute of Sports Sciences.14
 This study used a hypoxic room versus a normoxic room, and had subjects
 perform eight weeks of resistance training on nonconsecutive days for 
sixteen sessions in total.







The hypoxic group was exposed to hypoxic conditions from ten 
minutes before and thirty minutes after the exercise session (vastly 
different than other protocols). (To the d-bags who wear hypoxic masks to the gym and take them off between sets to talk: you're doing it wrong.) To
 investigate acute responses, the subjects were exposed to these 
conditions from thirty minutes prior to sixty minutes after, on the 
first and last days.







The resistance exercises consisted of two consecutive exercises 
(free‐weight bench‐press and bilateral leg‐press using weight‐stack 
machine), each with ten repetitions for five sets at 70% of the 
subjects’ one‐repetition maximum (1RM) with a ninety second rest.







Strength and size gains were equal for both groups. During the 
training, levels of plasma oxygen were lower in the hypoxic group 
(obviously, as they were breathing less oxygen when the tests were 
taken) but growth hormone levels were significantly higher. The 
capillary-to-fiber ratio increased more in the oxygen-deprived lifters 
and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels were also higher. Meaning,
 the hypoxic group was producing more blood cells and better able to 
restore oxygen supply to tissues when blood circulation wasn't high 
enough for the body's demand.







Therefore, it's not surprising that local muscular endurance 
was increased more in the hypoxic group as compared to the normoxic one. It also provides insight into another study that
 suggested a health benefit from regular short-term hypoxic training, 
namely the reduction of arterial stiffness and prevention of 
arteriosclerosis compared to training performed at a similar exercise 
intensity (under regular, non-hypoxic, conditions).15




 My Conclusion on Training Masks
Which brings us back to hypoxic masks and how to use them. Recent meta-analysis indicates
 that high-intensity, short-term, and intermittent training is likely 
the most beneficial way to benefit from hypoxic training.16
 If the masks being sold today can simulate the conditions seen in the 
study above, then there's a good chance we'll see someone figure out how
 to best use them (obviously the “just wear them when you train” 
protocol is going to be hit and miss at best).



Some form of brief HIIT seems to work best. I'd add 
that based on the Japanese study, wearing the mask before and after 
training is going to be essential for maximal results (and for an 
awesome ride to&nbsp; and from the gym!).