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 TrainingLet'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 (freeweight benchpress and bilateral legpress using weightstack machine), each with ten repetitions for five sets at 70% of the subjects onerepetition 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 MasksWhich 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