Does ‘altitude training’ increase exercise performance in elite athletes?

@article{Lundby2016DoesT,
  title={Does ‘altitude training’ increase exercise performance in elite athletes?},
  author={Carsten Lundby and Paul Robach},
  journal={Experimental Physiology},
  year={2016},
  volume={101}
}
What is the topic of this review? The aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of various altitude training strategies as investigated within the last few years. What advances does it highlight? Based on the available literature, the foundation to recommend altitude training to athletes is weak. 
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90 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
4
Background Citations
49
Methods Citations
4
Results Citations
4

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69 References

Does ‘altitude training’ increase exercise performance in elite athletes?

A brief review of studies conducted on altitude training aims to point out weaknesses in theories and methodologies of the various altitude training paradigms and to highlight the few well-designed studies to give athletes, coaches and sports medicine professionals the current scientific state of knowledge on common forms of altitude training.

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4’weeks of acclimatization to moderate altitude, accompanied by high‐intensity training at low altitude, improves sea level endurance performance even in élite runners, and the mechanism and magnitude appear similar to that observed in less accomplished runners.

Implications of moderate altitude training for sea-level endurance in elite distance runners

Elite distance runners participated in one of two studies designed to investigate the effects of moderate altitude training on submaximal, maximal and supramaximal exercise performance following return to sea-level, and demonstrated that hypoxia per se did not alter performance.

Point: positive effects of intermittent hypoxia (live high:train low) on exercise performance are mediated primarily by augmented red cell volume.

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Reproducibility of performance changes to simulated live high/train low altitude.

Three-week LHTL altitude exposure can induce reproducible mean improvements in VO2max and Hb(mass) in highly trained runners, but changes in time trial performance seem to be more variable.

Increased left ventricular muscle mass after long-term altitude training in athletes.

In conclusion, training at moderate altitude may cause a reduction in heart rates during exercise and after long-term training at altitude, there may be an increase in the cardiac left ventricular muscle mass.

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Results from several, independent investigations indicate that exercise economy remains unchanged after acclimatization to high altitude, and Muscle oxygen uptake and mechanical efficiency were unchanged between SL and acclimation and between the two groups.
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