Altitude training not helping Australian elite swimmers

The Australian Institute of Sport, working with Australia’s national swim team, has just published a new study of altitude training in the Europe Journal of Applied Physiology, where they took 37 elite swimmers and divided them into three groups:

  1. Classic altitude training: three weeks in Sierra Nevada, Spain (2,320 meters)
  2. LHTL, spending at least 14 hours a day for three weeks at simulated 3000m at AIS in Canberra
  3. A control group that didn’t go to altitude

Although they found a clear increase in total hemoglobin mass of about 4% in both altitude groups, they did not find the same increase in performance. In the scientists’ own words:

Although altitude training induced erythropoeisis, this physiological adaptation did not transfer directly into improved competitive performance in elite swimmers.

Read more here on Sweat Science

Comments

One response to “Altitude training not helping Australian elite swimmers”

  1. Perfect, just as Pál & Jón will leave for their first real altitude camp in … Sierra Nevada ! :-)

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