So I have access to a Watt-Bike in my gym, which is placed within an Altitude room which can mimic altitudes of up to > 3000 meters (6500 feet). I get the high level science of training at altitude, however I was wondering if anyone on here has tried these kind of rooms out?
Not really asking a specific question, just wondering what everyone thought of doing my Base training phase in these conditions ?
It is preferred that you live at high altitudes then train at low altitudes. However, if you do the opposite, just train at high altitude, you would be limiting your ability to work. It would be similar to if you always trained in a sauna but then lived in AC cooled environment.
In both scenarios your training would suffer as both altitude and heat are additional stressors that your body must deal with. Possibility, you could do z2 and/or recovery ride in the altitude room, but I’m not sure if you’d get the same type of adaptations as you do when you follow similar heat adaption protocols.
People who use altitude tents usually aim to spend 12+ hours a day in the tent, for multiple weeks, to emulate living at altitude. “Long term” exposure is needed to trigger and allow your body to create new red blood cells.
Spending a couple of hours every few days in an altitude chamber will not help.
You could, however, use it to measure how you respond to altitude. I.e. do an FTP test in the room at “altitude”, and compare to FTP at sea level. This would be helpful to know if you plan to do any races at altitude.
I’ve heard of the concept train low - live high. This would be the opposite. I haven’t tried training session within an altitude room and the thought of doing that day in and day out makes me wanna quit cycling because you won’t get used to the high altitude from just spending an hour or two in that room, no?
I alternate between sea level and 2300 meters and the first week back in the mountains I dont see the point of doing any intensive training, the hr is all over the place and the watts really low, like I’ve just been sick for two weeks.
I have the feeling that the gym has no idea how altitude training works and I don’t recommend you to do it because you essentially only will be training with less oxygen.
Appreciate your thoughts, these altitude rooms maybe well be a fad, I’m always just curious on what the general consensus is and if anyone has spent a decent amount of time training in one.
I live in London and work in the city and there appears to be quite a few new training facilities opened up marketing these rooms / masks for both cyclists and runners.
A fad. Masks don’t work either (at least don’t help with altitude adaptation, they might strengthen breathing muscles, but that’s rarely a limiter).