Exercise training in normobaric hypoxia in endurance runners

I) Improvement in aerobic performance capacity
II) Improvement of mitochondrial properties in skeletal muscle
III) Muscular adjustments of selected gene transcripts

**Stéphane P. Dufour,1 Elodie Ponsot,1 Joffrey Zoll,2 Stéphane Doutreleau,1 Evelyne Lonsdorfer-Wolf,1 Bernard Geny,1 Eliane Lampert,1 Martin Flück,2 Hans Hoppeler,2 Véronique Billat,3 Bertrand Mettauer,1,4 Ruddy Richard,1 and Jean Lonsdorfer1**
J Appl Physiol 100: 1238-1248, 2006;

Protocol:

• 6-weeks, two sessions per week, 24-40 minutes each
• Effective altitude = about 10,000 feet

Results:

Change in O2 max

• Altitude group...Increased by 5%
• Sea-Level control group...No significant change

Change in maximum sustainable oxygen uptake (VT2)

• Altitude group...Increased by 8%
• Sea-Level control group...No significant change

Fatigue: Time to exhaustion at O2 max

• Altitude group...Increased by 35% (Study I & III) and by 42% (Study II)
• Sea-Level control group...No significant change

Maximum sustainable Running Speed at Sea-Level:

• Altitude group...Increased by 5%
• Sea-Level control group...Increased by 3%

Maximum sustainable Running Speed at Altitude:

• Altitude group...Increased by 8%
• Sea-Level control group...Increased by 3%

  Full Article