HOW WELL DO ALTITUDE TENTS WORK?

i don't know, whydon'

t you just buy one and find out. i would much rather sleep in my own bed, than use a tent anyways.

i heard they do not work. it might just be a mental gimik.

They don't work well enough to be banned.

I used a tent last season and had a great cross season and then PB'd in my 10k outdoors. It takes some time to get used to in terms of sleeping well. It might be more of a mental thing in terms of why it worked; when you spend that kind of money on your training you expect yourself to run fast and don't even consider skipping a workout. If there was a way to check my red blood cell count (apart from going to the doctors) before/after use I would that to see if it really worked. Bottom line, if you've got the cash and are willing to take some funny looks when you bring the chicks home then go for it. Many people justify it as the same cost as 1 or 2 altitude training camps. It would be great to hear what JTupper thinks...

They work well in terms of putting cash in the pockets of the manufacturer. For running? Go RUN at altitude if you want the benefits. Unless you can set up a treadmill in the tent : ].

Isn't it the resting at altitude that helps and not the training. Ideally one should train at sea level and rest at altitude. Isn't this what wejo does?

Pup Tent wrote:

RUN at altitude if you want the benefits. Unless you can set up a treadmill in the tent : ].

Do they worK ? 2 words:

Paula Radcliffe.

The scientific literature on altitude tents and houses, etc is mixed at best. Regardless of what the studies show, some people respond to the sleeping high, training/living low. So when it comes right down to it, each person has to figure out if it works for him her.

As another person noted, the model that has been proposed and intuitively should work is to live high, train low. For instance, find a place (and there are not many) where you can live at say 7000 feet and get to SL in a short span of time to train (SL being below 1000 feet in my mind). You can search for Levine's work. Also, get Randy Wilber's upcoming book on altitude (not sure when it will be available but it should be out soon since the cover design has been approved).

Since this is hard to do, an alternative of creating an artificial hypoxic (or hypobaric) environment is one attempt. The Finns have used "nitrogen houses" to simulate altitude at SL. They live in the house (or apartment or hotel room) for most the day and go outside to train and for routine stuff.

The Aussies have shown in some studies that even if you get the red cell mass increase from hypoxia/hypobaria you will not necessarily get the performance boost. It is not automatic. In some people there was no red cell mass response at all to hypoxia or hypobaria.

The real kicker is that Finns are showing results but the Aussies are not. Could be training related issues, could be anything, but it is odd.

The knock I have against the tents is that I wonder if spending only 8 hours a day in the tent is enough. We know that EPO (the natural stuff) responds very quickly to changes in PO2. If a SL person travels to say, Colorado Springs (~6100 feet), the EPO response upon arriving is almost immediate (or at least pretty quick) but lasts for only 36 to 72 hours and then returns to "normal" (that is SL) values after the initial increase. Levine's work showed this as well.

I would have to review the literature, but I am not sure if EPO levels have been measured before going into the tent and then upon exiting the tent and several hours afterwards to see if there is a response.

If you really want to get into it, I would suggest starting with Martin's "Better Training for Distance Runners" for a physiology lesson and then hit PubMed and search for: Levine, Chapman, Stray-Gunderson, Hahn (the latter deals with cyclists using altitude more than runners). Of course Jack did some of the earliest studies on effects leading up to Mexico City, but I am not sure they will be as helpful.

There is also a legitimate argument that altitude training does little if anything to improve sea level performance. I find myself slipping into this camp from time to time.

Luv2Run,

Thanks for the reply, sounds like you've done a bit of reading. I've read Martin's book and also Daniel's. I still think the (legitimit) research needs to be done on Altidue tents. But wouldn't you think that if your body naturally responds to 6100ft with an EPO boost than it would respond similarily with the altitude tent? And wouldn't you make it a more permanent (more than 72hours)effect if you kept going back in the tent night after night for a few weeks? Finally, is there anyway to test your redblood cell count without going to the doctor?

not as well as running the actual milage.

Poke your finger with a sharp knife so it is bleeding all over the table.

Then get a toothpick... push the blood from one side to the other and...

Start counting... 1... 2... 3....