HIGH-ALTITUDE TRAINING - BENEFITS, PROBLE MS, TRENDS

Athletes who need high endurance capacity often use training at modera tely high altitude (1500-3000 m) to improve oxygen delivery and utiliz ation because of a hypoxia-induced increase of the red blood cell volu me and adaptations at the muscular level. As maximal heart rates decre ase at high altitude and plasma lactate levels for a given workload ch ange during prolonged exposure to high altitude, it can be difficult t o control and adapt the intensity and duration of the work-outs. Furth ermore, maximal performance capacity decreases and therefore training intensity at high altitude is usually reduced compared to training at sea level. To avoid these disadvantages at high altitude a concept of living at moderately high altitude and training at lower elevations, t ermed ''live high - train low'' evolved, opposing the conventional con cept of ''live high - train high''. A third option using a hypobaric c hamber (''live low - train low'') is hardly used anymore for training athletes. Studies on the effects of conventional high-altitude trainin g for the improvement of athletic performance often lack a rigorous co ntrolled design and yield controversial results. Regarding the new con cept of ''live high - train low'' there is only one controlled study o n college athletes and it shows a minor advantage of this new approach compared to conventional high-altitude training. However, training co ncepts are especially important for elite competitive athletes, and co ntrolled studies with such individuals are very difficult to perform. Therefore, it appears that today we cannot answer the question of whet her altitude-specific physiologic factors or non-altitude-related bene fits of training camps account for the success of individual athletes.