Elevation Training Mask 2.0 is a great tool for amping cardio

[drop bear]

My fitness coach uses them. This is his take on it.

"Yeah man, few different theories on it. It's supposed to make your body work (or apparently work) with a reduced level of oxygen available. This meaning that if you can keep the intensity as high as possible with about 50% less oxygen, your conditioning is much much better with normal access to air. Therefore it helps your body process oxygen into the bloodstream as efficiently and effectively as possible. It's had people claim that because you're gasping for breaths when wearing it and labouring to keep filling your lungs up, it strengthens your lungs also... I've found it to do a couple of those things but I haven't measured test results.

Personally, I've liked it for the mental challenge that comes with keeping your breathing under control as much as possible. If you start to panic or lose your breathing rhythm, it's very hard not to rip the thing off...

On the negative side, I've heard some people say that they reckon it trains your body to only work at about 75% of its optimal output because you're not utilising every bit of your lung capacity. They reckon that because your purposely handicapping yourself, you're repetitively practicing working at 75% of your max...

I like it, but it needs to be used on and off doing the same routines so you have the best of both scenarios..."

 

[Juany118]

Awesome training tool. Highly recommend

Actually they aren't that good. You feel like there was improvement but only because with the mask on you basically become hypoxic, so of course if you perform similar tasks without the mask you feel better, stronger, because you are getting the oxygen you should.

The two types of altitude "training" that works. 1. Training at altitude. As little as a week can produce a benefit but 4 weeks is ideal as it is in the 4th week, on average, where the "real" adaptation takes place. 2. Altitude tents work, but not as well. The density of air is still the same but it works by using a machine to replace some of the oxygen with nitrogen. However to get the added benefit you need to spend about three weeks in the tent at about 12 hours a day to get benefits marginally less than the 1 week at altitude.

My proof? Not just numerous studies but a personal experiment. I am also a cyclist. I use a heart rate monitor and a power meter, all of the data for years of cycling is saved on both my computer and on an online account. I trained with the mask as recommended. I did feel "better" after training with the mask but here is the rub. I compared post mask performance with the heart rate and power meter data to the same period of my season the previous year. There was no change, of any statistical value, between to two periods.

Numbers don't lie.

 

[Charlemagne]

Live high, train low, is still what the majority of research says, though there are some times when training high is appropriate, such as if you are going to be competing at altitude in the not too distant future. At altitude, the partial pressure of oxygen is lower, which diminishes one's VO2max. As such, what feels like training at 85% of your capacity, is actually much lower. In layman's terms, it feels hard, but you are actually doing less work.

In regards to masks, perhaps additional investigations will show something different, but the data I have seen so far on the altitude masks is not promising at all. This makes sense when you consider how the body actually works. Minute Ventilation (break frequency x tidal volume) is only a predictor for aerobic performance in some of the most elite endurance athletes, and even then not always from the data I have seen. Persons who are not in that elite status of endurance show little if any predictive relationship between the amount of air moved and aerobic performance variables.

 

[Kickboxer101]

I hate all that stuff it's all money making gimmicks you don't need all that suff to get good cardio all you need is a pair of running shoes