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News & Comment: Conference Report

SYMPOSIUM ON ALTITUDE TRAINING AND RESEARCH AT FLAGSTAFF Natalie B Harlan MA

High Altitude Sports Training Complex, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011-5769. Email: natalie.harlan=AT=nau.edu

Sportscience 3(2), sportsci.org/jour/9902/nbh.html, 1999 (1289 words)

Reviewed by Stephen Seiler PhD, Institute for Sport, Agder College, Kristiansand, Norway

At our 1999 symposium in February, the High Altitude Sports Training Complex at Northern Arizona University brought together many respected names in the field of exercise science, hypoxia research, and elite coaching. The three-day symposium was filled with back-to-back presentations and plenty of lively discussion, sparked by four of our better-known participants: Benjamin Levine, associate professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at the Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas; John Hellemans, director of the New Zealand Triathlon Academy in Christchurch; Ørjan Madsen, director of the M/G Consulting Corporation in Norway and advisor to Olympiatoppen and the Norwegian Swimming Federation; and Robert Chapman, head coach of Men’s Cross Country/Distance at Indiana University.

The goal of the symposium was to maximize the relationship between research and practical application. Attendees examined the physiological effects of altitude on athletes and investigated how best to utilize this form of specialized training to enhance competitive performance. A mix of international governing body representatives, university faculty and students, physicians, coaches and athletes, all shared their data and theories on altitude training. Highlights from three of the presentations are provided here.

Ben Levine presented The Dose-Response Relationship of High Altitude: A Critical Appraisal of how High to Live and Train. Dr Levine addressed acclimatization to high altitude, improvements of oxygen transport and utilization at the cellular level, and how these improvements translate into enhanced endurance performance. He also examined the challenge of predicting which athletes will fare poorly in higher elevations, and presented strategies to prepare for competition at altitude. Dr Levine (along with Dr Jim Stray-Gundersen) has championed the Live High/Train Low model of altitude training and shared details of that pioneering study. Their data suggest that the physiological adaptations realized at altitude can be advantageous to athletes, but high intensity workouts are better conducted at lower elevations to achieve improved performance.

John Hellemans presented Intermittent Hypoxic Training: A Pilot Study. Dr Hellemans presented data suggesting that a new method of altitude simulation, employing intermittent (interval) hypoxic training, may be similar or even superior to conventional altitude training. The basic method involved exposing athletes to hypoxic air (9-11% oxygen) intermittently for five-minute intervals alternated by normoxic air for five-minute intervals, for a total time of one hour once or twice a day for 15-20 days. Dr Hellemans’ results suggested an overall improvement in hematological factors related to oxygen transport and performance.

Keynote speaker Ørjan Madsen’s presentation, Hypoxia--The Magic Pill to Enhance Performance in Endurance Sports in the 21st Century, provided an intriguing and befitting culmination to the symposium. Dr Madsen pointed out several practical issues to be considered when implementing altitude training.

• Training at altitude is neither a fast track to better results nor a means that is effective in every circumstance.
• Altitude training is now practiced as an integrated part of the annual training process in endurance sports, not merely a pre-competition peaking strategy.
• Altitude training will have a detrimental effect if the athlete is not physically and mentally well prepared and if the training is not well monitored.
• Physiological parameters to monitor at altitude include (but are not limited to) training volume, training intensity, urea, creatine kinase, hemoglobin, hematocrit, resting pulse, and the subjective feeling of wellness.
• In elite sports, achieving additional improvement in already highly trained athletes depends on the ability of the coach/athlete to balance training and recuperation. (For an example of a periodized training program at an altitude camp, see Figure 2.)

Figure 2: Dr Madsen's example of periodized training at an altitude camp.

In addition, Dr Madsen proposed several reasons for non-response or negative response to altitude training: unstable health or low aerobic performance at the start of the altitude training, too much anaerobic work, lack of attention to the specific requirements during the acclimatization and re-acclimatization phases, insufficient recuperation between high training loads, and poor nutrition.

Finally, Dr Madsen addressed the challenges facing teams competing at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games. In particular, he recommended that competitors attempt to "identify the individual reduction of performance capacity at the specific altitude of competition, and improve performance at that specific altitude by carrying out enough altitude training at, and above, this altitude."

The symposium included a total of 14 presentations, including the following:

• Science of Altitude Training and Coaching Applications (Practical recommendations by Ron Mann, NAU Track & Field Head Coach)
• Altitude Training: Can it Enhance Sea Level Endurance Performance? (A step-by-step analysis of the effect of altitude on an athlete’s body, by Hans Haverkamp, NAU Instructor in Exercise Science)
• Predicting the Decline in Performance at Altitude (Further details on the study conducted by Ben Levine and Jim Stray-Gundersen, by Dr Rob Chapman, Indiana University Cross Country Head Coach and former colleague of Levine)
• Does Training the Respiratory Muscles Improve Exercise Performance or Alter the Ventilatory Response to Exercise? (A look at the control of breathing and its effect on exercise performance, by Dr Ralph Fregosi, University of Arizona, Associate Professor in Physiology)
• Can the High-Low Training Model be Extended via Pulmonary Training? (The role of pulmonary training, by Dr George D Swanson, California State University, Chico, Associate Professor of Exercise Science)
• Training at Altitude: What Specific Physiological Alterations Occur? (Examination of muscle adaptation, by Dr Stan Lindstedt, NAU Professor of Biology)
• Applied Science in Triathlon (Sport-specific analysis of triathlon, by George M Dallum, Coach and University of New Mexico PhD candidate in Exercise Science)
• A Sugar High: Glucose Use and Production at Altitude (A study on adaptation in rats, by Dr Hans Gunderson, NAU Professor of Chemistry)
• Change of Aerobic Maximal Power and Plasma Aldosterone Concentration During Low Altitude Training and High Altitude Sleeping in Competition Cyclists; Plasma Bicarbonate Differences in Acclimatized Mountaineers vs Newcomers in High Altitude Climbing (Case studies in progress, by Jorge Cajigal, University of Chile MS candidate in Biology of Physiology)
• Molecular Adaptations of Human Skeletal Muscle after Endurance Training in Hypoxia (Poster Presentation by Michael Vogt, University of Bern MS candidate at the Institute of Anatomy)
• Improvements in Swim Performance Due to Altitude Training (Poster Presentation by Marta Wlodkowska, NAU MS candidate in Exercise Science and Kelsey Anne Williams, NAU undergraduate in Exercise Science)

To order a copy of the Proceedings, which contains brief transcriptions of all presentations, please contact the High Altitude Sports Training Complex at:www.nau.edu/hastc. We are now preparing for the 2000 Symposium of Sports Science. Updated information on that event will be posted regularly at the same address.