Elevation Training Masks: Tool or Trend?
Trends come and go in the fitness industry and most of the time, I’m happier to see them go. Every once in a while there is some validity to the method/workout/diet/equipment and it can be usefully implemented by a trainer or coach who has done the research and knows how it should fit into the program. On the other end of the spectrum, you see less reasonable individuals throw the trends directly into their program, ignorant of the effects it may yield on the trainee.
One such trend seems to be the high elevation masks. For those that don’t know, these masks are supposed to create an hypoxic(oxygen decreased) environment to stimulate affects similar to high altitude training. They also make you look like Bane, which is a just as important variable. They have become very popular in many different circles and even I fell victim to the challenge they added to workouts after receiving one for Christmas about 4 or 5 years back. I played with it for about a month before doing some digging on the subject and finding that it wasn't the best tool for my goal of crushing the upcoming Tough Mudder. So I threw it in the closet and forgot about it until recently, which is what sparked this blog post.
The Dirt
Now hypoxic training is still relatively infantile in research. Anthony Roberts has a great article on the contradictory and limited research and how it applies to these masks. One major bump in the road that he hints at, that I would like to reiterate, is that we are assuming that these masks do indeed create an hypoxic environment similarly to that of the hypobaric chambers and areas of high elevation that are used in the research. Though they do decrease the amount of oxygen in which you uptake while wearing them, they do so in a different way. It manipulates the rate at which you can ventilate, so it’s almost as if you’re forced to breath through a straw. Whereas traditional elevation training and research puts you in an environment in which there is less atmospheric pressure, making less oxygen available within the air you breath, creating a slightly different effect. There is no research(from unbiased sources) to suggest whether or not this creates any difference in physiological adaptation but I would theorize that it does. The reason I say this is the resistance provided on inhalation is going to stress muscles of respiration in a different way than breathing the thinner air at the top of a mountain.
So let's assume despite the difference in the way it decreases oxygen, that it still creates an hypoxic environment. There is also the debacle of how traditional high-altitude training is used and how these masks are used. Though hypoxic training research is limited, it has traditionally been used as a means for endurance athletes to increase their levels of hemoglobin due to the need for their systems to maintain homeostasis in the face of hypoxic environment. The main supported method of doing this is to live high, and train low(LHTL). In order for the elevation mask to replicate this, one would have to wear the mask for the majority of the day, except for when training, for about 3 weeks straight. If anyone feels committed enough to keep the mask on that long, then please tell me if it works, but be prepared to have the police called on you while in public.
Note: Of all hypoxic training techniques, the live high, train low method has been the most researched and used. One reason why endurance athletes have gravitated towards this method is that it provides the increased hemoglobin without sabotaging their workouts. When training in an hypoxic environment, work capacity becomes more limited as the system struggles for oxygen. This cuts the workouts short, and the decreased amount of work can have negative effects on other mechanisms that need to be trained. For more information you can also look here.
Though I’d like to have this as a tool to improve endurance training adaptations, I’ve found waaaay more research to support that intermittent hypoxic training yields no greater results than normoxic(training at sea level). You're better off taking it off. But this is going off of a lot of the research that used mainly aerobic-based exercise, which makes me wonder if it could have any affect when picking up heavy things?
What About Picking Up Heavy Things?
What’s interesting is that there are a few studies that delve into the influence that a hypoxic training environment can have on resistance training. One study done in Japan measured size and strength gains of elbow flexors and extensors after 6 weeks of training elbow flexion and extension for 4x10(Those dudes were bro’n out!). They found that size and strength increased significantly more in the hypoxic group and speculated that hypoxic resistance training may be a promising new method.
The study performed at the Japan Institute of Sport Science that Roberts references in his article shows that a hypoxic environment can lead to more growth hormone and more localized endurance within the trained fibers(though strength and size were the same between groups). The thing is, I’m fairly certain that you could get similar results to what these studies found by just lowering the rest periods. By depriving the body of oxygen as in the hypoxic environment, you are essentially limiting its recovery between bouts of resistance exercise. I would think that this is going to place more metabolic stress on the tissues in question and force more of an endurance adaptation to the system. After all, the glycolytic system gets replenished aerobically. What’s more, is we know that for optimum hypertrophy results in resistance training, the rest periods need to be limited while intensity under load stays fairly high. This creates more lactic acid accumulation within the tissue and in turn leads to more growth hormone response. Not to mention it can be pretty grueling and make for an intense workout, which I’m sure the hypoxic groups would attest to. What I feel would be interesting is having the subjects gauge their efforts on an RPE scale as well and compare which group perceived more exertion. My money is on the guys with less air.
So What Good Are They?
Even though it’s impractical to use an elevation mask for traditional elevation training and the fact that it may only be a question of rest periods for its effects on resistance training, doesn’t mean that we should throw the baby out with the bath water. Though I would argue that the usefulness of these masks are very limited, there could still be a time and place(though not often). It's really just up to research to further itself on the subject to really confirm when that is. But, if I had to guess:
These masks seem to have the ability to stress the metabolic system with oxygen deprivation and will raise the heart rate faster with less movement intensity. They should also tax localized active tissue more quickly due to the poor oxygen supply to the muscle. When used, it will almost be as if the athlete's VO2 Max has been temporarily lowered, causing his lactate threshold to also lower. This could result in a higher rate of blood lactate accumulation within the active tissues and all the training adaptations that go along with it. Though I would say this is typically a negative aspect, as you would get less overall work out of the athlete, if they are injured and the goal is to keep up certain aspects of their conditioning, then I could see some possible benefit to it.
You could theoretically put the injured athlete through less rigorous movements to help avoid the injury in question and yet still get a higher-intensity conditioning affect on their system. A necessity for this to work would be having the trainee wear the mask for 15-20 minutes prior to exercise to help deplete resting levels of plasma oxygen. It should also be worn for a brief period afterwards. For anaerobic conditioning, you could have the athlete do a relatively lower intensity movement and get the heart rate to the point of their lactate threshold much easier than in a normotonic environment. For the aerobic conditioning, the same rules would apply, however you would just manage their heart rate and movement variations differently. I would also consider setting the mask to a higher oxygen deprivation level for the anaerobic conditioning to limit aerobic metabolism; Whereas for the aerobic, I may start with a higher level when the mask is first put on then decrease it for the exercise to allow the aerobic pathway more capacity. The issue is that the actual carryover that this would have to maintaining the athlete's work capacity or sport-specific condition would still have to be determined through further testing and study. Until then, the above ideas are all just speculation of how it could potentially be used and should be treated as such when considering implementation. (I personally will wait for more research before throwing this at someone.)
The other aspect of these masks that I feel could be useful is their resistance affect on the breathing mechanism. This would be less physiological in effect and more neuromuscular. Since you are essentially trying to suck air through a hole or hole(s) of variable size, you are causing the muscles of inhalation to work harder. This could be very beneficial if the coach is subjective about how the trainee is breathing and includes it within low threshold work on the right individuals. Many individualshave limited diaphragm involvement upon inhalation(think neck breathers). Introducing an elevation mask along with some world-class cuing could help to reinforce proper breathing function and add some more advanced breathing drill variations to your repertoire. You could also include it in core drills and force the trainee to inhale against resistance while maintaining the proper tension for the exercise. I personally like the idea of a forced-inhalation deadbug. Whereas I wouldn't go to this variation of breathing intervention with everyone, I could definitely see a time and place.
In Summary
To sum it up, these masks do have potential to elicit very unique affects on ones training. The problem is that the physiological adaptations that will come of it are still questionable when in comparison with other methods. I believe that more research is needed to validate whether they actually replicate a hypoxic environment similarly to an actual change in elevation for the individual. I also think that whether they do or don't replicate it, the ways they are currently being used and implemented into programs by most of their users are going to elicit sub-par results when compared to other means of training. This does not mean that they are completely useless though; They still create a unique affect to alter stressors on the body physiologically and neuromuscularly. This gives them potential to be useful, though there is no substantial proof as to the carryover it will have on performance. Until that proof comes, I'm going to say these masks are just a trend.
Snow Days Off
Snow Days Off I woke up this morning in a pretty bad mood. This may baffle you some of you. Half of you probably woke up this morning full of excitement due to a school closing. The other half of you were most likely relieved not to have to go to that dreaded office and deal with your boss for another day. I, on the other hand, was supposed to deadlift today. Mother Nature has won yet again. Doing her best to get in my way and hinder my gains, one snowday at a time.
…..
There’s a phrase I hear from time to time, you may have heard it. People use it with good intentions, often trying to shine some light on a particularly unpleasant or annoying experience. It’s meant to be uttered with optimism, and can be a useful tool to help you stay the course when unexpected events try to get in your way. That phase is this, “Everything happens for a reason.”
I, for one, have never been a huge fan of this phrase, but I understand its intent and usefulness. Today, I’m going to attempt to join you optimists out there, and adapt this phrase to my challenge of the day – my inability to travel to SAPT and hoist hundreds of pounds of iron off of the floor repeatedly.
At first glance, you may not see the reason. I know I didn’t see it upon waking up this morning to the winter wonderland that is Reston, VA… and then it came to me. Mother Nature delivered a snow day because she knew that tomorrow should be my deadlift day. Of course!
I was supposed to return to conventional style pulling today, after pulling sumo-stance for the past 6 months, but really, Friday is a much better day to make the switch. It’s my day off! I will be able to devote my full attention to transitioning back to a more posterior chain dominant deadlifting style, and it should make for a much better training session. On top of that, Thursday would just be a weird day to lift. Due to my schedule, I haven’t lifted on a Thursday in quite some time. Friday’s have long been a lifting day for me, and it would simply be weird to break that streak.
To really cement the fact that Friday will be a better deadlifting day for me, I began a new cycle this past week, which has resulted in a bit more soreness than usual. The re-introduction of RDLs and some other movements that have a bit of an eccentric-focus to them have taken their toll, and I could probably use another day of rest before lifting something heavy.
So, instead of getting back on the conventional deadlift train today, I’m going to seize the opportunity to work on my mobility, get in some active recovery, make myself a few proper meals, and study some anatomy. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to start a book I’ve been looking forward to reading: Science and Practice of Strength Training by Vladimir Zatsiorsky. I’ve heard quite a few glowing reviews, and it’s been on my to-do list for quite some time now.
….
This “optimism” thing isn’t too bad. I just might be warming up to that phrase after all. I hope you all have a wonderful snowday, and that you dedicate an hour or two to your own growth and development.
P.S. Mother Nature: Just so you know, you could deliver us a monsoon and that still won’t be enough to further delay my return to conventional pulling. You’ve won today, but I will win tomorrow.
Can Sports Save The Planet?
Recently I read and interesting article on how the sports industry impacts the enviroment. This is a subject I wasn’t too familiar with prior to reading but immediately began thinking of simple habits that myself and others could make to create a positive change to the environment. Below are my top 3:
- Carpool to Practice, SAPT, and Games: One minivan uses less fuel and creates fewer emissions than 4 minivans so everyone wins.
- Carry a Reusable Water Bottle: Ditch the plastic disposable water bottles and opt for something durable enough to go anywhere with you like a Nalgene or canteen.
- Donate or Recycle Your Old Equipment: Old lacrosse balls and baseballs can serves a number of purposes so before you trash them ensure you get the best out of them. Once the season is over use those balls to roll out some tacked down muscle tissue. Following that, pass them along to a dog who can finish them off as a chew toy.
Open Letter to the NSCA From A Disappointed Coach
Dear National Strength and Conditioning Association, I am a female strength coach. I have been a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) for 5 years. As a fresh-out-of-college kinesiolgy major, I couldn't wait to earn my CSCS; after all, it is the gold-standard of strength certifications. I was so very proud when I passed the test and added those four letters to my email signature. Once I earned them, I stepped into the world of the strength industry.
I discovered that there are many beast women out there, and many of them are strength coaches too. Molly Galbraith, Nia Shanks, Naghar Fonooni, Jen Sinkler, all the ladies over at Breaking Muscle... the list goes on and on. These are all intelligent, strong women who pick up heavy things. They are amazing coaches and I am continually encouraged by what these coaches do for the strength industry (not just for women, but the industry as a whole).
I'd like to think that I have at least a small impact on the industry as well here in northern Virginia with SAPT. I may not be as influential (in the broader sense of the term) as the aforementioned coaches, but I am proud to be a compatriot in the industry and relish telling people I am a "strength coach."
I recently recertified this past December. I received my certificate in the mail and, after opening it, I experienced shock, disgust, dismay, and fury. THIS is the cover picture of the NSCA flyer, congratulating me on my certification:
I don't swear often, but I think the occasion warrants it.
What the hell NSCA?
First, she's holding 5lb dumbbells- really? My 50-year old ladies press more than that! Secondly, how come it's the guy coaching her? Thirdly, why is he standing so close to her? Does she really need a spot with those super heavy dumbbells. Heavens forbid she hurt herself with dumbbells that weight less than my cat!
I mean, really NSCA? Of ALL the pictures of strength training out there you chose this?! You're in an wonderful position rise above a silly women's fitness magazine, yet you placed your organization on that level with this image. You are supposed to tell your members that strength is desirable, encouraged, and prized. You should be the antithesis to the general media's portrayal on women's fitness. You should proudly display photos of women AND men performing feats of athletic prowess. How about a picture of an athlete and coach that actually display what strength coaches do- like coaching a heavy squat, or a power clean, or sprints?
Or something like this?
Or this, from my alma mater:
Why did you choose a picture that perpetuates the subliminal message that women shouldn't lift more than 5lbs? Why are you demeaning the hundreds of female strength coaches out there by your ridiculous photo? As the colloquial expression goes, "Do you even lift?"
NSCA, please stop insulting us.
In Iron,
Your CSCS in Virginia
Good Reads for the Weekend
Last week, I had the pleasure of spending a majority of my time sitting on my butt, out with a fever. With all of this down-time, it gave me the chance to catch up on some much needed internet scouring for good information. Since it's Saturday, and I know a lot of you will have some down time this weekend, what better way to spend it than reading up on some of the highlights of what I found? 1. Bojan Kostevski has a tremendous article on Intermittent Fasting that may not necessarily be anything new, but it's VERY informative. In it he clearly discusses what the data from his extensive research has laid out and puts it in a way that's easy to understand. I personally have begun to play around with IF and found this article extremely helpful to confirm my current methods and really see the pro's and con's of fasting. You can read Bojan's article and study here: The Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Human and Animal Health
2. My buddy Brandon LaVack of LaVack Fitness has recently upped his blogging game, causing me to snoop around his site. I found this amazing article on running injuries and the influence that your shoes and diversity of movement can have on them. Brandon is the go-to guy for lowering your running times and preparing your body to fight crime as the Flash. Any information that he gives on the subject is extremely valuable. You can read his article here: Shoe Implications for Injury Reduction in Running
3. Dr. Kathy Dooley has done it again. If you don't follow her, I highly recommend you start. She puts out a daily, QUALITY blog that ranges from topics on movement, anatomy, pathology, motivation and just being a better person. With her background as a chiropractor and anatomist and her passion for movement and training, she brings a lot to the table. One of my favorite articles that she has done is, "Why Your Group Class Failed You." It's music to a trainer's ears and is exactly why we run things the way we do at SAPT. You can read the article here: Why Your Group Class Has Failed You
4. I hate Jilian Michaels. I love Dean Somerset. So an article by Dean on how Jilian sucks was right up my alley. He brings up great points that I think we as an industry need to get behind to fix so that our field can have more clarity for the general public. Only then will the trainers who go above and beyond start to be recognized for their practice rather than the idiots who are screwing people up and getting paid for it. You can find his article here: How Do You Tell Who Is The Expert.
5. I am also a huge fan of Bret Contreras and all that he does for the field. Especially when he is calling out the idiots who are holding us back, which he does in the following article. In it he calls for a debate with a self-proclaimed functional guru who has been slandering others' training tactics with his own pseudo-sience. This is less of an informative read and more of an, "Oh no he didn't." But I still think that you can take some great info from it. You can read all about it here.
6. Lastly, is an article from Charles Poliquin. If you don't know who he is, then you should just spend the next hour reading stuff on his site, it's all gold. He recently put out an article on the current state of mens' hormones. A surprising amount of health issues exist due to the negative impact our daily life has on our endocrine system. A large amount of Coach Poliquin's work has been on undoing that damage. This most certainly isn't is most in-depth article on the subject, but I think it's a good wake-up call for many men. You can read more about it here: The Testosterone/Estrogen Balance In Men
Yoga!
I woke up this morning at 5:30AM. “Why?” you might ask… Well, I attended a morning yoga class at Local Motion Studio. “Yoga?” you might ask… Yes. Yoga.
As a strength and conditioning coach, I am frequently asked what I think about yoga, or Crossfit, or P90x/Insanity. Now, I’m not going to dive too heavily into what I think about Crossfit or the other two “training” systems, but I will discuss the benefit and limitations of yoga.
Here are my short answers as far as Crossfit and P90x/Insanity go…
- Crossfit is a sport, and you should treat your WODs as sport-specific practice, to be supplemented by traditional strength and conditioning work.
- P90x/Insanity… Stop wasting your time. Of course you’ll see improvements when you first start these systems. That’s the beauty of being a novice. Any new stimulus will result in adaptation, BUT it’s not sustainable, it’s not intelligent training, and it’s more likely then not going to hurt you at some point in time. (Read this: https://www.t-nation.com/training/p90x-and-muscle-confusion-the-truth)
Now, let’s get to the meat and potatoes….
To be clear: I am a novice when it comes to yoga. I am aware that there are different forms and variations, but I do not know the difference between them. I do, however, have a decent understanding of biomechanics, joint positioning, physiological adaptations to stress, and exercise technique. My job is to know these things, so I continue to study and learn various methods, techniques, and theories that relate to strength and conditioning. Yoga is typically marketed to women as the panceas of health, I’m simply here to present an objective look at the practice.
Individual Differences
Everyone is different. We all have various injuries that limit us in some way, shape or form. These injuries may be serious enough to contraindicate certain joint positions. We all possess different limb lengths, which vary in proportion to the rest of our body, and force us to apply subtle alterations in our movements. This is why, in a gym setting, it’s important to understand biomechanical differences, and use different techniques to take advantage of the individual’s unique attributes. (Here’s a great article by Greg Nuckels on the topic: Deadlift Technique. Also, be sure to check out the video below discussing limb proportions and how they affect the squat pattern.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av3LO2GwpAk
In the same vein, it’s important that yogis are careful with the postures and positions that they chose when leading a class full of diverse human beings. It’s important that they preface their class by explaining that all postures can be modified based on the individual, and to never push a position too far. Renee Miller, my instructor this morning, did just that. She made the modifications of each position very clear, and insisted that we listen to our bodies while flowing through this morning's routine.
The Benefits
I am not anti-yoga. I simply have an opinion regarding what it’s useful for, and what it ISN’T useful for. Yoga is a great way to get people off the couch and moving. The practice engages millions of people world-wide, and I know quite a few people who swear by it and the positive benefits it has provided them. Obviously, I am a huge proponent of physical activity. If someone happens to enjoy practicing yoga, it isn’t causing them harm, and they find success incorporating it into their daily life, more power to them. Go for it. Keep it up, and use yoga as your modality for staying active and healthy.
Most forms of yoga, that I am aware of, are very low-stress. There are exceptions; for instance, inversion yoga incorporates a ton of hand/head/forearm-stand work. This will provide a decent stimulus towards building shoulder, arm, and core strength, but it still cannot be considered high intensity exercise in the same way that performing multiple sets of heavy squats and 100 meter sprint repeats are.
This point holds even more water when you become proficient at these movements. Proficiency leads to efficiency, which leads to less energy expended for the same amount of work. Due to the fact that yoga is very low-intensity in nature, it lends itself to being a fantastic tool for active recovery days. Moving through various postures and engaging your muscles through their full range-of-motion is going to promote blood flow throughout your tissues, which helps clear out the metabolic byproducts produced from higher intensity activity and promote tissue recovery.
This one may be the most obvious, but practicing yoga can also help improve flexibility. A ton of the postures that are utilized in yoga revolve around stretching, so obviously this is going to help with your overall general flexibility. HOWEVER, it’s important to understand why certain structures are tight, and why some of your muscles are inflexible. This article by coach Kelsey gives a fantastic introduction to your hamstrings, why they’re tight, and what you can do to fix them. Yes, stretching is a part of the equation, but it’s only one variable. A yogi in-tune with neural tension understands these concepts, and should apply activation work following the stretching movements to reinforce proper joint centration.
The Limitations
Yoga isn’t going to produce the strength improvements that many people are looking for. It’s just that simple. Improvements in strength and hypertrophy require progressive overload, and in yoga, you can only progress things so far. Since you are working with bodyweight, technically, you will need to gain weight in order to make a certain posture more challenging. Assuming this weight gain is fat, this is obviously counter-productive to why you’re engaging in physical activity in the first place. Resistance training provides a much more efficient and long-term solution to building strength. You can always add more weight to the bar.
Yoga isn’t going to be the modality that fosters improvements in power production, or rate of force development. I really can’t think of a single way to improve power using yoga. Please, if someone has a method, I would love to hear it.
Yoga alone isn’t going to prepare you for high-level sports. You need speed, you need strength, and you need power to succeed in sports at a high level. The ability to stand on your hand, or contort yourself into the shape of a pretzel is not going to help you tackle that 200 lb running back barreling down at you full speed.
In Conclusion
I hope that you don’t feel that I am bashing yoga, because that was not my intention whatsoever. The intent of this article was simply to help point out the positives, and the negatives, that are the reality of the practice. I will dive into how to incorporate yoga into your weekly routine in a future article, but I’ll leave you with this for now: Do your best to never look at any form of exercise with the idea that it can be either “good” or “bad” for you. What is good for you might be really, really bad for me. There are always exceptions, and there are (almost) always instances where a modality is wildly appropriate.
