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Marathon runner sleeps in a low-oxygen bubble

Posted on May 17th 2007 10:57AM by Rigel Celeste

Filed Under: Fitness, Reviews & Products

The world of athletics is a competitive one, by its very nature. And not only are the participants competing against each other, but against themselves and against time. As they age, and as they constantly push for their "best performance yet," the pressure is on to do and try whatever they can to truly push themselves to the limit.

Of course performance enhancing drugs are out of the question, but instead many athletes are turning to more natural intervention experiments like this one: sleeping for several weeks in a low-oxygen environment, like in a special tent over the bed, to improve the body's ability to supply the muscles with oxygen.

Would you sleep in a bubble tent? I don't know that I would be able to, not comfortably anyway. I understand the principles behind it, but does it really make that big of a difference versus good old-fashioned hard-core training?

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Tags: bubble, distance, exteme, low oxygen, LowOxygen, marathon, marathoner, oxygen, run, runner, tent, train, training

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tim UF 5-17-2007 @ 11:24AM

it mimics the benefits of training at altitude (like in Colorado, for example)... Theres a reason the olympic training center in. Colorado Springs. Besides its central (to the country) location, its also at 6000feet above sealevel.

Being at that altitude orces your body to adapt to better supply itself with oxygen. Which is the same theory behind the tent. It supposedly enhances the bodies ability to recover and heal as well. But, as far as noticable performance, its really only relevant for elite athletes, and those with the money to burn on such a contraption

lav 5-17-2007 @ 11:54AM

and an altitude tent is certainly NOT a replacement for good old-fashioned training, just another tool to use. Also, while expensive, buying an altitude tent is often cheaper than, say, moving to Aspen to get the benefits of altitude training.

Christy 5-25-2007 @ 6:10AM

This is nothing new. Athletes have done this for many years, and training centers around the world are located in high altitude areas.

The funny thing, the affect wears off when they come down out of the mountains (or tent, in this case), and when they go back, it takes a least two or three weeks to return to the previous training levels.

Basically, all of this is temporary. But, hey, more power to them for trying to change their physiology.