Hypoventilation Training: a systematic review

Background: High altitude training seems beneficial for many athletes. However, training in altitude is always associated with travel and high expenses. Thus, methods have been developed to achieve similar effects as with high altitude training. One method is voluntary hypoventilation training (VHT). Although commonly used in training, the effectiveness of this method has not been analysed sufficiently. Methods: Intervention studies of voluntary hypoventilation training were identified from searches in PubMed, SciVerse Science Direct, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, EBSCOhost and Google Scholar.

Repeated-Sprint Training in Hypoxia Induced by Voluntary Hypoventilation in Swimming

Purpose:Repeated-sprint training in hypoxia (RSH) has been shown as an efficient method for improving repeated-sprint ability (RSA) in team-sport players but has not been investigated in swimming. We assessed whether RSH with arterial desaturation induced by voluntary hypoventilation at low lung volume (VHL) could improve RSA to a greater extent than the same training performed under normal breathing (NB) conditions.Methods:Sixteen competitive swimmers completed 6 sessions of repeated sprints (2 sets of 16 × 15 m with 30 s send-off) either with VHL (RSH-VHL, n = 8) or with NB (RSN, n = 8). Before and after training, performance was evaluated through an RSA test (25-m all-out sprints with 35 s send-off) until exhaustion.Results:From before to after training, the number of sprints was significantly increased in RSH-VHL (7.1 ± 2.1 vs 9.6 ± 2.5; P < .01) but not in RSN (8.0 ± 3.1 vs 8.7 ± 3.7; P = .38). Maximal blood lactate concentration ([La]max) was higher after than before in RSH-VHL (11.5 ± 3.9 vs 7.9 ± 3.7 mmol/L; P = .04) but was unchanged in RSN (10.2 ± 2.0 vs 9.0 ± 3.5 mmol/L; P = .34). There was a strong correlation between the increases in the number of sprints and in [La]max in RSH-VHL only (R = .93, P < .01).Conclusions:RSH-VHL improved RSA in swimming, probably through enhanced anaerobic glycolysis. This innovative method allows inducing benefits normally associated with hypoxia during swim training in normoxia.