Altitude training not helping Australian elite swimmers

The Australian Institute of Sport, working with Australia’s national swim team, has just published a new study of altitude training in the Europe Journal of Applied Physiology, where they took 37 elite swimmers and divided them into three groups:

1. Classic altitude training: three weeks in Sierra Nevada, Spain (2,320 meters)
2. LHTL, spending at least 14 hours a day for three weeks at simulated 3000m at AIS in Canberra
3. A control group that didn’t go to altitude

Although they found a clear increase in total hemoglobin mass of about 4% in both altitude groups, they did not find the same increase in performance. In the scientists’ own words:

Although altitude training induced erythropoeisis, this physiological adaptation did not transfer directly into improved competitive performance in elite swimmers.

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