Endurance at High Altitudes!

Dr. Gerard Flaherty, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Medicine and Medical Education at NUI Galway, was elected President of the Travel Medicine Society of Ireland (TMSI) during the fourth Northern European Conference on Travel Medicine (NECTM) held in Dublin, during 2012

Altitude training for elite endurance athletes: A review for the travel medicine practitioner
by Flaherty, OConnor and Johnston, from Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
Vol. 20 pages 1-12, 2016 and is available from the ScienceDirect database through access to
The James Hardiman Library



Summary -
Altitude Training for Elite Endurance Athletes: A Review for the Travel Medicine Practitioner

High altitude training is regarded as an integral component of modern athletic preparation, especially for endurance sports such as middle and long distance running. It has rapidly achieved popularity among elite endurance athletes and their coaches. Increased hypoxic stress at altitude facilitates key physiological adaptations within the athlete, which in turn may lead to improvements in sea-level athletic performance. Despite much research in this area to date, the exact mechanisms which underlie such improvements remain to be fully elucidated. This review describes the current understanding of physiological adaptation to high altitude training and its implications for athletic performance. It also discusses the rationale and main effects of different training models currently employed to maximise performance. Athletes who travel to altitude for training purposes are at risk of suffering the detrimental effects of altitude. Altitude illness, weight loss, immune suppression and sleep disturbance may serve to limit athletic performance. This review provides an overview of potential problems which an athlete may experience at altitude, and offers specific training recommendations so that these detrimental effects are minimised.