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Barry
Barry Oglesby is a professional MMA fighter and BJJ player, in addition to being the owner and head coach of Kyuzo Gym in Dublin, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu school. He also works as a Strength and Conditioning coach at a North Dublin secondary school, and can be found on the commentary team on Cage Contender, Ireland’s largest MMA show.
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He can be contacted through the GrapplerMan.com website.
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Training Masks: Hypoxic Training or just Hype Training

by: Barry Oglesby

There are no pictures of my athletes with this article. My guinea pig decided that he looked so ridiculous that at the last minute, he called me and asked me not to include his image in the article. Ordinarily I’d ignore that request, but it actually goes in favour of an argument against one of the most fashionable pieces of fitness equipment out there - the training mask.

The first time I saw a variation of one of these used was in a training video with Wanderlei Silva in it, this must have been about 5 years ago. Wand was doing some high intensity conditioning work and had a diver’s snorkel on, the type you might see a kid wear in a swimming pool. There are two reactions to this- either you say “that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen” or you say “wow he’s restricting his own breathing, that’s so hardcore”. Exactly what Wand and his coaches were trying to achieve I can’t say, but the notion behind the more modern products seems to be to create a cheap (read $100) alternative to altitude training. In other words, if you couldn’t go and train high above sea level, then you could recreate it’s effects cheaply in the gym. It has become very popular and has some big MMA names behind it. People all over the world are in their gyms either looking like bike couriers or World War 1 recreationists. It’s possibly the weirdest fitness phenomenon I’ve seen, and it’s in a strong field.

However, despite all of the restricted breathing that’s going on, no one seems to have stopped for breath to ask if it actually works. Having worn one, I can tell you that it does exactly what it looks like it would do; it makes breathing difficult and is very uncomfortable to train in. However, so would wearing anything over your nose and mouth. Restricted breathing doesn’t mean that you’re going to get the effects of altitude training in a mask. It just means, not surprisingly, that your breathing is going to be restricted. There’s a world of difference between breathing at altitude and breathing with the equivalent of someone’s hand over your mouth - for one thing, you usually have to pay extra for the hand over your mouth, but enough about my social exploits.

The reason high altitude training is so prized is due to the lower pressure which results in relatively less oxygen at altitudes above 8,000 feet or so, and when training is performed there for a number of weeks it has the effect of increasing red blood cells, giving you greater muscular efficiency for a short period when you return to the lowlands. The key word here is relatively. The air still has approximately 21% Oxygen at any altitude, the difference that drives the prized training effect is the pressure of the air at altitude. This effect lasts about 2 weeks and is highly sought after among endurance athletes in particular.

So let’s get something straight first, the mask can’t change the atmospheric pressure that you’re training in. You are at the altitude you are and that’s that. You’ll be pulling in air that has within it 21% Oxygen, and the partial pressure (remember high school science lessons?) of this Oxygen will be the very same. The difference is that you will be restricted by a mask over your mouth and nose (but you knew that already). Training masks can simply not recreate the effects of having lower air pressure. Secondly, the bulk of altitude training evidence points to prolonged exposure, or immersion, as being the key factor to improving performance. A few minutes a day will not have a decent effect. You must be spending HOURS each day before any (let’s remember short term) effects take place. In other words, if you want these effects, then you must either live in a high altitude region for a while (Big Bear in California is one famous high altitude training site) or you must sleep or spend a good portion of your day in a hyperbaric chamber that replicates these conditions. The final option is that you can take WADA banned substances to recreate this effect. The jury remains out on whether the supposed successes of many champion cyclists is the result of training high up, or just doping while they were up there.

It’s not all bad news. I suppose that restricting breathing might have some effects in strengthening the diaphragm and possibly in increasing lung capacity since you will have to work harder to draw each breath in, but these are trained very effectively without an expensive piece of breathing equipment using more traditional methods.

My take, in a nutshell, is that you’re probably better off removing the mask and lifting heavier weights or running faster than you could do with it on. It’d be less claustrophobic too.





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