Very intense!
I have previously looked into hypoxic training and simulated altitude sleeping with the view to increasing red blood cell production. The only problem with that is the logistics of training at sea level and sleeping at altitude or paying the $$$$$ for a hypoxic tent and breathing mask.
On a related topic, I was recently told about this product
Health MG
"POWERbreathe is an Inspiratory muscle trainer that strengthens the breathing muscles to overcome breathlessness. This can benefit all types of users from the Elite Olympic Athletes to Chronic Asthma sufferers."
The company is sending me one to trial and have asked me to give them feedback on my training response. I should have it later this week.
Here is an extract from a study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicene on Insiratory Muscle Training "In Conclusion, we have assessed the reproducibility and sensitivity of a new repetitive sprint test and found it to have the utility for repetitive sprint athletes. Our data support existing evidence that specific IMT (Inspiratory muscle training) attenuates the blood lactate and perceptual responses to submaximal endurance exercise. Furthermore, the data provide new evidence that IMT improves recovery time during high intencity, intermittent exercise in repetitive sprint athletes."
I will test this out and let you guys know what I think, I must admit I had not thought about training the inspiratory muscles, and I know from experience that one of the post training effects of tabata intervals is that burning feeling in the lungs from gasping for breath whilst training at high intencity, the thought of training those inspiratory muscles had never occured to me until now.
