Spending time at altitude and fitness

[Jwscud]

I am a fairly keen runner and climber, and was casually discussing with one of my colleagues the other day whether spending something like 25 hours a week at 8000 feet cabin altitude helps with your fitness and endurance low down, or with acclimatisation for travelling to higher altitudes like travelling to Nepal?

I am inclined to think we probably don't spend enough time for it to make a difference but would be interested to hear from the professionals to know for sure.

[Radgirl]

The general consensus is that you need to live at altitude to see changes and 25 hours a week does not do this. However the major effect is to increase the amount of haemaglobin in the blood so it carries more oxygen. Although this helps at altitude, it has no overall benefit at sea level and may actually do harm

In fact flying may have some medical disadvantages such as osteoporosis and strain on the heart plus exposure to radiation. However there is no evidence of any reduction in life expectancy that I am aware of

[captainsmiffy]

He actually said "25 hours per WEEK....." and this might perhaps be more relevant?

[redsnail]

Probably not as you're not really exerting yourself physically.

[Jwscud]

I was wondering as some athletes go for the "live high, train low" thing, but clearly 6 hours reading the paper isn't much help so I'll just have to sweat it out the old fashioned way.

[500N]

I thought runners trained at high altitude (and lived if possible)
and raced at lower altitude.

With the below being the effect that then helps when running at lower levels ?
"However the major effect is to increase the amount of haemaglobin in the blood so it carries more oxygen."