The Training Mask is Taking a Hit!

By Corey Beasley

 Training masks have become a popular training tool over the last few years.  People love posting pics or videos of them doing a variety of different workouts...the mask adding a level of 'bad assery' that gets them more likes...but do the masks actually improve performance?

A recent study investigated the claims of an Altitude Training Mask to allow for combined respiratory muscle training and altitude exposure during exercise.

Here's a short excerpt from the study:

"The training mask examined in this study did provide for respiratory muscle training (RMT) and cause hypoxemia when it was worn during endurance exercise. Importantly, the magnitude of hypoxemia was much less than what occurs at terrestrial altitude, and there was virtually no difference between the two altitude resistance mask configurations that were tested. However, just because something can be used does not mean that it should be. Reductions in sustained exercise tolerance and maximal exercise capacity would reduce training quality and negatively impact endurance exercise performance. The training mask caused inadequate hyperventilation that led to arterial hypoxemia and psychological discomfort, but the magnitude of these responses were small and they did not vary across mask configurations"

Training Mask

 

Here's what some top strength coaches have to say about the Training Mask:

 

And the verdict is in. 'Training Mask' is beneficial to train with when. ....your event involves you to wear a 'training mask'.

Posted by Connor Ryan on Monday, February 29, 2016

 

Many of us coaches have know this for quite some time and never bought into these masks, ever. But its great to now see science backing us up.

Posted by Shara Vigeant on Monday, February 29, 2016

 

Altitude masks may be en vogue but they don't seem to work. Sorry, dressing up like Bane is not making you better. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26356482/

Posted by Layne Norton on Sunday, February 28, 2016

Check out the full study here:  

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26340471

 

 

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