Live High, Train Low- Lessons from 25 years of Practice with Olivier Girard, PhD | KoopCast Episode #191
Episode overview:
Dr Olivier Girard is an Associate Professor in Human Performance and Research Director of the Sport Science, Exercise and Health Department at the University of Western Australia.
He spent 20 years in the field of exercise physiology and biomechanics on developing and facilitating performance outcome-based solutions for elite athletes (mainly team/racket sports), coaches and their support team. In Perth, Dr Girard leads an environmental physiology special interest group.
Olivier completed his Doctoral Degree (2006) in Human Movement Sciences at the University of Montpellier in France. For 8 years he worked as Research Scientist at Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, a FIFA and IOC accredited medical center. He was employed at Lausanne University, Switzerland and at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.
Olivier has published over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 25 book chapters and has presented his work on more than 180 national/international conferences.
Episode highlights:
(47:32) Timing altitude interventions: pre-race acclimation is high risk-high reward, using altitude to enable harder training requires a second step, Koop’s low risk to high reward process
(56:35) Lesson 5: managing fatigue is key, altitude exposes your weaknesses exponentially, you need to nail the basics
(1:18:29) Intermittent hypoxic training: intervals and resistance training in hypoxia, potential benefits to muscle strength, combining hematological and non-hematological training, live high-train low and high
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: changes in live high-train low philosophy, an open source paper, 10 major lessons
(2:11) Setup: relevance to athletes, taking a practical approach to research, 2007 live high-train low conference and banning hypoxic tents
(4:44) History of altitude training: the 1968 Mexico Olympics, live high-train high and the evolution to live high-train low
(6:46) Live high-train low examples: living at 8500 feet in Colorado, training at 6000 feet, artificial hypoxia tools via tents and chambers, a deep dive into live high-train low specifically
(8:21) Lesson 1: the narrow window for hypoxic dosage, considering altitude height and intervention duration, higher is not better because high altitude inhibits training, 800-2500m is ideal
(11:09) Intervention duration: 2-4 weeks, more is not better, simulated altitude via tents, recap of best practices
(12:20) More is not better: endurance athletes usually think more is better, there is a minimum and maximum effective dose
(13:29) Too low and too short: below 6000 feet EPO stimulation is negligible, altitude exposure is a slow process, ~1% increment in hemoglobin mass per 100 hours of exposure, 200+ hours is recommended
(14:44) Too high and too long: fatigue affects recovery, decrease in training quality and sleep, individuality
(15:56) The golden ratio: reiterating 1% improvement in hemoglobin mass per 100 hours of exposure, this is only significant to very elite athletes, functional performance improvement versus physiological improvement
(17:37) Practical implications for athletes: 3-7% improvement in hemoglobin mass, decrement from low iron example, recap of best practices and practical outcomes
(19:05) Lesson 2: responders and non-responders, Ben Lavine anecdote, genetic predisposition, everyone is a responder but some respond better, the idea of the “non-responder” is a product of the academic process
(22:59) Individualization: coaching example, personalizing live high-train low prescriptions, pacing example, no straightforward way to test for personal altitude response, ventilatory response and oxygen saturation, VO2max example
(27:18) Exercise versus altitude prescription: altitude prescriptions are consistent but exercise prescription is much more variable, though there is less research on exercise prescription
(28:55) Lesson 3: iron deficiency, screening athletes with a blood test before altitude training is an absolute necessity, iron deficient athletes will not see increases in hemoglobin mass, low iron is a health risk at altitude
(32:24) Iron supplementation: next week’s KoopCast episode 192, the challenges of implementing an iron supplementation strategy
(32:58) Ferritin level cutoffs: differing threshold recommendations, individuality and problems with hard cutoff values, test what works for you
(35:18) Koop’s ferritin cutoffs: 30 for male athletes, 25-30 with reasonable training history for female athletes, considering room for improvement in ordinary training
(37:09) Lesson 4: adjusting training load before, during, and after live high-train low, taper before altitude camps, increasing interval recovery at altitude, decreasing volume by 10-20% in the first week at altitude, when you should taper at the end of an altitude camp
(41:36) Training load reduction: a significant cost, avoiding creating extra fatigue
(42:58) Confidence and altitude camps: athletes need to be okay with reducing training, altitude camps are optional, Hardrock example
(44:19) Lesson 6: periodization and timing affects the benefit you get from altitude camps, limitations of academia, examples, use cases and structure
(47:32) Timing altitude interventions: pre-race acclimation is high risk-high reward, using altitude to enable harder training requires a second step, Koop’s low risk to high reward process
(51:37) Elite athlete example: Guillaume Millet and Salomon, considering altitude interventions based on previous athlete experience, additional interventions are not always better
(54:44) Athletes adapt better with re-exposure: less altitude stimulus is required, athletes also learn to better manage training and life stresses around altitude
(56:35) Lesson 5: managing fatigue is key, altitude exposes your weaknesses exponentially, you need to nail the basics
(58:51) Altitude exposes your weaknesses: continued stress, applications to race day and training camps, sleep and hydration examples, cases for removing athletes from training camps
(1:01:08) Lesson 7: altitude tents are effective, it is easier to gain exposure at natural altitude but there are logistical challenges, examples
(1:03:18) Using altitude tents: simulated altitude requires a slightly higher simulated elevation, logistical benefits of using an altitude tent, artificial interventions seem to cost more
(1:06:19) Lesson 8: physiological improvements from altitude are more robust than performance improvements, physiology does not correlate directly to performance, examples, performance is multifactorial and event-specific
(1:09:50) The training camp effect: a great benefit of the altitude camp is the camp aspect, increased training volume, training in a group, the placebo effect
(1:12:50) Lesson 9: MMA example, non-endurance athletes use altitude interventions, increasing VO2max
(1:15:29) Lessons from other sports: using portable hypoxic chambers for short-term adaptations to fatigue, the future of altitude training research
(1:17:03) Lesson 10: using specific techniques to boost adaptation, hematological and non-hematological adaptations, live high-train low targets hematological adaptations, simulated altitude technology allows for new techniques
(1:18:29) Intermittent hypoxic training: intervals and resistance training in hypoxia, potential benefits to muscle strength, combining hematological and non-hematological training, live high-train low and high
(1:20:26) Hypoxic sprint training: 3000m is a good tradeoff between training intensity and hypoxic stimulus, studying training at 5000m, experimentation
(1:22:28) Intermittent hypoxic training versus live high-train low: intermittent hypoxic training takes place at higher altitude and aims to maintain interval quality, narrow practicality and use cases
(1:24:33) Heat and altitude: strategies of combining stressors and pre-acclimatizing with heat, combining heat and hypoxia does not provide additional benefit, theory behind back-to-back heat and altitude training
(1:27:46) Theorizing altitude-to-heat training interventions: heat exposure also increases hemoglobin mass, heat training post-altitude training may help to maintain adaptations to altitude, anecdotal examples
(1:30:48) Key takeaways: be prepared for altitude, iron screening, sleep, hydration nutrition, adjusting workouts, 800-2500m sweet spot, duration of 2-4 weeks depends on training cycle, guidelines for altitude tents, what physiological boosts to expect, managing fatigue
(1:35:03) Wrap-up: link to Olivier’s open-access paper, Olivier’s website, reach out for questions, giving thanks
(1:36:33) Outro: tools and guardrails to get the most from altitude training, links in the show notes, check out Research Essentials for Ultrarunning
Additional resources:
https://www.oliviergirard.com/
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