Heat acclimation to benefit altitude acclimation

[Coach Chris]

There's evidence that heat acclimation can help with acclimation to altitude

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Cross-Adaptation for High Altitude: Can Heat Training and Cold Exposure Help with Hypoxia?

In 2019, Roxanne Vogel summited Mount Everest in two weeks door to door. To pre-acclimate for high altitude, she experimented with heat training methods.

www.uphillathlete.com

Training in Heat to Prepare for Altitude

Study finds that hot weather and thin air trigger similar adaptations.

www.runnersworld.com

 

[mtwarden]

interesting read

I don't need to worry about altitude training, but I made the mistake multiple times not training in the heat and then running a mountain ultra in July or August- paid the price several times. I know I needed to train some in the heat, but would gladly wake up at 4:00 AM armed with a headlamp than venturing outside in 85+ degree heat

 

[Newtosavage]

Hell to the yea. I'm all over that. LOL 7 miles today in 92-95 degrees, and routinely running in 100+ I mean, what else you gonna do 'round here?

 

[RTBUCKSHOT]

I read that or a similar article a couple years ago. Plenty of heat and humidity training in my shop in Alabama in August LOL. Sometimes after a met con or superset I walk upstairs to the attic to recover. I hope somehow it helps with the stress of altitude. I guess I’ll find out in 2 weeks.



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[Btaylor]

I didnt read the articles but still calling BS. We deal with high heat and absurd humidity all summer and it has not helped a freaking bit in the mountains. The only thing that will help breathing in the mountains is if we could import 60-70% humidity for the time we get to spend out there so there is something too breath. My freakin gills dont work in that nothingness yall call air.

 

[Coach Chris]

I didnt read the articles but still calling BS. We deal with high heat and absurd humidity all summer and it has not helped a freaking bit in the mountains. The only thing that will help breathing in the mountains is if we could import 60-70% humidity for the time we get to spend out there so there is something too breath. My freakin gills dont work in that nothingness yall call air.

You missed the point.
The high heat doesn't help with acclimating to the lower oxygen content. It helps with dealing with the stress caused by the lower oxygen content.

 

[willfrye027]

I didnt read the articles but still calling BS. We deal with high heat and absurd humidity all summer and it has not helped a freaking bit in the mountains. The only thing that will help breathing in the mountains is if we could import 60-70% humidity for the time we get to spend out there so there is something too breath. My freakin gills dont work in that nothingness yall call air.

What you’re getting as is the effect is relatively small when you tease out the data. It should help...a little bit.

 

[willfrye027]

You missed the point.
The high heat doesn't help with acclimating to the lower oxygen content. It helps with dealing with the stress caused by the lower oxygen content.

My understanding of the proposed mechanism is that HIF is induced by both altitude and heat, resulting in gene expression for angiogenesis, etc. the effect looks a little small but I don’t read a lot of physio papers so it may be more significant than it appears.

 

[willfrye027]

Here’s a summary of the deeper dive I did:

Story number one: some lady did heat training, hiked Everest, and felt like it helped. Nothing to see here.

Story number two: references an article that compares three groups of cyclists. I read the article and skimmed some more dense sections. Control, group exposed to heat training, group exposed to high altitude training. The heat group and altitude group had similar levels “difficulty” with the training which improves after two weeks (example—average heart rate was higher in these two groups compared to control while exercising in the beginning, and then improves after two weeks). They looked at some enzymes and found similar gene expression between the two groups.

Take away: training with heat will cause about the same amount of physiologic stress as “altitude training”. This could be extrapolated to say training in heat will help with being at altitude...but that is NOT the hypothesis that was tested in this paper.

In reality you are going to feel like crap at altitude because of an increased respiratory rate due to less available 02, causing a respiratory alkalosis which makes you feel like crap until your kidneys can adjust after about 2 days. BUT being in shape should make this process work more efficiently. More to come in a future article I am writing.

 

[Btaylor]

You missed the point.
The high heat doesn't help with acclimating to the lower oxygen content. It helps with dealing with the stress caused by the lower oxygen content.

Ok I read the articles and I am still not sure I buy what they are selling. I am not educated or well read in physiology or the like but it appears to me that the most logical way to improve altitude performance for folks coming from at or just above the waterline is to add much more focus on aerobic training to increase VO2 and capillary network so that the body is better able to transport the much less available oxygen. Heat training may help but if combined with anaerobic training or as mentioned periods of inactive heat exposure I cant make the connection to higher level of performance than if heat stress was paired with sustained aerobic training. What am I missing?

 

[elkyinzer]

Humidity affects my performance more than altitude every day and twice on Sunday. I run a hot thermostat and high dewpoint just destroys me.

 

[willfrye027]

TLDR: training in the heat is harder than doing the same thing in cooler temps.

 

[willfrye027]

Humidity affects my performance more than altitude every day and twice on Sunday. I run a hot thermostat and high dewpoint just destroys me.

What altitude? Humans don’t really have issues until 6k feet and from there the effects are not linear. But I get your point.

 

[willfrye027]

Ok I read the articles and I am still not sure I buy what they are selling. I am not educated or well read in physiology or the like but it appears to me that the most logical way to improve altitude performance for folks coming from at or just above the waterline is to add much more focus on aerobic training to increase VO2 and capillary network so that the body is better able to transport the much less available oxygen. Heat training may help but if combined with anaerobic training or as mentioned periods of inactive heat exposure I cant make the connection to higher level of performance than if heat stress was paired with sustained aerobic training. What am I missing?

Training in heat is harder than training without heat, and similar level of hard as “altitude” training. That’s all you can really conclude.

 

[Gerard Marcaurele]

All I have is anecdotal evidence... to train this summer here in the Gulf Coast of Texas, I would do stadium bleachers in 95°-102° heat. When we went to Colorado and were around 9000’, I never had a problem. Not even a little bit. I definitely breathed a bit faster, but my heart rate never got crazy and I felt great in that clean mountain air.

It ain’t really scientific, but I think I was mentally prepared enough to get through it, and the actuality of it was way less than expected.

 

[Newtosavage]

All I have is anecdotal evidence... to train this summer here in the Gulf Coast of Texas, I would do stadium bleachers in 95°-102° heat. When we went to Colorado and were around 9000’, I never had a problem. Not even a little bit. I definitely breathed a bit faster, but my heart rate never got crazy and I felt great in that clean mountain air.

It ain’t really scientific, but I think I was mentally prepared enough to get through it, and the actuality of it was way less than expected.

Ditto. 100 degree bleachers (running) is where it's at. Best prep for altitude I've found yet.

 

[Poser]

I lived and trained in Tennessee for years before moving out to CO, so I’m not stranger to heat and humidity. I’ve also long preferenced the spirit and attitude of warehouse space gyms vs. the shopping mall environment of many commercial gyms, so I’ve done my time in hot ass gyms. Even here in Durango, my non ac warehouse space gym has a pretty rough couple of weeks in Late July and August where it’s cooking inside the gym.

—-

“ For example, a male cyclist improved 28 seconds over 16 km time trial at 14,271 feet after 10 days of heat acclimation compared to the time trial before the heat acclimation process2.”

This doesn’t tell me much, even if I cross reference the footnote. What was the scenario? Did the cyclists go from low elevation (and what precise elevation?) to 14k, do the time trail, return to low elevation and humidity (what % ?) and then Return to 14k? Without providing that information, there’s not much to conclude about 28 seconds. Maybe the cyclists was constipated the first time and took a big shit the 2nd time. Why didn’t they do the process 3,4,5+ times with different subjects? What was the temperature difference between the two tests? What did the subject eat for breakfast each time? How much sleep did he get? What was he doing the day before? Did his girlfriend break up with him? That’s the problem with these types of studies: they don’t use a significant enough population sampling and they don’t perform these studies over any significant amount of time nor seem to account for significant variables such as diet, conditions, sleep and stress.

All that being said, I do think training in suboptimal conditions such as high heat and humidity can do something to prepare you for performing in suboptimal conditions such as high altitude. If you drive an old beater car around, you probably know something about how to keep it running despite the oil leak, backfiring and wonky cold start. Turn over the keys to someone who’s been driving a brand new Tesla and they may have a hard time keeping it running well. But let’s not turn this into something it’s not: the best way to prepare for altitude is to acclimate. Anything short of that is just dealing with the hand you are dealt. If you live in South Alabama, then you train in the heat and humidity of South Alabama. That’s what you have to work with so you make it work.

 

[brettdunn7]

Oh maybe this is why trips to Colorado, Utah etc never really effected me coming from Louisiana where it’s 90+° and 100% humidity 90% of the year lol.


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