CHANGES IN THE SPORTS ACHIEVEMENT FOR 5000 METERS DISTANCE RUNNING FOLLOWING NORMOBARIC HYPOXIA TRAINING

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the changes in the sports achievements for 5,000 meters running as a result of interval normobaric hypoxia training. Ten college sportsmen preparing for national and students long distance track and field champion-ships, were randomly assigned into two groups - Experimental and Control. The Experimental group performed 3 training sessions weekly with interval normobaric hypoxia. The experiment was of 6 weeks duration. Every new week the hypoxic stimulus was increased with 500 m simulated altitude while speed of running remained constant during the whole experiment. The training speed of running was determined individually as 70% from the maximal running speed at VO2 max from incremental cardio-pulmonary test to exhaustion. The control group was performing standard training at 560 m altitude. The results show statistically significant improvement (p< 0.05) in the sports results in the experimental group which improved their personal best records in 5000 m long distance. The results also show small, but significant increase in VO2 max for the Experimental group, while there is not such a tendency in the Control group.

Keywords

• normobaric hypoxia training
• 5000 m. running
• sports achievement
• vo2max