Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Does climbing bleachers with a snorkel on help...

with training for altitude? I know it looks stupid, but I live about a yard or two below sea level and I am hunting a steep unit in Colorado in October.

The theory is you increase your deadspace ventilation thereby lowering the fraction of inspired oxygen thus mimicking higher altitudes.

I'm curious if any of you have actually done this.

Thanks,

andy

I've never heard of doing that. I have heard serious climbers who live at low altitude sleep in hypoxic tents to help acclimate themselves.

http://www.higherpeak.com/index.html

Climbing bleachers, jogging, walking, hiking, working with weights, training with loaded backpacks, they all help build stamina and cardio-vascular health. The better health you're in the better off you'll be.

However, I cannot comment on the snorkle idea.

I do believe a body has to acclimate to the altitude, being in good cardio shape with decent muscle tone helps to acclimate quicker perhaps, as your body us more efficient at utilizing the O2 if you are in shape. If you're out of shape and struggling just to climb or whatever, the the effects of the altitude will be exacerbated.

But I believe there is no substitute for being there. It is something your body just has to do. You're dealing with lower oxygen levels, air pressure changes, dryer air, etc.

I'm pretty sure it is safe to say there is no real way to acclimate your body to the effects of high altitude other than being at high altitude. I've made numerous trips to Colorado skiing and this has been my experience.

If there is a way, I'd like to know it.

In my 20"s I was doing the 14ers and we did at lot of wind sprints before we headed out to CO, I don't know if it helped that much.

Huffing and puffing doesn't mean that your tired, you can huff all day long and still have your legs.

If you can add a few days on your trip, stay up high somewhere, walk around town the first day and then take a few moderate hikes over the next few, drink lots of water.

You will still breathe hard, but a few days getting used to the altitude, lots of water and no alcohol always seemed to keep me from getting sick.

I've been told to push mow the yard all summer with a plastic bag over my head to simulate altitude.


I know we have some die hards here, but please do not try this.

Link

Ibuprofen may ward off altitude sickness

Ibuprofen has been used for decades to treat pain. Now, research suggests the drug's anti-inflammatory properties also may help prevent the piercing headaches and other symptoms of altitude sickness.

A small new study, published this week in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, found that people who took four 600-milligram doses of ibuprofen over a 24-hour period in which they ascended to 12,570 feet above sea level were less likely to experience altitude sickness than people taking a placebo.

Sixty-nine percent of the participants who took placebo during the ascent developed the headaches, nausea, dizziness, and fatigue that characterize altitude sickness, also known as acute mountain sickness. By contrast, just 43% of people who took ibuprofen developed the condition.

The prospect of using an over-the-counter pain reliever to stave off altitude sickness is appealing, the researchers say, because the only two drugs currently approved to prevent and treat the condition, acetazolamide and dexamethasone, are prescription-only and carry a risk of side effects.

In fact, many doctors are reluctant to prescribe acetazolamide or dexamethasone unless a person has experienced altitude sickness before, says Robert Roach, Ph.D., director of the Altitude Research Center at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study.

Ibuprofen appears to be nearly as effective as acetazolamide and dexamethasone, so it may be an option for people traveling to high altitudes who don't yet know if they're susceptible, Roach adds.

In general, he says, 20% to 30% of people will experience altitude sickness at 7,000 feet, and up to 50% will get sick at 10,000 feet.

The study took place in California's White Mountains. Eighty-six men and women who lived close to sea level spent the night at 4,100 feet. In the morning, they drove to an elevation of 11,700 feet and proceeded to hike to 12,570 feet, where they again spent the night.

The participants took the four doses of ibuprofen (or placebo) about every six hours. Each 600-milligram dose was equivalent to three standard over-the-counter ibuprofen tablets.

The men and women had to be healthy enough to hike at a high elevation, but they weren't necessarily experienced hikers or mountain climbers. That suggests the ibuprofen regimen used in the study could be helpful for everyday tourists on ski or hiking vacations, not just elite climbers, says lead author Grant S. Lipman, M.D., a clinical assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

"We weren't just looking at people who went to Nepal," says Lipman, an avid climber himself. "This [study] was done in our own backyard, so it's very translatable.

Experts aren't certain what causes altitude sickness. One hypothesis is that lower oxygen levels at high elevations lead to leaks in the blood-brain barrier, which can cause the brain to swell. Ibuprofen, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, reduces swelling.

Long-standing advice to prevent altitude sickness includes ascending gradually; drinking lots of fluids; avoiding alcohol for the first day or two at altitude; avoiding medications that can affect breathing, such as sleeping pills and sedatives; and eating lots of carbs, which some researchers believe can improve respiratory function, Lipman says.

In rare cases, altitude sickness can cause potentially fatal brain swelling. Milder, more common symptoms usually go away in a few days - but that may be too long to wait for the trekker or skier with precious little vacation time, Lipman says.

Nice link DP4.

My work out regimen is three days of heaving lifting (starting strength program if you've heard of it) two days of HIIT and 1 day of windsprints with some mobility stuff every day.

2-3 months out I'm going to increase the frequency and duration of my HIIT and carry my loaded backpack around.

The huffing and puffing affects my shot placement greatly and I want to ward off the huffing and puffing as much as possible.

Or maybe I could get in touch with Lance Armstrong's doctors...

Snubbie and noKnees pretty much nailed it. Training with a device that restricts your breathing does you no good, and it actually keeps you from working out as hard as you can. Your body acclimates to altitude by producing more red blood cells to carry oxygen, and it takes a few weeks to fully acclimate. But you can feel a difference after a few days, I know I can feel a difference every year on about day three or four.

Think of it this way--even if a snorkel does mimic altitude, if you worked out with an oxygen-restricting device every day for an hour, your body would acclimate to the conditions you spend 95% of your time in (sea level) not 5%. The ideal for endurance athletes is to train low and sleep high, so that they can train hard with more oxygen, and partially acclimate by spending time at a higher altitude.

So the best thing you can do is get to your hunting spot as many days before the hunt as possible. I haven't seen any info. on this, but I also believe it can't hurt to eat foods rich in iron since your body needs it to build red cells. Best excuse there is for a juicy steak every evening for dinner.

Your training will certainly help, you'll recover faster and be able to hit the hills day after day without cratering.

Makes sense to me smokepole. Thanks for the help fellows.

In high school some of the wrestlers ran/jumped rope with a mouthpiece designed to make breathing harder. I'd think that'd work similar. Don't know if it would help any, but would look a lot less silly! 'Course I like to keep my neighbors on their toes, so I may try the snorkel idea for the shock-value alone.

Pointer I'm with you. I live in a snowbird sanctuary and they use volunteers at the local birding center. Last summer, when I'd walk the mile and a half trail through the park, this one old volunteer kept giving me grief.

His first statement to me ever was, "there's no camping in the park" despite my greeting and explanation that I was preparing for a back country bear hunt. This is a mile from the hospital I work and noone would accidentally camp there.

Another trip to the park and with my Expedition the only vehicle in the parking lot, same snowbird asked me where I'd walked in from, and did I know there was no camping? I said, Yes, and I've walked the entire 50 feet from my SUV, pointing at it. I was here yesterday remember?

Finally, the third and last time he hassled me was with another volunteer. I asked point blank if I was welcome there and if not, just give back my family membership pass. The other volunteer said, of course I was welcome and I wasn't hassled again.

However, this year there's a new batch of aged volunteers...

But what if you breathe through a snorkel all day long, while wearing a bicycle helmet, and water wings?

Running with the flippers would complete the ensemble.

I bought one of these to prep for Afghanistan and I feel like it works:
http://www.trainingmask.com/

And you don't look as weird as running around with a snorkel.

I can't see that thing working as well as real high altitude training but it's sure a lot cheaper than a trip to the mountains several times a week. It would be worth a try.

We want photos...

I think I see someone in town running with one of those things on... always wondered what it was.

I can say this, the 3rd time I went to CO, I did a LOT more leg lifting, and stretching those muscles while holding dumbells of weight. That did a LOT more. I had to have leg strenght and not upper body.

Of course I did a lot of walking with 80 pounds in the pack of limestone road base....

And I did bleachers every other day, even sideways to build all the knee/ankle joint stuff up strong. But did that at the local HS track/football field. I did the bleachers without weight though, and ran each end of the track and got to the point I could run the bleachers and the track.

I don't know about ibuprofen but aspirin sure seemed to help us. And an RX of Diamox just in case in the pack.

I live at high altitude. Snubbie was here hunting last fall. He can send you a pic.

I lived and worked out for many years at low altitudes like yours. Running/jogging seemed to help and walking up and down any sort of slope with a pack seemed to help. So, I'd concentrate on that for conditioning.
But, the best way to get used to altitude is to live there for as long as you can prior to hunting. Even a couple of days between 6000-8000 ft. helps alot. BTW, working out after you get there doesn't seem to do much unless you have been there for a week or so. E