Old Forum Altitude Training Masks

[Fllgrd]

I was wondering if anyone has tries those altitude training masks? They say they replicate training at high altitudes, and thus improve your red blood cell/hemoglobin count, the legal way, not like blood doping. They're usually $80 so before I invest in that I thought I'd get some opinions here. Also I read about the Buteyko breathing method from Russia. It's been popularized by a guy named Patrick Mckeowan. He says this method is similar to altitude training without the mask ( or traveling to the mountains!). Essentially breathing through the nose. Will these methods improve red blood count, V02Max,etc?

 

 

[eugene]

I have one.

altitude masks don't work as expected:

http://hprc-online.org/environment/altitude/high-altitude-training-masks
But if you (for some reason) want to introduce an element of suck into your routine it's a great tool.