Having a lot of endurance is important for most athletes.  Even though gymnastics is considered an anaerobic sport, it’s becoming increasingly important for gymnast to have more gas in the tank because of the open-ended scoring system that requires longer routines.  One of the best ways to increase endurance is to go through hypoxic training, which is to work out at a high altitude where there is less oxygen (this is one of the main reasons why the US Olympic Training Center is located high up in the Rockies in Colorado).  However, not all of us live up in the mountains…

I wonder if it works...

I remember talking to a cyclist a little while back about oxygen tents and how effective they are for athletes involved in endurance sports.  From my understanding, a tent goes over an athlete’s bed, and a machine that’s attached to it reduces the amount of oxygen in the air within that tent.  This tent is supposed to simulate living in a high-altitude environment, so the basic concept is that you get stronger while you sleep.  While the whole idea make sense, for some reason, it sounds too good to be true.  There’s no way that I can afford this (I think the whole thing runs about $8000!!!) but as a gymnast who is trying to up his endurance to cope with the new scoring system, I always wonder how effective these types of things are…

Leave a comment if you know anything about this or have found something similar to this that sounds interesting!