Here's How To Improve Your Running Economy

Inhaling carbon monoxide?

I've been watching the Tour de France the last few days, especially the climbing stages and of course memories of previous doping cases come to mind. Erythropoeitin (EPO) was the drug of choice then and blood doping subsequently after a reliable test was developed to test for EPO.

So I was pretty shocked to say the least when I read about how you can possibly increase your haemoglobin (Hb) levels without taking EPO and without training at altitude.

Researchers in the following study got subjects to inhale carbon monoxide (CO)! Yes, you read correctly, inhaling carbon monoxide followed by running on a treadmill.

Twelve soccer players were recruited for their study. They were all non smokers, living at low altitude and had never trained at altitude previously. Their running economy, VO2 max and total haemoglobin (tHB) levels were measured before and after the 4-week training program.

They were randomly assigned to two groups. One group inhaled CO (1mL/kg body weight for 2 min) before all training sessions and a control group that didn't inhale CO before training. Both groups participated in a 4-week treadmill running program five times weekly.

I would not be writing this article if the results were not desirable. EPO hormone levels in the group that inhaled CO before training increased from 1.9 to 2.7 mIU/mL four hours later. After the 4-week training period, tHB, and VO2 max levels improved significantly by 3.7 and 2.7 percent respectively while there were no significant differences in the other group.

The researchers concluded that there was a sharp increase in the EPO hormone after inhaling CO, especially four hours later (that's very fast). The 4-week treadmill running program also improved total haemoglobin levels, VO2 max and running economy thereby suggesting that moderate CO inhalation could possibly be a quicker, cheaper, less dangerous and more convenient way to improve endurance performance in athletes.

Now I know what you're thinking (like my posed picture above). It could all go terribly wrong if you're not careful!


Reference

J Wang, Y Ji et al (2019). A New Method To improve Running Economy And Maximal Aerobic Power In Athletes: Endurance Training With Periodic Carbon Monoxide Inhalation. Front. Physio. DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00701.

You can read the full article here.