The Guts of Hypoxic Training

Boosting endurance by hypoxic training is well known and commonly adopted by competitive athletes. Explanatory mechanisms include both hematological (e.g., increased red blood cell counts and elevated hemoglobin concentrations) and non-hematological (e.g., improved buffering capacity, lactate threshold and running economy) factors. Recent research has highlighted the role the gut microbiota plays in exercise performance (Lahiri et al., 2019; Mailing et al., 2019; Nay et al., 2019; Scheiman et al., 2019).

 A study published this month in Frontiers in Microbiology investigated the role of the gut microbiota in endurance performance. Researchers demonstrated recovering the gut microbiota of germ-free mice led to a boost in endurance and skeletal muscle mass. Moreover, researchers found hypoxia altered the gut bacteria, specifically increasing Akkermansia and Bacteroides genera. Short chain fatty acids produced by the gut microbiota increased mitochondrial biogenesis which led to an improved endurance capacity (Huang et al., 2022). 

This research furthers the notion that we need to be mindful of what we ingest and the environmental exposures conducive to performance… and as we well know, it takes guts to do well in endurance events!