Hypoxic training for Masters?

I agree that we should all attempt to practice how we want to race. And that includes breathing management. I just don't think there is much scientific evidence that "hypoxic" swimming truly increases lung capacity. I think Maglischo's book talks about this. He says that breath control training teaches you to overcome the fear of running out of breath. We all need to get used to the feeling of running out of air. Yes, I agree with you about lung capacity. In fact, I dimly seem to recall reading that lung capacity diminishes with age and that exercise has no effect on that. Of course, I may be confused...age has that effect too... But I doubt this is the only possible physiological adaptation. I don't think altitude training, for example, increases lung capacity, nor do I think the results are purely psychological. (I believe Doc Counsilman used to think that hypoxic training simulated altitude training. That doesn't make it so, of course.) The psychological aspects of hypoxic training are kind of interesting. I was talking to the U of Richmond coach about this. He has his swimmers do a lot of work with snorkels, and they restrict the air intake by 50% at least. They swim really fast with those things. I, on the other hand, have had some near-panic attacks even with an unblocked snorkel if I push it too hard. (My own purpose with using the snorkel isn't to do "hypoxic" work, but there is that side effect.) But their best backstroker has panic attacks on underwaters whereas I don't. The UR coach reported that using a nose clip helps her with this, she feels more in control of the rate of "bleed" that she allows when underwater. Regardless, I still recommend extreme caution in doing hypoxic work. There is a basis for panic attacks, after all. A typical masters swimmer who is happy with his/her turns probably doesn't need to work on it at all. If you want to stop breathing in/out of turns, or extend your underwaters in races, just start doing those things routinely in practice -- especially on (near) race-pace efforts -- and you won't even think about it much during the race.

I agree that we should all attempt to practice how we want to race. And that includes breathing management. I just don't think there is much scientific evidence that "hypoxic" swimming truly increases lung capacity. I think Maglischo's book talks about this. He says that breath control training teaches you to overcome the fear of running out of breath. We all need to get used to the feeling of running out of air. Yes, I agree with you about lung capacity. In fact, I dimly seem to recall reading that lung capacity diminishes with age and that exercise has no effect on that. Of course, I may be confused...age has that effect too... But I doubt this is the only possible physiological adaptation. I don't think altitude training, for example, increases lung capacity, nor do I think the results are purely psychological. (I believe Doc Counsilman used to think that hypoxic training simulated altitude training. That doesn't make it so, of course.) The psychological aspects of hypoxic training are kind of interesting. I was talking to the U of Richmond coach about this. He has his swimmers do a lot of work with snorkels, and they restrict the air intake by 50% at least. They swim really fast with those things. I, on the other hand, have had some near-panic attacks even with an unblocked snorkel if I push it too hard. (My own purpose with using the snorkel isn't to do "hypoxic" work, but there is that side effect.) But their best backstroker has panic attacks on underwaters whereas I don't. The UR coach reported that using a nose clip helps her with this, she feels more in control of the rate of "bleed" that she allows when underwater. Regardless, I still recommend extreme caution in doing hypoxic work. There is a basis for panic attacks, after all. A typical masters swimmer who is happy with his/her turns probably doesn't need to work on it at all. If you want to stop breathing in/out of turns, or extend your underwaters in races, just start doing those things routinely in practice -- especially on (near) race-pace efforts -- and you won't even think about it much during the race.