Extended Desaturation Training For Respiratory Limited Athletes

In this article, I'll discuss the use of extended desaturation training to improve respiratory limitations caused by diaphragm muscle fatigue and pulmonary diffusion limitations. If you want to understand how to train a respiratory limited athlete more holistically, you can read my previous article titled, Training The Respiratory Limited Athlete.

An important consideration when training the respiratory limited athlete is that the amount of training volume they accumulate at a high percentage of their peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) is a primary driver of performance improvements. However, the amount of training that an athlete's muscles, bones, and joints can tolerate in a given week is finite, limiting how much work they can conceivably do at a high percentage of their VO2peak while still performing training in other intensity domains. This is especially true for mixed sport athletes, like Crossfit competitors, who can only dedicate so much time to energy system development given…