Ultra Runner Joe Tests Training Mask 2.0

Sep 8, 2017

Joe is an ultra-marathon runner who gave Training Mask a try. He rediscovered running after making a decision to change up his life and lost over 60 pounds. He started endurance running back in July 2011 when we competed in a 50K run and he’s been hooked ever since.

So if you are an endurance runner looking for out of the box ways of boosting your performance check out what Joe has to say about it. Here are some of the highlights of his review.

“It seems to be beneficial.  During workouts, whether running or cross-training, the workouts seem more taxing and produce a similar feeling to high levels of exertion at altitude.”

 Breathing under resistance or training your respiratory system using a tool such as Training Mask will work pretty much as weight training for your diaphragm and lungs. The oxygen and air intake will be lower than normally and the body will react accordingly.

Oxygen plays a major role in energy production.  When there are less oxygen molecules available in the bloodstream there will be less energy available to use. That’s why Joe reported the workouts to be more taxing than usual. Overtime, the body will adapt to these new conditions which will result in better developed endurance and better lung ventilatory capacity. The lung muscles grow bigger and stronger.

Joe lives in Salt Lake City, UT and trains around that area, so it’s interesting for us to see him comparing Training Mask 2.0 with training at high altitude. He sure has plenty of experience with that.

“I have been using it as part of my winter training all season and have already shown that despite being only March, I am running faster with less effort than in previous seasons.”

 Joe used the Training Mask for several months before drawing any conclusions. The most important benefit of any kind of respiratory training or altitude training is that it gives you a good performance boost, regardless of the sport you are in. And that’s exactly what Joe has experienced.

His respiratory system became more efficient than before so he is now able to put more of his energy into running and less into breathing. Endurance runners are known to breathe rapid and heavy. That burns a lot of energy, so if you can find a way of making it more efficient and waste less energy on breathing we will get better performance.

You use 12 different muscles to breath in and breath out. So just breathing alone can actually take away up to 15% of your total energy. That’s a lot, so there is definitely room for improving your performance by perfecting your respiratory system.

“My breathing pattern has become much more consistent.  While wearing the mask, it is difficult to take quick, short breaths.  As a result, I have found that the mask forces me into the habit of taking consistent, long, deep breaths.”

 On top of making your whole respiratory system a more efficient machine, Training Mask will also make you take deeper and slower breaths. This is not something you can control on your own when you are running a marathon or when you are doing any kind of intense physical activities. But Training Mask can do that for you even without you noticing it.

Those quick and short breaths that we all take when we experience the breathlessness feeling – those are not beneficial at all. They consume more energy and they are superficial. The turnover of that kind of breathing is not optimal.

Deeper breaths on the other hand will result in much better air turnover and will supply more oxygen to your body. Using Training Masks long enough will enable any athlete to focus on taking deeper, more consistent breaths even when training at high intensity.

This works both as a physical level, but also at a mental level. You become more aware of your breathing and you can focus more on pacing your breathing as well as your movements so that everything is in sync and works like a well programmed machine.