Что такое нормобарическая гипоксическая тренировка?

What is hypoxic training and what benefits can it bring to you personally?
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This is easily understandable through a comparison of the mechanisms of a hypoxic and physical training.
Everyone knows that physical exercise is not only useful, but also essential for health in any age, with almost no exceptions. However, its intensity, quantity, and frequency must be strictly individual. In addition, many of us simply do not have enough time for exercising. Especially today, at conditions of forced self-isolation — some folks simply do not have any experience in physical training and exercising. What one can do in this case, is there any shortcut or way around this, is there a full substitute or replacement for physical exercises?
Let’s take a close look at what happens in the body (in the muscles, in the heart, in the brain) during exercise, what exactly makes it so beneficial for our health?
During exercise, muscle cells produce many cytokines: intercellular signaling molecules, which stimulate recovery after exercising not only in working muscles, but also in all distant organs, tissues and cells, such as neurons and liver cells, myocardium and immune organs, joints, ligaments and bones, etc.
The most important physiological mechanism that stimulates the release of cytokines and determines the benefits of exercise is a short-term interruption of blood flow, because cyclic tension and muscle contraction periodically block blood flow and leads to intermittent ischemia, in other words, to intermittent hypoxia (intermittent oxygen deficiency). At the same time, the multiple mechanisms of hypoxia compensation, such as the accumulation of the oxygen binding protein myoglobin and “fuel” — glycogen are gradually activated in the cells.
Well, then let’s try to create intermittent hypoxia throughout the body, but without physical exercising. This can be done by supplying breathing air with a low oxygen content, alternating it with the breathing oxygen-enriched air. For this purpose, special machines, hypoxicators, computer-controlled devices have been created that feed alternately hypoxic and hyperoxic air into the breathing mask in accordance with an individual program controlled by feedback from the changing physiological parameters of the patient.

This technology is called the intermittent (periodic) normobaric hypoxic-hyperoxic training (IHHT), or shortly — hypoxic therapy. The method has existed since the early 1970s and in various modifications it is widely used today in clinical practice, by elite athletes and for the preparation of special task contingents. Exactly where you need excellent health, high performance and reliability: among top managers, military, pilots, astronauts and deep-sea divers. According to numerous scientific studies, the IHHT significantly increases the effectiveness of physical training, and in most cases can even serve as its full replacement.
Molecular — biological mechanisms of hypoxytherapy, biochemical ways of adaptation to hypoxia (hypoxic preconditioning) are well studied over the past decades.
It is very important that hypoxytherapy is a unique method that improves the quality of mitochondria in all cells. Today it is known that the high functionality of mitochondria is the basis for good health at any age. Mitochondrial health is a necessary condition for the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of almost all chronic diseases, as well as for slowing down the rate of aging.
And finally, this technology brings to life the centuries-old dream of all lazy people: to get all the benefits of physical training without getting off the couch!