Can Breathwork Replace Altitude Training? The Science Behind the Claim

Altitude training has long been a secret weapon for endurance athletes. Spend weeks at 2,000 metres or higher and the body adapts to thinner air by boosting its oxygen-carrying power. With breathwork booming in sport, a natural question follows: can you get the same benefits by simply training your breath?

Let’s unpack what the science says.

What altitude training really does

At altitude, the air is thinner, the partial pressure of oxygen falls. That means every breath delivers less O₂ into the blood. In response, the body produces more erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone from the kidneys that stimulates red blood cell production. Over several weeks, this raises haemoglobin mass and improves the ability to transport oxygen during exercise.

There are side-benefits too: tweaks in breathing efficiency, muscle oxygen use, and capillary function. But the big prize is more red blood cells, which only comes from a sustained hypoxic dose (living or sleeping at altitude for hours every day, usually over weeks).

What breathwork can (and can’t) mimic

Certain breathwork methods do create a form of stress similar to altitude, at least in the short term.

• Breath-hold or hypoventilation training can temporarily lower blood oxygen and raise CO₂. Research shows this can improve repeated-sprint ability, buffering capacity, and CO₂ tolerance.

• Respiratory muscle training strengthens the breathing apparatus itself, delaying fatigue in high-intensity efforts.

• Both approaches are portable, low-tech, and show performance benefits in specific contexts.

What they don’t do is maintain the kind of chronic hypoxia needed to trigger the kidney-EPO-red blood cell pathway. No matter how many breath holds you stack in a session, you won’t match the weeks of exposure altitude camps or hypoxic tents deliver.

So, can breathwork replace altitude?

Not if your goal is raising haemoglobin mass. For that, you need altitude or a carefully dosed hypoxic environment.

But breathwork can still be a powerful tool. It builds CO₂ tolerance, strengthens respiratory muscles, sharpens mental control, and may boost sprint-repeat performance. In other words, it’s not a substitute, it’s a complement.

The bottom line

Breathwork and altitude training both play with oxygen, but they do it in very different ways. Altitude is about long-term blood adaptations; breathwork is about short-term stress, control, and efficiency. Used together, they can give athletes a wider toolkit, just don’t confuse one for the other.

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