Research

Hormonal

Acute exposure to moderate terrestrial altitude (2320 m) does not enhance metabolic stress or anabolic hormonal responses compared to normoxia during hypertrophy-oriented resistance training.

If you are training at moderate altitude (around 2300m), do not expect your muscles to grow faster or your hormones to spike more than they would at sea level, provided you are doing the same resistance training routine. The acute stress response is not enhanced by the altitude itself in this context.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
The results of this study do not support an accentuated effect of acute moderate terrestrial hypoxia on metabolic and hormonal factors linked to muscle growth during hypertrophic resistance training.
Belén Feriche et al. · European Journal of Sport Science · 2019

Why this rating

Randomized counter-balanced crossover design with trained subjects, though small sample size (n=13) and short duration limit generalizability.

Source

Altitude‐induced effects on muscular metabolic stress and hypertrophy‐related factors after a resistance training session

Belén Feriche et al. · European Journal of Sport Science · 2019

DOI 10.1080/17461391.2019.1691270

crossover · n=13Cited 18×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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