Blood Doping
Many have heard of Lance Armstrong losing all of his Tour De France wins because of an obscure thing known as blood doping, but little actually know what that means. Generally blood doping increases either the number of red blood cells or the oxygen carrying capacity of your blood. Both cause a steep rise in aerobic effectiveness particularly in tests of endurance because more oxygen can be delivered to your muscles. This will actually slow soreness as well by preventing lactic acid build up.
As of right now there are four ways of blood doping, three of which are illegal and two of which are detectable. The first is high altitude training. This technically not a form of blood doping because it is natural, but it has the same effect just taking far longer. By constantly working out in a high place with very little oxygen, the body will use oxygen more efficiently, increase the blood’s capacity to hold it, and train the body to take deeper breaths. When the athlete is placed back in an oxygen rich environment his body no longer has to work on overload, but rather like a well oiled machine. The athlete may also decide to remove two pints of blood from his or her body weeks before competition, freeze it, and then inject it back in the day of the competition, drastically increasing the amount of red blood cells in the body. This is known as autologous blood doping because it is your own blood. Homologous blood doping is taking the blood from another athlete, but it is detectable while autologous is not, and also has a risk of exchanging serious sickness such as HIV and AIDS. The last one is perhaps the most popular and involves the use of artificial oxygen carriers such as hemoglobin oxygen carriers (HBOC's) and Perfluorocarbons (PFC's) or the injection of erythropoietin (EPO) which the body naturally releases in the kidneys to increase red blood cell production. All are detectable, but also extremely effective.