LAWRENCE
The mask is lightweight and black, with three circular holes for ventilation. There are straps on the back. In medical jargon, the piece of equipment is called a hypoxicator, an elevation training device that simulates running at high altitude.
It is a futuristic piece of equipment, and when Carlton Bragg slides the contraption around his head, he can look a little like Tom Hardy’s Bane character from “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Bragg said he first started working out with the mask in the months before he left home for Kansas. He had seen video clips of LeBron James jogging on a treadmill with his own elevation training mask, and if it was good enough for Cleveland’s biggest star, it was good enough for Bragg, a Cleveland native who received McDonald’s All-American honors at Villa Angela-St.