The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of intermittent hypoxia at rest and in combination with long-term high-intensity swimming exercise on lipid peroxidation and antioxidant defense system adaptation in skeletal muscles differing in fiber type composition. High-intensity chronic exercise was performed as swimming training with load that corresponded to ~ 75 % VO_2max (30 min·day^-1, 5 days·wk^-1, for 4 wk). Intermittent hypoxic training (IHT) consisted of repeated episodes of hypoxia (12%O₂, 15 min), interrupted by equal periods of recovery (5 sessions/day, for 2 wk). Sessions of IHT were used during the first two weeks and during the last two weeks of chronic exercise. Oxidative (red gastrocnemius and soleus, mix) and glycolytic (white gastrocnemius) muscles were sampled. Our results indicated that high-intensity swim training in combination with sessions of IHT induced more profound antioxidative adaptations in skeletal muscles than the exercise training only. This adaptation has muscle fiber type specificity and is reflected in significantly elevated superoxide dismutase and catalase activities in highly oxidative muscle only. Training adaptation of GSH system (reduced glutathione content, activities of glutathione reductase, glutathione peroxidase, NADPH-supplying enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) occurred both in slow- and fast-twitch muscles. However, this process was more effective in oxidative muscles. IHT attenuated the increase in TBARS content induced by high-intensity swimming training. The test on exercise tolerance demonstrated a significant elevation of the swimming time to exhaustion after IHT at rest and after IHT in conjunction with high-intensity exercise in comparison with untrained and chronically exercised rats. These results confirmed that sessions of IHT might improve exercise tolerance and increase maximal work capacity.