system from which blood flow restriction
training would evolve, which he termed
‘Kaatsu’ (Ka meaning ‘additional’ and atsu
meaning ‘pressure’). Sato’s idea was to apply
pressure around the top of the arms or legs
while lifting a light load, in order to impede the
flow of blood to exercising muscles.
In some early studies of this type of training,
when pressures as high as >180mmHg were
applied in order to completely occlude blood
flow, researchers referred to it as ‘vascular
occlusion training’. The move towards
maintaining arterial inflow while occluding
venous return, however, makes the term
blood flow ‘restriction’ more appropriate.
What is it and how does it work?
BFR training involves attaching pneumatic
belts, straps or occlusion bands around
the upper portion of the thighs or arms and
performing traditional strength exercises.
The pressure is set in such a way that blood is
able to enter the muscle, but venous return is
reduced. As such, the selected training load
is often around 30% of the individual’s 1RM.
Despite several decades of research
investigating BFR, the precise explanation
for it’s effectiveness in improving strength
and muscle mass is not fully known. The
prevailing theory is that the reduction of
The 30-second article
• Blood flow restriction (BFR) training
involves attaching pneumatic belts,
straps or occlusion bands around the
upper portion of the thighs or arms
and performing traditional strength
exercises
• Blood is able to enter the muscle, but
venous return is reduced, and the
individual trains with a load of around
30% of their 1RM
• BFR training has been shown to
effectively increase muscle mass,
strength, muscular endurance and
sporting performance
• Research has indicated that BFR
training’s lower loads may help to
reduce risk of injury or excessive
soreness in athletes, and enable
injured and elderly individuals to safely
reap the benefits of strength training.
venous flow causes blood to pool in the limbs, resulting in increased
and sustained metabolic acidosis. Receptors in the muscles send
stronger signals to the brain and large quantities of human growth
hormone are produced 1 , fast-twitch muscles are recruited 2 and
muscle growth pathways are activated 3 .
Contraindications
Safety concerns with BFR training appear to be few. In a study
that surveyed 12,642 individuals who had undergone BFR training,
including both the young (<20 years old) and the elderly (>80 years
old), athletic and healthy population groups and those with various
kinds of physical conditions, such as cerebrovascular diseases,
orthopaedic diseases, obesity, cardiac diseases, neuromuscular
diseases, diabetes, hypertension and respiratory diseases, BFR
training resulted in a very small number of complications. The
incidence of side effects was as follows: venous thrombus (blood
clot in a vein), 0.055%; pulmonary embolism (blood clot in artery
of the lung), 0.008%; and rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of muscle
tissue), 0.008%. These results indicate that BFR training is a safe
and promising method for training athletes and healthy people, and
can also be applied to those with various physical conditions 4 .
Applications
So we know what BFR training is and what it does, but why would
you choose it over regular training methods? That is, why not just lift
what you can lift?
Athletic development and body composition training
Australian blood flow restriction expert Dr Brendan Scott has
suggested one of the key benefits of BFR training in the athletic
conditioning setting is in the reduction of high training loads that may
result in injury over time or excessive soreness, which has a negative
impact on the quality of the training week. ‘Implementing BFR during
various phases of an athlete’s periodised training plan could help
counter the potential negative effects of high mechanical training
loads. Indeed, while BFR training seems to provide a physiological
stimulus for muscular adaptations, the low loads used do not cause
measurable muscle damage 5 . This low-load/recovery concept
becomes more attractive to ageing athletes and those who have a
reduced ability to recuperate between training sessions.
NETWORK SUMMER 2017 | 11