Blood flow restriction training benefits - how it can help
- josephplatt1979
- Oct 25, 2022
- 5 min read
What is Blood Flow Restriction Training?
Blood flow restriction training is a technique that can be used to perform exercises with a reduced amount of blood flow to the arms or legs. It is performed by using a cuff or strap placed tightly around the limb to reduce, but not completely occlude, blood flow. Blood flow restriction training benefits a person to exercise with lower intensity, but still have the benefits of high-intensity training.
How Does Blood Flow Restriction Training Work?
The Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) bands reduce oxygen supply to the muscles in order to pre-fatigue slow twitch muscle fibers and diminish their response to workout loads, but to enable fast twitch muscle fibers to respond quickly to exercise training loads, resulting in faster lean muscle growth.
This creates greater fatigue, muscle activation, and also anabolic signaling pathways which lead to muscular adaptations compared to exercise without BFR.
Blood flow restriction training can be a tremendous adjunct to training because these same muscle-building ingredients happen in the low-load environment.
Is Blood Flow Restriction Training Safe?
Blood flow restriction training is very safe and there is also no evidence of danger to your health or life. The most common reported side effects from users of BFR are typically delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), numbness, dizziness, and bruising. Yet, these responses do not typically last long and can be minimized with proper monitoring. Some may find BFR training to feel very intense and uncomfortable due to the tightness of the bands and the increased muscle pump.
While evidence supports that Blood flow restriction training benefits is a safe method, care should be taken when monitoring individuals considered to be at an increased risk of an adverse reaction to a BFR training protocol. Those who appear to be at risk include:
People with an increased risk of cardiovascular complications should be closely monitored for changes in heart rate and blood pressure. Exercise should be performed with more frequent reperfusions and rest periods. Individuals with a family or personal history of clotting disorders, or level 1 hypertension, may not be safe to complete a BFR training protocol.
People at a high risk of nerve injury such as diabetics should be constantly assessed for any changes in limb sensation and should consider more comprehensive monitoring of blood glucose.
Those at an increase of rhabdomyolysis or muscle damage should be monitored for excessive pain or muscle weakness and should consider a passive acclimatization process prior to combining BFR with resistance or cardiovascular exercise.
Blood flow restriction training benefits
There are some pretty amazing blood flow restriction training benefits and they are:
Gain More While Doing Less - One of the biggest benefits of BFR training is the ability to achieve the same results from low intensity resistance exercises as those achieved through high-intensity resistance training. BFR training uses much lighter weights. This makes BFR training ideal for people that cannot lift heavy weights due to injury, age or other factors.
Increased Strength and Muscle Size - Even though very light weights are used, BFR training increases protein synthesis similar to traditional strength training. The increase in protein synthesis combined with reduced muscle damage puts the body in the best possible position for building lean muscle. Because BFR causes less muscle damage, gains have been observed faster than in traditional strength training.
Anti-Aging Effects - BFR training stimulates the production of Growth Hormone which helps promote growth of lean muscle. BFR training produces a “systemic effect” due to the hormonal release into the body’s circulatory system. While only arms and/or legs may have been under restriction, the hormonal release into the blood stream goes everywhere and benefits any area of the body that was exercised.
Recovery - If you're recovering from an athletic injury blood flow restriction training (BFR) may help with your recovery, while also maintaining your strength. BFR training with injury can help rehabilitation, tendonitis, surgery post-op, maintaining strength during recovery and even improving performance for competitive athletes.
How to Wrap for BFR Training
Practical BFR involves the use of an elastic wrap to restrict blood flow. You can also use knee and elbow wraps.
For the upper body, wrap it just below the shoulder at the top of the upper arm so that the wrap is nestling into your armpit.
For the lower body, wrap just below the gluteal fold from the back and just below the hip flexor from the front.
For both the upper and lower body, you want to wrap at about a 7 out of 10 on the tightness scale. You shouldn’t feel any numbness or tingling sensations. If you do, that means you wrapped it too tight. Wrapping it too tight will restrict arterial flow and prevent blood from pooling in the muscle, so it defeats the purpose. When in doubt, wrap on the looser side of the spectrum, especially in the beginning.
How Many Reps/Sets Should You Do?
The lifting routine BFR training is quite different from what you are probably used to. Training must occur with lower loads and higher repetitions. A typical training scheme for BFR involves completing four sets of an exercise at 20 to 50 percent of your 1 rep max.
Your first set will be around 30 reps, followed by 3 sets of 15 repetitions respectively with a 30 to 45 second rest interval between sets. The cuff will remain intact during the rest intervals but should be removed or deflated in between exercises.
Don’t overdo it
Sessions of BFR training are shorter than an average gym session, usually lasting about 15 minutes. Because they produce muscle growth without muscle damage, they can be done on active recovery days. 2-3 sessions per week are fine to do while incorporating them into your other training sessions.
if you are just starting blood flow restriction training or are unaccustomed to such high-repetition sets, you may need slightly longer to recover from such metabolically demanding training. To begin with, only use BFR training once or twice a week until you feel your muscles are recovering around the 24-hour mark.
BFR Training Bands and Cuffs
You have a few different options when choosing blood flow restriction training bands and cuffs. You can get bands that fit your arms and bands that fit for your legs. Here you will find many different types:
Blood Flow Training Bands for Arms
BFR arm bands are easy wraps to strap up, quick to release as soon as the exercise is completed, and exceptionally comfortable on the arms. Build biceps, triceps and the forearms.
BFR Bands for Arms Legs
These bands will help grow your quads, hamstrings and calves. You can also target the glutes using these bands. These tourniquet bands with quick release closures are designed to restrict blood flow to the targeted muscles resulting in faster, leaner muscle growth for both men and women.
The Bottom Line
BFR is awesome for increasing muscle strength and size. BFR training can be a useful tool to support musculoskeletal rehabilitation for injury recovery and to support strength and muscular conditioning training for athletes and some patients with chronic conditions.
Training with BFR 2-3 times per week is fine and your BFR session should be no longer than 15 mins. Aim for a 7 out of 10 tightness when apply the bands. Blood flow restriction training benefits man and women, young and old.
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