Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) Training

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As a natural skeptic I admittedly am slow to incorporate new and emerging treatment tools and devices into practice. I suppose it's because I'm afraid of appearing gimmicky or prematurely adopting claims for which the evidence is still emerging. But recently I've been using BFR (blood flow restriction) training after perusing some research supporting it's efficacy in promoting muscular hypertrophy. _ There is substantial evidence suggesting that BFR training can yield hypertrophy gains using loads as low as 20-30% 1RM. By limiting the amount of oxygen that gets delivered to working muscles, you're creating an environment that facilitates muscular protein synthesis via metabolic stress. Growth hormone and IGF-1 are present in such an environment and are key hormones that signal cellular pathways that lead to muscle growth. _ We know the many health benefits of strength training, but patients experiencing pain, recovering from injury or who may not be well versed in resistance training aren't able to access the higher percentages of 1RM intensities required to induce strength or hypertrophy adaptations. Some examples that come to mind include atrophied quadriceps in patients recovering from ACL reconstruction, or biceps muscle wasting following elbow immobilization for a fracture. BFR training may help facilitate strength & hypertrophy gains in such populations earlier in their rehab, decreasing the risk of commonly associated complications such as patellar tendinitis or knee extensor lags. _ I'm curious about the effects of BFR training in individuals uninhibited by pain who use loads >65% 1RM to add mechanical tension along with metabolic stress to double dip in the mTOR cellular pathway that facilitates muscle protein synthesis. I'm off program following Raw Nationals so I thought I would play around with a couple of sets of various tempo front squats, tempo high bar back squats, double kettlebell walking lunges with pulses, seated kettlebell knee extensions and double kettlebell split squats. I'm no closer to the answer, but at least I'm sore AF. Thoughts on this @thebarbellphysio, @modernmanualtherapy, @scotmorison?

A post shared by PhysioStrength (@physiostrengthnyc) on Oct 19, 2018 at 3:44am PDT

171 Likes, 19 Comments - PhysioStrength (@physiostrengthnyc) on Instagram: "As a natural skeptic I admittedly am slow to incorporate new and emerging treatment tools and..."