What is Blood Flow Restriction Training?
Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) is the use of a tourniquet to safely reduce arterial blood flow and occlude venous blood outflow in the leg or arm you are exercising. This is accomplished by using a FDA certified cuff with low-intensity and low resistance training.
How does it work?
The blood flow restriction to the working muscles causes metabolic stress and cellular swelling which activates growth factors in the muscle, causing it to become larger and stronger. These are similar factors that are gained with high-intensity (>75% of 1RM) and high-workload exercising but the benefits with BFR are quicker and occur at low intensities.
What are the benefits of Blood Flow Restriction?
- Decrease stress placed on the joints
- postoperative, injured, or load-compromised individuals can accelerate recovery and prevent atrophy
- Dramatically improve post-surgical recovery time
- Prevent or treat muscle loss in acute and chronic injuries/patients
- Use an accessory workout to decrease joint and tendon stress
- Improves cellular repair and turnover to improve scar and bone healing time
- Improves VO2 Max and cardiovascular function at lower intensities
- Improves muscle, bone and tissue growth
Ideal Candidates for BFRT:
- Active recovery
- Bed-ridden
- Post-operative including WB restriction
- Casted Patients
- Elderly patients
- Aerobic athletes who want to improve VO2 Max
- patients who cannot perform normal strength training to an intensity that produces true strength and hypertrophy adaptation due to post-surgical status, irritability of patient's injury
Is BFR therapy safe?
Yes! There are hundreds of studies on the effectiveness of BFRT and it is completely safe if used correctly. We use a FDA approved cuff and have multiple sizes to properly fit the limb. The limb is only occluded at pressures that have been recommended by BFR research and your personalized baseline tourniquet pressure is always measured so we know what to safely occlude the pressure by during exercise.
