Blood flow restriction (BFR) is a useful tool to help with strengthening at lower intensity.
BFR is used for working out and for rehabilitation purposes. I will use is more specifically following certain surgeries and will be writing more about the rehabilitation aspect of the BFR.
What is BFR
With BFR training, blood still comes into your muscles via your arteries. The use of the band, however, blocks it from leaving through your veins.
This restriction of normal blood flow allows your muscles to experience swelling, fatigue, and oxygen depletion more quickly. This leads to the muscles needing to work harder at a lower intensity.
Check out this article for more information.
Why Use BFR
BFR leads to less oxygen in the blood during a task requiring more work to perform that activity despite less resistance.
Therefore, with BFR, hypertrophy, or increased muscle mass, happens at those lower intensities. For this reason, performing BFR following surgery is ideal since high resistance activities are usually not allowed.
How and When to Use BFR
I use the smart cuff BFR in the clinic and with that specific cuff I learned these parameters:
- Usually, 4 sets of the exercise will be performed
- The repetitions are 30, 15, 15, 15, 15 with 1 minute of rest between each set
- For the arm the cuff will be just below the deltoid muscle
- For the leg the cuff will be place just below the great trochanter
With patients, I will begin using the BFR 1-2 weeks post op to allow for the incision to heal and some bruising to go away.
On a patient following knee surgery, it will be used to improve quadriceps and hamstring activation. One of the knee surgeries I use BFR for is a Total Knee Replacement (find out more about TKA in the previous blog post here). And following shoulder surgery to help the biceps and triceps.
Most exercises can be done with BFR for training or rehabilitation. Although rehabilitation will usually be more specific to the injury.
Because blood flow restriction is a useful tool, it is an asset to patients following surgeries or other injuries.