The most direct way that BFR may be able to benefit runners is by boosting the body’s ability to clear lactate and enhance strength endurance.

“Dealing with runners specifically, there is evidence that using BFR during training appears to confer small but potentially worthwhile improvements in VO2max, peak running velocity, maximal oxygen uptake, and running economy.”

“There are a plethora of significant benefits for runners, depending on what goal we are trying to achieve,” says Brown. So blood flow restriction clearly builds muscle, but how can this be of benefit to runners? After all, our goal isn’t to be able to lift the most. Mean improvement in strength was slightly larger when BFR was combined with resistance exercise. When BFR was combined with aerobic exercise, a small improvement in mean strength between the experimental and control group was found. In a separate meta-analysis, a total of 400 participants were included from 19 different studies that looked at how muscle strength increased when both aerobic and resistance exercise is combined with BFR. Additionally, muscle mass was increased when comparing walking with and without BFR. Additionally, there is data that suggests that skeletal muscle and possibly bone may benefit from this training.Ī meta-analysis looking at 11 studies on BFR training with a total of 238 subjects revealed that during both low-load resistance training and walking, the addition of BFR elicits significantly greater improvements in muscular strength. This is what creates the magic! An easy way to look at it, as I often tell my patients, is ‘it provides the gains without the strains.’”Īccording to some research, lifting as little as 20% of an individual’s maximum strength can produce increases in muscle size and strength similar to that of traditional resistance training using nearer to 70% of the person’s maximum strength. “The low loading allows us to strengthen without putting heavy and repetitive stress on the joints and muscles. “What we are learning via research is that by modifying blood flow to muscles during low loading exercise can improve an individual’s muscle strength, endurance, healing, and more,” explains Daniel Brown, PT, a Boulder-based doctor of physical therapy. Meta-analysis shows that doing this training just 3 days a week. Ultimately, this works to create an increase in muscle hypertrophy (growth), muscle strength, and a slew of other benefits in as little as three weeks, although typically it takes four to six weeks. When that lactic acid is produced in the body, the pituitary gland secretes growth hormone in response. The idea behind the training method is that by decreasing oxygen through the restriction of venous blood flow, you can create a late metabolite build up such as lactic acid in the tissue. Typically BFR is done during low-loading resistance training, but it can also be done while doing an aerobic activity like cycling or walking. This is supposed to safely restrict venous blood flow back to the heart from working muscles while still allowing arterial blood flow from heart to the muscles. In physical therapy, BFR is done by using a computerized tourniquet system, similar to a blood pressure cuff. While there are some expensive, high-end pressure cuffs that you can buy to wrap your limbs, you can use any wrap that constricts and holds. Originating in Japan, BFR training is a strategy that involves the use of wraps, or cuffs, placed around a limb during exercise.

Bfr bands