Strength Without Strain
Blood Flow Restriction (BFR)
This therapy increased strength and muscle size without the stress of loading heavy weight on the body. It has become popular because it helps both rehabilitate individuals with injuries and help healthy athletes gain and maintain muscle strength.
Rebuilding Strength
BFR is an adjunct to exercise therapy that helps muscles get stronger without using heavy weights or high-intensity exercises. This is beneficial to a patient rehabbing after injury or procedure because patients often experience muscle stiffness or atrophy due to low activity level.
If you’re a healthy individual, BFR can help you build and maintain muscle without the risk of injury or soreness that comes with high intensity lifting.
FAQ
In general, blood flow restriction training is safer than high-intensity exercise. Your body reacts to BFR similarly to how it would in high intensity training. You should not use BFR if you have severe, untreated hypertension, a blood clotting disorder, sickle cell anemia, or lymphedema. Do not use BFR over an acute fracture or over an open soft tissue injury. Check with your physical therapist for a list of other precautions before using BFR. BFR training should only be performed under the direct supervision of a treating physical therapist.
BFR works by partially restricting the blood flow to an extremity. This process uses a band or cuff that is placed on an arm or leg and then connected to a BFR unit. The band or cuff is tightened to restrict blood flow. The patient then performs low-intensity exercises with a small weight or resistance band. Exercising while using BFR basically leads to an increase in growth hormone in that muscle, allowing the muscle to synthesize protein and get stronger.
BFR therapy can be beneficial for both injured and healthy individuals, as it helps rebuild muscle mass if you are recovering from injury and leads to increased muscle mass. BFR is great after joint replacements. In seniors, BFR can minimize “normal” age-related muscle wasting, improve bone density in patients with osteopenia, and improve walking endurance. BFR can also be applied safely to certain neurological diseases like Parkinson’s.
Physical therapists have an existing firm foundation of anatomy, physiology, therapeutic exercise, and the cardiopulmonary system as well as clinical reasoning, which are the components of the safe application of blood flow restriction training.