Blood Flow Restriction therapy

Brief history

Blood flow restriction’s origin as we know it today can be traced back to around 1966 when Dr. Yoshiaki Sato in Japan discovered a reduction in blood flow to calves while kneeling during a Buddhist festival. While massaging aching calves out, he noticed what we know as a “Muscle Pump” which had the same feeling of an intense workout.

Dr. Sato introduced the term KAATSU – Japanese KA (Additional) ATSU(Pressure) and consequently started his research journey.

 

The Why 

Blood flow restriction (BFR) has been proven to decrease the amount of muscle wasting or atrophy. It has been shown that when BFR is applied using the correct protocols, it can lead to muscle hypertrophy, increased strength, muscle cross-sectional area and endurance by only making use of loads that is as low as 20% 1RM (1 repetition maximum). Whereas traditional training guidelines suggest loads of 70% 1RM + to achieve similar results.

So, less mechanical stress on joints and muscles, with similar results!

BFR Therapy is one of the fastest growing fields of study. Its exponential growth is evident by the amount of research released. In the year 2010 there was only 16 published research articles which then skyrocketed to 154 published articles in 2019!

 

The How

The Forge Cuff is a pneumatic tourniquet device that, when inflated to a specific pressure, restricts venous blood flow while allowing for some arterial blood flow. This is because veins are more superficial than that of arteries as well as arteries require more external mechanical pressure than veins to collapse.

According to the current research there is no clear-cut singular cause, yet researchers can agree that the following plays a role:

 

  • Cell swelling
  • Mechanotransduction (Activation induced anabolic signaling)
  • Build-up of metabolites leading to the increased secretion of anabolic hormones such as Growth Hormone, Insulin-like Growth factor 1 (IGF-1). Some studies have shown an increase of up to 300% of IGF-1.
  • Gene expression; research has shown that 29 genes respond in the same way as high-load strength training.