Blood Flow restriction therapy

Not just tying a rope around your leg. A recent knee injury has me down and out for a while. But thanks to having a cutting edge therapist we've been playing around with BFR. Results so far have been amazing. I've been doing PT 3x a week for 3 weeks with BFR using only my own body weight consisting 30 leg lifts 30sec break, 15 with a 30 sec break, 15 more then loosen the cuff for 5 min. Then repeat with leg curls.

Results: a gain of 9 cm on my injured leg on the thigh 6 inches above the knee. Pretty amazing. This allows optimal hypertrophy for the muscle to be reduced to 35% instead of 85% of a persons ORM. Invented by the military, I would highly recommend this for anyone looking to recover from a injury that has resulted in significant muscle loss.

Cheers.

Neat. I rarely see here or in the gym this but would like to try, given all the success stories.

I don't think it fits into a gym setting if done right.

Might get some strange stares, but we're just talking about quick setup/release tourniquets no? Maybe I haven't seen the fancier methods you're dealing with.

chocolatemalt said:

Might get some strange stares, but we're just talking about quick setup/release tourniquets no? Maybe I haven't seen the fancier methods you're dealing with.

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no... that's actually the same way I've seen it done in some articles. But, one you have no way to tell if it's too tight and cutting off the supply and return flow of blood and second, if its too loose it won't do anything.
The right way is a oversized blood pressure cuff. Actually a kit they sell
So like for me I'm working my leg, the cuff sits hi up on my thigh, by my balls. As the PT is inflating the cuff he's feeling my pulse down by my ankle. Once the pulse is gone he deflates it just to the point at which it returns. That number is noted, for me today 150.
This allows blood into the leg muscles but really restricts the return. The pump is crazy.
I guess you can do the same with a tunicate but I don't really think the risk to reward factor is there without the proper level of restriction.

I do this occasionally due to John meadows. Hell of a pump. Hurts like nothing else though....especially on calves and biceps!!!!