BFR Blood Flow Restriction
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What is the BFR Blood Flow Restriction?

Blood Flow Restriction, or BFR for short, is a method of exercise in which a tension band is worn above the muscle towards the heart (such as between the biceps and the shoulder to restrict blood to the biceps and triceps or upper thigh to restrict blood to the thigh) until the blood flow that returns to the heart from the veins is restricted or blocked ( veins), traps acids and metabolites in the muscle and increases muscle mass.
Also called Occlusion Training, Hypoxic training, or Kaatsu in Japanese. This method of exercise began in Japan in the sixties, where Dr. Yoshiaki Sato was in a Buddhist ceremony and was sitting in a way that confined blood to the calf muscle, so it felt a burning sensation, similar to the burning that it felt during resistance exercises, so it tried to tie his upper muscles to mimic the same effect Burning sensation and an increase in muscle mass. The restriction is done by attaching the ligament to a certain intensity so that it does not greatly reduce the arterial blood flow that enters the muscle, but reduces the venous blood flow that exits the muscle to the heart.
And this reduces the amount of oxygen in the muscle (that’s why it is called Hypoxic Training because it reduces oxygen), which focuses the work on the anaerobic muscle Fast Twitch Type II and reduces the work of the aerobic muscle Slow Twitch Type I, and it also increases the blocking of metabolic substances in the muscle such as Myokines and acid Lactic Acid, which gives a burning feeling in the last iterations of the round. And when the lactate acid increases in the muscle, the body increases the secretion of growth hormone and your central nervous system (CNS) starts to run as much fast-twitching type II muscle as possible. Also, lactate acid increases fluid in muscle cells, causing them to swell, so the cells sense the danger of bloating and begin to change their composition and increase muscle protein synthesis.And this reduces the amount of oxygen in the muscle (that’s why it is called Hypoxic Training because it reduces oxygen), which focuses the work on the anaerobic muscle Fast Twitch Type II and reduces the work of the aerobic muscle Slow Twitch Type I, and it also increases the blocking of metabolic substances in the muscle such as Myokines and acid Lactic Acid, which gives a burning feeling in the last iterations of the round. And when the lactate acid increases in the muscle, the body increases the secretion of growth hormone and your central nervous system (CNS) starts to run as much fast-twitching type II muscle as possible.
Also, lactate acid increases fluid in muscle cells, causing them to swell, so the cells sense the danger of bloating and begin to change their composition and increase muscle protein synthesis.

In other words, this method of exercise maximizes the metabolic stress in the muscle, which is one of the three mechanisms of muscle growth, the other two methods are the Mechanical Tension and the Muscle Damage (source). The Mechanical Tension is lifting heavy weights with a full range of motion to put the muscle under tension pressure. And the Muscle Damage is the events of lacerations in the muscle fibers, especially those that occur from concentric repetition.
What weights do you lift in the BFR exercise?
The exercise is done with very light weights, 40% of the 1RM, which means 40% of the maximum weight you can carry, one repetition, let’s say half of the weights you lift for ease of explanation. If you want to calculate the 1RM of each exercise, you can use the 1RM Calculator. I mean, if you lift 40 kg in a biceps workout with a barbell, you will lift 20 kg with the strapping (an empty Olympic bar weight). There is scientific research that compared the weights lifted in BFR exercises with blood restriction between 20%, 30% and 40% of the 1RM, and found that the maximum activation of the Fast Twitch muscles occurs when carrying 40% of the 1RM (source) and another research found that there is no difference in Muscle contraction is between 40% and 80% of the 1RM with BFR exercise (source), but raising 80% of the 1RM in exercise reduces the metabolic stress and for this reason, 40% of the 1RM is what is recommended, and that’s why the BFR exercise It is famous in the physiotherapy community for rehabilitating the injured, and it is also excellent for those who have a chronic injury to one of their joints and for the elderly.

How is the linking done?
You can buy a BFR strap on Amazon, or use a knee strap on top of the muscle towards the heart. Such as over the biceps, and over the calves and over the thigh. What is the BFR exercise? The Blood Flow Restriction, or BFR for short, or the “muscle blood restriction” exercise, as it is called in the Arab world, is a method of exercise in which a tension band is worn above the muscle towards the heart (such as between the biceps and the shoulder to restrict blood to the biceps and triceps or the upper thigh to restrict blood to the thigh) Until the blood flow that returns to the heart from the veins (veins) is restricted or blocked, acids and metabolites are trapped in the muscle and increase muscle mass. Also called Occlusion Training, Hypoxic training, or Kaatsu in Japanese. This method of exercise began in Japan in the sixties, where Dr. Yoshiaki Sato was in a Buddhist ceremony and was sitting in a way that confined blood to the calf muscle, so he felt a burning sensation, similar to the burning that he felt during resistance exercises, so he tried to tie his upper muscles to mimic the same effect Burning sensation and an increase in muscle mass. The restriction is done by attaching the ligament to a certain intensity so that it does not greatly reduce the arterial blood flow that enters the muscle, but reduces the venous blood flow that exits the muscle to the heart. And this reduces the amount of oxygen in the muscle (that’s why it is called Hypoxic Training because it reduces oxygen), which focuses the work on the anaerobic muscle Fast Twitch Type II and reduces the work of the aerobic muscle Slow Twitch Type I, and it also increases the blocking of metabolic substances in the muscle such as Myokines and acid Lactic Acid, which gives a burning feeling in the last iterations of the round. And when the lactate acid increases in the muscle, the body increases the secretion of growth hormone and your central nervous system (CNS) starts to run as much fast-twitching type II muscle as possible. Also, lactate acid increases fluid in muscle cells, causing them to swell, so the cells sense the danger of bloating and begin to change their composition and increase muscle protein synthesis. In other words, this method of exercise maximizes the metabolic stress in the muscle, which is one of the three mechanisms of muscle growth, the other two methods are the Mechanical Tension and the Muscle Damage. The Mechanical Tension is lifting heavy weights with a full range of motion to put the muscle under tension, and the Muscle damage is a muscle fissure, especially one that occurs from negative repetition. What weights do you lift in the BFR exercise?: The exercise is done with very light weights, 40% of the 1RM, meaning 40% of the maximum weight you can carry one repetition, let’s say half of the weights you lift for ease of explanation. If you want to calculate the 1RM of each exercise, you can use the 1RM Calculator. I mean, if you lift 40 kg in a biceps workout with a barbell, you will lift 20 kg with the strapping (an empty Olympic bar weight). There is scientific research that compared the weights lifted in BFR exercises with blood restriction between 20%, 30% and 40% of the 1RM, and found that the maximum activation of the Fast Twitch muscles occurs when carrying 40% of the 1RM, and another research found that there is no difference in muscle contraction. Between carrying 40% and 80% of the 1RM with the BFR exercise, and even raising 80% of the 1RM during the exercise reduces the metabolic stress and for this reason, 40% of the 1RM is what is recommended, and that is why the BFR exercise is most famous in the circles of physical therapy It is also excellent for those who have a chronic injury to one of their joints and for the elderly. How is linking done?: You can buy a BFR strap on Amazon, or use a knee strap on top of the muscle towards the heart. Such as over the biceps, and over the calves and over the thigh. The tension is done with a strength of 7 out of 10, as 1 is no pressure at all and 10 is the tightest binding that causes you to experience numbness and tingling in your limbs. Scientific research has found that stretching by more than 7 reduces the blood flow in the artery to the muscle, which reduces the effectiveness of exercise. What you need is to block the venous blood going from the muscle to the heart, not blocking the arterial blood flow entering from the heart to the muscle. If the binding intensity is less than 7, there is no problem, as there is scientific research that found that the binding intensity of 4 or 8 has the same effect on muscle growth and exercise effectiveness, and therefore if you are not confident in what is the intensity of 7, it is better that the binding be lighter than What is required is more severe than what is required. Better to be too loose than too tight The tie is done in an area of ​​5-9 cm. If you use the knee strap, do not tie it in a spiral form, but tie it in layers on top of each other so that it does not exceed an area of ​​​​9 cm. If the ligation is done in an area greater than 13 cm, arterial blood flow is blocked and the effectiveness of the exercise is reduced.
BFR strap on Amazon

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