Anyone tried blood flow restriction training or KAATSU? Does it work?

Practiced it on the pecker quite a bit. Recovery times are about the same as with other methods.

Yes, I've had this done on my right calf and right glute. It's insane. Calf was for a weak post-tib as I would get chronic consistent strains. Basically you feel like your calf is going to rip off your body as I did calf raises. For the glute, this one was scary because the band goes around your upper thigh, cutting off almost 90% circulation to your leg and it's a big muscle group. I then had to do single-leg bridges. Intense is the word. I actually though my IT band was going to pop out. But super interesting, I have gotten stronger on that side and actually just mentioned to my PT that we should consider treatment for my left calf which keeps getting over-worked laterally.

Oh, and I don't see this becoming a trend. It's an expensive device according to my PT and you can't do it all the time like Normatec boots. Plus, I wouldn't want to do it again! One and done.

I have seen colleagues' patients use it (colleague in question was a big fan of BFR) but not for running - for hypertrophy-orientated strength programmes.

Seems to work, and useful in theory for example in individuals who are recovering from injury and so their training load is compromised, but they want/need to avoid atrophy and maintain strength. Upper limb or lower limb. So could be used for rehab for runners for sure.

Can see a niche future for it in that regard - but even then probably not included for much longer than 6-8 weeks in a rehab block

I don't think I would be confident using it for athletes in an impact sport - surely this is like running without a proper warm-up/blood supply and potentially an injury risk - tendinous in particular. For low-impact and/or closed-chain resistance work it seems proven.

There were concerns about the risk of clotting etc in lower-trained users due to the constriction but those actually seem to be a non-issue.

Interesting. Probably more beneficial for recovery and for athletes who don't have any known comorbidities.

It was used as part of my PT after a non-running injury. Whether it helped is hard to say, but I sure felt good when the band came off. Unless you see a licensed physical therapist who is trained in the technique, it’s not worth the risk. But if you enjoy pain and have money to burn, enjoy. Kidding. In reality if you are injured and offered the treatment, it’s worth a try.

Tried it ~twice a week for 2-3 months in PT trying to iron out a chronic achilles issue. It definitely got me into a fatigued state much quicker which I'm sure had its benefits. I didn't notice anything otherworldly after sessions other than being a little more tired than usual. I'm sure I got a little stronger a little faster in some of my weak areas.

Chicken Katsu is delicious. It's basically Japanese style fried chicken with panko bread crumbs. I highly recommend it.

I did BFR when building back up from a stress fracture in my foot. Started with calf raises and similar exercises at first to build up my atrophied muscles, then began running with the BFR bands as I built up my mileage. I rebuilt my lower leg muscle mass way quicker than I would have without BFR. Not sure if running with the BFR bands sped up my return to fitness or not, but I was certainly able to work a lot harder at a low mileage than I would have been able to otherwise. I can see it being a great tool for those who can't handle high mileage or are recovering from injuries.

FormerGator wrote:

I did BFR when building back up from a stress fracture in my foot. Started with calf raises and similar exercises at first to build up my atrophied muscles, then began running with the BFR bands as I built up my mileage. I rebuilt my lower leg muscle mass way quicker than I would have without BFR. Not sure if running with the BFR bands sped up my return to fitness or not, but I was certainly able to work a lot harder at a low mileage than I would have been able to otherwise. I can see it being a great tool for those who can't handle high mileage or are recovering from injuries.

How do you know?

I would really caution people against trying this on their own.

First, the studies often include untrained subjects so is it applicable to someone "trained"?

A guy I know was doing this at one point. Now he was silly because he was not doing it when lifting, he would just wear essentially a tourniquet on his upper arm until his fingers got tingly. Generally a bad idea to cut off oxygen supply to tissue.

Seems like a great idea for someone doing lifting or therapy following a joint injury as the muscle can get trained but the stress on the joint is greatly reduced.

Luv2Run wrote:

FormerGator wrote:

I did BFR when building back up from a stress fracture in my foot. Started with calf raises and similar exercises at first to build up my atrophied muscles, then began running with the BFR bands as I built up my mileage. I rebuilt my lower leg muscle mass way quicker than I would have without BFR. Not sure if running with the BFR bands sped up my return to fitness or not, but I was certainly able to work a lot harder at a low mileage than I would have been able to otherwise. I can see it being a great tool for those who can't handle high mileage or are recovering from injuries.

How do you know?

Obviously I can't know for certain because I didn't conduct a formal study, but my muscle mass came back a lot quicker than teammates and friends who had been in similar situations over the years.

Not sure about this.

in 2010 had college basketball players walk for three minutes and rest one minute for five total rounds with BFR. They did this twice daily for six days per week, for two weeks. After what totaled to be 12 sessions, the BFR trained group had an 11.6% enhancement in their VO2max levels.

- seems a bit ridiculous, a 11.6% increase in VO2Max from 12 sessions of a 15 minute walk?

Also not safe about safety aspect - people reducing blood flow when they don't know what they're doing. Not sure I'd want to mess with it.

This sounds like a rich person's fancy substitute for hill work.

*sure

I've watched swimmer Michael Andrew use it on YouTube. Don't know if he does it anymore, but he basically puts the blood restricting devices on his arms and legs and then swims some fast reps. His arms and legs turned pretty red, and he was eager to get the things off him afterwards. Seems like an interesting idea, haven't tried it myself.

BFR is amazing post surgery. I’ve had three different foot surgeries where I wasn’t weight-bearing for ~8 weeks. BFR helped me maintain at least some strength in my quad, hamstrings, and glutes. Without it, my leg would have completely atrophied. I don’t think there will be much application beyond rehab/therapy.

hamsters wrote:

Not sure about this.

in 2010 had college basketball players walk for three minutes and rest one minute for five total rounds with BFR. They did this twice daily for six days per week, for two weeks. After what totaled to be 12 sessions, the BFR trained group had an 11.6% enhancement in their VO2max levels.

- seems a bit ridiculous, a 11.6% increase in VO2Max from 12 sessions of a 15 minute walk?

Also not safe about safety aspect - people reducing blood flow when they don't know what they're doing. Not sure I'd want to mess with it.

If all the claims for V02max boosting were true, we could all run a marathon in under an hour.