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The Obscure Exercise Technique Changing Injury Rehab
How blood flow restriction became the hottest method in physical therapy
For more than a century, the prevailing medical advice on the best way to heal after injury or surgery was to rest. But over the past few decades, research has made it clear that movement speeds recovery, and now experts recommend incorporating appropriate exercise into a rehabilitation program as soon as possible.
That doesn’t mean people should start squatting the day after knee surgery. Injured or repaired tissues still need time to heal before they can handle normal loads. But physical therapists are now embracing a technique they claim allows people to give their muscles the kind of workout they would normally only get from strenuous activity but using just a fraction of the load. It’s called blood flow restriction (BFR) training, and it’s one of the hottest methods in rehabilitation.
If you’re a sports fan, you may have heard of BFR. Professional sports teams were among the first organizations in the United States to adopt the method as a way to get athletes like Dwight Howard back in shape after injury. But BFR is now being touted by physical therapists as a game-changing recovery tool for anyone. “BFR is one of the most exciting research fields in the world,” says Luke Hughes, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in applied exercise physiology at St. Mary’s University in the U.K.
BFR involves placing a tourniquet (a device or band that’s tightened to limit blood flow) on the upper arm or upper thigh. The tourniquet partially occludes blood flow while a person performs exercises with very light loads. Most BFR practitioners — usually physical therapists, athletic trainers, or other licensed professionals — use pneumatic cuffs that allow them to easily and precisely adjust pressure, but it’s also possible to use a low-tech elastic tourniquet.
To increase strength and muscle size, a person generally needs to lift weights equal to 60% to 70% of their one-repetition maximum (1RM), which is the greatest amount of weight a person can lift for just one repetition of a particular exercise — for example, the heaviest weight someone could squat or bench press if they had to do it only once. This is a widely used…
