Abstract
Blood flow restriction (BFR) training is increasing in popularity in the fitness and rehabilitation settings due to its role in optimizing muscle mass and strength as well as cardiovascular capacity, function, and a host of other benefits. However, despite the interest in this area of research, there are likely some perceived barriers that practitioners must overcome to effectively implement this modality into practice. These barriers include determining BFR training pressures, access to appropriate BFR training technologies for relevant demographics based on the current evidence, a comprehensive and systematic approach to medical screening for safe practice and strategies to mitigate excessive perceptual demands of BFR training to foster long-term compliance. This manuscript attempts to discuss each of these barriers and provides evidence-based strategies and direction to guide clinical practice and future research.
Highlights
Low-load blood flow restriction (BFR) training is an expanding area of research focus in both clinical [1] and performance [2] settings due to its unique potential benefits in comparison to similar exercise performed without Blood flow restriction (BFR)
As performing BFR has some inherent risks [albeit low according to the epidemiological data [54,55,56]], use of BFR technology that can meet the bare minimum of what most research has deemed the standard of care (i.e., LOP) is important in ensuring the safest of BFR training practices
The available research coupled with the rapid expansion of BFR in clinical practice informs the overall safety of this intervention [3, 55, 57, 58], and developing a strategy for determining when to use or not use BFR is critical
Summary
Nicholas Rolnick 1*, Kyle Kimbrell 2, Mikhail Santos Cerqueira 3, Ben Weatherford 2 and Christopher Brandner 4. Despite the interest in this area of research, there are likely some perceived barriers that practitioners must overcome to effectively implement this modality into practice These barriers include determining BFR training pressures, access to appropriate BFR training technologies for relevant demographics based on the current evidence, a comprehensive and systematic approach to medical screening for safe practice and strategies to mitigate excessive perceptual demands of BFR training to foster long-term compliance. This manuscript attempts to discuss each of these barriers and provides evidence-based strategies and direction to guide clinical practice and future research
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