Acute Vascular and Cardiovascular Responses to Blood Flow–Restricted Exercise

Abstract

Our results demonstrate that cuff pressure alters the hemodynamic responses to resistance exercise. These findings warrant further evaluations in individuals presenting cardiovascular risk factors.

Impact of blood flow‐restricted bodyweight exercise on skeletal muscle adaptations

“…Yet, recent studies suggest that HRE can stimulate mitochondrial protein synthesis (Wilkinson et al, 2008) and mitochondrial respiration (Pesta et al, 2011;Porter et al, 2015). In accordance, as BFRE entail both low intensity and more pronounced ischaemia (Downs et al, 2014), it can be speculated that BFRE conducted to a state of fatique possess substantial ability to stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis. In this regard, Burd et al (2012) observed increased mitochondrial protein synthesis after single-bout LRE performed to volitional fatigue, which can be presumed to accentuate the magnitude of metabolic stress compared to HRE.…”

“…All blots for one target was performed on the same gel. Contraction-induced ischaemia inherent of resistance training may adhere to reduced tissue oxygenation (Downs et al, 2014), thus potentially imposing stimulation of angiogenesis through hypoxia-induced signalling pathways (Hoier & Hellsten, 2014). CS, citrate synthase; b-HAD, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase; COXIV, cytochrome C oxidase subunit IV; CPT1B, carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1B; VEGF-A, vascular endothelial growth factor A. muscle fibre, is important to facilitate muscle oxygen and substrate availability and muscle metabolism inherent of aerobe endurance-type exercise (Hoier & Hellsten, 2014).…”

“…Changes in protein expression of muscle metabolic proteins and VEGF-A are presented as individual and mean fold changes AE SEM from pre-to post-training (b). As ischaemia and reduced tissue oxygenation can be assumed to be enhanced with BFRE compared to traditional resistance exercise (Downs et al, 2014), BFRE can be assumed to promote angiogenesis. Interestingly, resistance exercise has also been observed to stimulate angiogenesis, with the number of capillaries increasing in proportion to the hypertrophic response, while the capillary density is unaltered, thus maintaining diffusion capacity (McCall et al, 1996;Hoier & Hellsten, 2014;Holloway et al, 2017).…”

Unilateral bicep curl hemodynamics: Low‐pressure continuous vs high‐pressure intermittent blood flow restriction

“…In contrast, all participants were able to complete the exercise during intermittent application of the restriction, and this was despite the use of higher pressures up to the maximum pressure tested (130% of SBP; ∼155 mmHg). Although individualized selection of restriction pressures may be preferential (Loenneke et al., 2012a, 2013a; Downs et al., ), and albeit also dependent on cuff width (Rossow et al., ), it appears that when using relatively wide cuffs for continuous BFR exercise that low pressures should be used (< SBP; i.e., 90–100 mmHg), whereas higher pressures (≥ SBP; i.e., 150–160 mmHg) could be used during intermittent application.…”

“…This is despite recent reports where measures were taken pre‐exercise but only as early as 15‐min (Fahs et al., ) and 30‐min post‐exercise (Rossow et al., ). Recently, Downs et al () showed that for fatiguing exercise the immediate post‐exercise (within 90 s) HR, , and SV were greater during HLRE and LLRE (leg press and plantar flexion) when compared with both high‐ and low‐pressure BFR exercise. Conversely, and of some concern, both SBP and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were higher during BFR exercise (range: 140–156 and 67–80 mmHg for SBP and DBP, respectively) compared with HLRE (134 ± 4 and 58 ± 3 mmHg for SBP and DBP, respectively) and LLRE (127 ± 4 and 57 ± 3 mmHg for SBP and DBP, respectively).…”