How to Incorporate Blood Flow Restriction into Your Exercise Routine

Blood flow restriction training is all about restricting the circulation of blood in the working muscle. Occlusion training bodybuilding is achieved by wrapping a restriction band or even an ordinary blood pressure cuff around the limbs during a workout. The objective of blood restriction is to control the flow of blood without totally preventing arterial circulation.

Several research studies have been done to assess the effects of occlusion on the growth of muscles. The results of such studies have been nothing but amazing and compelling. According to research, applying occlusion on bedridden patients can help in preventing muscle weakness and atrophy. This can happen even without doing any form of training or exercise.

Interestingly, another study showed that even walking under occlusion can significantly improve muscle size and strength. But if you want to experience the real and maximum hypertrophic benefits of blood flow restriction training, it has to be applied in conjunction with low resistance exercise.

Incorporating BFR into Your Workout Routine

There are many ways you may incorporate blood flow restriction into your own training. For instance, you may do occlusion training legs and arms by doing the regular exercise routines you have for your limbs.

After several studies, blood flow restriction experts seem to have agreed that the best approach to get the best results is to use occlusion as a ‘finishing’ technique. This means that you will follow the usual workout routine in your first session, and then perform a couple of sets of blood flow restriction training as you end your routine.

Weight Training Tips to Build Muscle Using Occlusion

It is true that blood flow restriction training can be used with almost any form of exercise, it is said to work best with those exercises that require single-joint movements. Among these exercises are leg extensions, triceps press-downs, and bicep curls among others. There are multi-joint exercises also that you may perform, such as rows, squats, and other pressing movements.

When doing occlusion training bodybuilding, be sure also to use light weights only. As a general rule, the ideal loads are at 30% of 1Rm for a particular exercise. In addition, it is ideal that you keep your rest periods at around 30 seconds only. These short rests will help increase metabolic stress as well as the pooling of blood in the muscle being trained. 

Final Thoughts

Keep in mind that the purpose of occlusion training bodybuilding is to limit the flow of blood through the veins, and not through the arteries. Thus, you have to make sure you wrap your BFR Restriction Band just tight enough to restrict venous blood flow. The good thing about using BRF restriction bands is that they are designed to be easily adjusted for proper wrapping of the limbs.