As a keen follower of the fitness trends, and especially the fads that come and go quicker than the seasons, I thought I would try my hand and research the latest facebook "suggested post" and trending word at the moment…Occlusion training.
Sometimes referred to as blood flow restriction training and some other names. Occlusion training seems specific to limb muscle training (i.e. biceps, quads, forearm etc.) and no other muscle groups like Chest or delts. The gist is this method, tie off the desired limb/s that you are training with a flexible tourniquet and use lighter weights to reach faster/bigger/harder muscle growing pumps.
Sounds dangerous right? Well certainly it can be. Too much tightness and there goes ALL of your blood supply and in severe cases (normally linked to hereditary predisposition to or poor health and hydration) Rhabdomyolysis can occur. However it seems that this BFR (Blood flow restriction) training has been around for a while, with wikipedia sighting a 1966 as its discovery year.
Ok.
So the negatives aside, yes I had heard of this some years ago, BUT for some reason it seems to be having a resurgence. If you want to read more about the technique and tips from “professionals” that have been using it for a while follow some of the google links in a search like www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ask-the-muscle-prof-occlusion-training.html .
Where I am heading with this post is to see if there is any truth to the hype and hypertrophy!
So here goes.
For some time now my arms days have become a standard fixture and for all the gains in strength and the vein busting pumps at each session, the best I could get measurement wise from a session was 41cm (with a resting size of 39-40cm ) and to top it off, no DOMs in the days after. As much as DOMs is not the key sign that muscle growth is occurring, it is a sign of muscle fatigue causing damage and hence requiring repair and thus growth.
So last night I changed up my usual plethora of workouts to choose from to include some lower weight, higher rep occlusion movements.
As far as my first attempt went, I wasn’t quite using the right gear (elastic pressure bands etc.) But the level of tightness and the ability to allow flexibility in the tourniquet was there (so my arms didn't drop off) and I proceeded to hit biceps and triceps with the lower weights and higher reps. Mixed in with some unbanded regular work also, I did notice some vein bulging beyond what I had seen before, but the real results came in the measure up after the session.
We had pushed the results to 43 cm! 2 cm of swell beyond my normal so 3 cm from a standard flex, visually I had never seen my arms so big post workout.
This was stage 1 in my process of tests.
As I research it a bit more and test its effects on legs I will update this post.
Stay tuned for more updates!
