Blood Flow Restriction Training (BFRT) is a training modality where hemodynamic (blood flow) patterns are altered while exercising at very low loads/intensities. By doing so, very similar musculoskeletal and cardiovascular adaptations occur just as with high intensity strength and cardiovascular training.

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By altering and restricting blood flow patterns, there is less oxygen and nutrients available to bring to the muscle as well as remove waste products.  This creates an imbalance in homeostasis within the body where the muscle fibers fatigue and the body recruits additional muscle fibers to continue to exercise.

The brain senses this distress and initiates autonomic and hormonal responses in an attempt to reestablish homeostasis and adapt to the exercise.  Growth hormone and other anabolic hormones (IGF-I) are released into the blood stream in an effort to build tissue that have been working hard or under a great deal of metabolic stress.

This type of training is advantageous to a wide spectrum of individuals from adolescents to the elderly as well as from the healthy to the injured.  The hormonal response that BFR creates can be helpful in building muscle strength, size, endurance, as well as tissue healing capabilities.  It has also shown to be beneficial in improving neurological, vascular, and bone health without exposing the body to excessively heavy loads.