Tourniquet Training?!?!

[Hacksquater]

Has anyone run across this weird new research on low intensity TOURNIQUET TRAINING? I saw a small thing on it in one of the muscle mags, and it caught my interest, and I am now furthering research.

Here is a snippet of a study summary:

To investigate the efficacy of tourniquet ischemia (in medicine, ischemia is a reference to restriction of blood/blood supply to tissues, generally due to factors in the blood vessels, with resultant damage or dysfunction of tissue) in strength training with low mechanical stress (very low intensity higher reps) tourniquet ischemia was utilized in low-resistance training. Five untrained subjects conducted one-legged isometric knee extension (leg extensions) training with one leg ischemic (I-leg) and the other non-ischemic (NI-leg). Repeated isometric contractions for 2 seconds with 3 seconds relaxation in between were continued for 3 min and conducted 3 days/week for 4 weeks as training. Training resistance was 40% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of respective leg and tourniquet ischemia was applied during I-leg training. MVC in I-leg after 2 weeks (9% gain) and 4 weeks (26% gain) were significantly higher than pre-training value (p < 0.05). A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE in maximal rate of torque development in I-leg was observed after 4 weeks (p < 0.05). On the contrary, there was no significant changes in either of the parameters in NI-leg (obviously not enough weight or intensity). As a consequence, the DIFFERENCES between legs for both parameters were SIGNIFICANT after 2 and 4 weeks (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). Not a long time. The substantial gain in strength and maximal rate of torque development in I-leg demonstrated the EFFICACY (results - ability to produce a desired amount of a desired effect) of tourniquet ischemia during low-resistance training of short duration, and suggested the importance of neuromuscular and/or metabolic activity, other than high mechanical stress, to the adapting responses to strength training.

So to summarize, cutting off blood blow to a body part, then doing low intensity low volume resistance exercise produced significant muscle gains! Of course the safety of the technique has yet to be determined and further studies will be done over the next years.

It will be interesting to watch this issue as more studies are done!

Makes me almost want to try it. But I'm sure the dangers are very real as well.

 

[fullypaully]

l dont see the point in making training complicated

 

[adidamps2]

VIP member Enews letter?

 

[Mudge]

l dont see the point in making training complicated

Trial, error and science are why we don't still look like guys from the 1920s.

 

[Hacksquater]

Trial, error and science are why we don't still look like guys from the 1920s.

Exactly.

This is not complicated. It basically says that they are finding that excellent growth in muscle size MIGHT be possible by using very low intensity low resistance, low duration training of a muscle group with the blood supply temporarily cut off. Apparently this does the same or similar thing to a muscle in terms of breaking down the proteins in the cell, as does high intensity hard core heavy training. It might be dangerous, but they just don't know YET.

In the practical world, as an example, I have extremely, extremely stubborn calves. So if I was to try to see if this worked, I might put knee wraps around my knees just above the calves to act as a temporary tourniquet, then do some slow, careful, calve raises with no weight, very low intensity, and with no blood supply going to the calve, then take off the knee wraps and let the blood flow back in.

According to this study, something like this MIGHT, and I stress MIGHT give great results to a muscle group! It is crazy, but physiologically understandable, because this would result in controlled damage to the Actin and Myosin Protein filaments, much like high intensity resistance training damage. That should get all of our attention, I think! Yet, the procedure, and the safety and the EXACT results are still VERY VERY much premature to go barreling into trying it on ourselves! Many more studies are needed to be done, and I guarantee will be.

But I might be willing to try it very very carefully, but just not on my neck muscles!

 

[inked1]

why would this cause damage to the actin and myosin? is it due to decrease O2 supply from ischaemia

 

[TxLonghorn]

I've been looking into this and it looks promising, who knows what the future will bring.

Also, since putting on a pressure cuff is fairly limiting on where you can train, as well as the fact that it is monitored by others, and it can only be put on extremities like arms there have been attempts to mimic this type of environment without all the equipment.

It basically requires limited movement (partials), as well as flexing the muscle on the negative portion of the rep. I've seen it referred by a few different names, but the generic one seems to be 'occlusion training'.

At this point there only seems to be theories on why this works, some postulate that what happens is it floods the muscle area that has been shut off with nutrients. Others theorize that what it does is build up lactic acid in the muscle more rapidly which in turns shuts down the slow twitch fibers faster, forcing your fast twitch fibers to carry the load much quicker and for a longer period of time than a normal workout with normal blood flow would.

It seems it's been called 'x sets', as well as some japanese name that escapes me at the moment. Bottom line, one research paper I read had something like a greater increase in muscle mass for the quads in 2 weeks with occlusion training than in 2 months with 'normal' training (I forget the specifics at the moment, it could be more like 4 months or something equally ridiculous).

I'm certainly interested, that's for sure.

 

[adidamps2]

besides the limbs of the human body how would one use this for the chest/back/shoulders. thats the only down i would see to this. its hard to restrict the blood flow to those areas of the body. (how restrictive, blood flow wise, is a PL bench shirt? btw)

 

[Hacksquater]

I've been looking into this and it looks promising, who knows what the future will bring.

Also, since putting on a pressure cuff is fairly limiting on where you can train, as well as the fact that it is monitored by others, and it can only be put on extremities like arms there have been attempts to mimic this type of environment without all the equipment.

It basically requires limited movement (partials), as well as flexing the muscle on the negative portion of the rep. I've seen it referred by a few different names, but the generic one seems to be 'occlusion training'.

At this point there only seems to be theories on why this works, some postulate that what happens is it floods the muscle area that has been shut off with nutrients. Others theorize that what it does is build up lactic acid in the muscle more rapidly which in turns shuts down the slow twitch fibers faster, forcing your fast twitch fibers to carry the load much quicker and for a longer period of time than a normal workout with normal blood flow would.

It seems it's been called 'x sets', as well as some japanese name that escapes me at the moment. Bottom line, one research paper I read had something like a greater increase in muscle mass for the quads in 2 weeks with occlusion training than in 2 months with 'normal' training (I forget the specifics at the moment, it could be more like 4 months or something equally ridiculous).

I'm certainly interested, that's for sure.

Seriously thanks! I am going to experiment with it this summer. Might be good to try to implement carefully.

 

[Hacksquater]

besides the limbs of the human body how would one use this for the chest/back/shoulders. thats the only down i would see to this. its hard to restrict the blood flow to those areas of the body. (how restrictive, blood flow wise, is a PL bench shirt? btw)

Yes, it seems limited. But since my legs are damn stubborn, that is what I am thinking for!

As far as blood flow, I think it has to be cut completely off temporarily! Gotta be very careful! Don't want to kill the tissue!

 

[jrock817]

if i can maybe add some science behind it... When we place a tourniquet (light) on a limb we dont restrict blood getting to the limb necessarily. it takes a much greater pressure to occlude an artery than it does to occlude a vein. since the artery is bringing oxygen righ blood to the limb, and we are essentially occluding to a point the venous return of the limb, you would have a greater blood supply to a target muscle. Venous blood still has abou 40% oxygen saturation, as opposed to abot 95% in arterial blood. also important could be the extra carrying capacity of carbon dioxide, the waste product of oxygen consumption. to specculate even further an icreased blood volume in your target muscle area may lead to recruitment of otherwise closed capillaries providing extra oxygen rich supply to them, due to the increased volume and resisitance of venous outflow. i dont have any studies proving this, but the light touniquet method from my studies would "pool" the blood, so the above would be simply my assumption to possible benefits. Really, really interesting theory though. Ill go look up some of my tesxt books later today and try to offer some more concrete data on this.

 

[jrock817]

besides the limbs of the human body how would one use this for the chest/back/shoulders. thats the only down i would see to this. its hard to restrict the blood flow to those areas of the body. (how restrictive, blood flow wise, is a PL bench shirt? btw)

Unfortunately, I have never seen any true tourniquetes for the core of your body. the essence of a tourniquet whether light or heavy is to block blood supply to a limb. the supply arteries to your limbs, such as the femoral artery or brachials are easy to block. the trunk however is supplied off branches of the aorta, which even if you could, you would not want to occlude in any way shape or form.

 

[DocJ]

Ironman has had a bunch of articles on 'occlusion' training the past year or so. The Japanese are obsessed with this type of resistance training research for some reason. The way to achieve this type of phenomenon without actually using tourniquets is by doing non-lockout drop sets, moving the weight continuously with no rest during the set.