Effectiveness of Blood Flow Restriction During Aerobic Cycling

Plain-language summary

Blood flow restriction (BFR) training has become a popular alternate rehabilitation modality, intending to improve muscle strength, hypertrophy, metabolic response, and functional outcomes in diverse populations. However, there is a paucity of research evidence on the effectiveness of using BFR during aerobic exercise. Most BFR interventions have used BFR cuffs in two to four limbs, however, it is unknown if using BFR cuffs in a single limb instead of multiple limbs can produce the desired outcomes in muscle physiology and muscular adaptations. Therefore, we have divided the purpose of this study into the following three aims: Compare physical performance measures of balance, isokinetic muscle strength, knee stability, and aerobic capacity between cycling exercise with and without BFR. Compare physical performance measures between performing cycling exercise at 60% versus 80% blood flow occlusion. Compare physical performance measures between bilateral BFR versus single-leg BFR during a cycling protocol. These aims will be accomplished by randomizing 55 participants into five groups of eleven participants each: 1) control; 2) bilateral BFR cuffs with 60% occlusion; 3) bilateral BFR cuffs with 80% occlusion; 4) single-limb BFR with 60% occlusion; and 5) single-limb BFR with 80% occlusion. All participants will undergo balance, isokinetic knee strength, knee stability, and aerobic testing at baseline, 3-week, and 6-week follow-ups. The intervention for all groups will consist of 15 minutes cycling on a stationary ergometer at 70 revolutions/minute. A within- and between-group (5) by time (3) repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be used to explore differences between group and time in addition to the interaction between these two.

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