Walk training with leg blood flow reduction improved thigh muscle cross-sectional area by 3% and knee joint strength by ~15%, while also improving carotid arterial compliance by 50% in elderly adults.
Does walk training with leg blood flow reduction improve carotid arterial compliance and muscle size in elderly adults?
Walk training with blood flow reduction in elderly adults improves thigh muscle size and strength while also improving carotid arterial compliance.
Absolute Event Rate: 50% vs 59%
High-intensity resistance training increases muscle size, but reduces arterial compliance. Muscular blood flow reduction (BFR) during low-intensity training has been shown to elicit muscle hypertrophy. However, the effect on arterial compliance is unknown. We examined the effects of walk training with BFR on carotid arterial compliance and muscle size in the elderly adults. Both BFR-walk training (BFR-W, n = 13, 66 ± 1 year) and control-walk training (CON-W, n = 10, 68 ± 1 year) groups performed 20 minutes treadmill walking at an exercise intensity of 45% of heart rate reserve, 4 days/week for 10 weeks. The BFR-W group wore pressure cuffs on both legs during training. Maximum knee joint strength (∼15%) and MRI-measured thigh muscle cross-sectional area (3%) increased in the BFR-W, but not in the CON-W. Carotid arterial compliance improved in both BFR-W (50%) and CON-W (59%) groups. Walk training with blood flow reduction can improve thigh muscle size/strength as well as carotid arterial compliance, unlike high-intensity training, in the elderly.
Ozaki et al. (Tue,) conducted a other in Elderly adults (n=23). Walk training with leg blood flow reduction vs. Control-walk training was evaluated on Improvement in carotid arterial compliance. Walk training with leg blood flow reduction improved thigh muscle cross-sectional area by 3% and knee joint strength by ~15%, while also improving carotid arterial compliance by 50% in elderly adults.