Key result
Exercising with narrow elastic and nylon cuffs resulted in the same acute muscular responses when inflated to a relative pressure, despite the elastic cuff requiring a significantly higher resting arterial occlusion pressure (246 vs 139 mmHg).
Why the study?
Does narrow nylon cuff material compared to elastic cuff material alter acute skeletal muscle and perceptual responses during upper body blood flow restriction exercise?
RCT (n=15)
Open-label
Randomized crossover
No
Does narrow nylon cuff material compared to elastic cuff material alter acute skeletal muscle and perceptual responses during upper body blood flow restriction exercise?
Absolute Event Rate: 246% vs 139%
p-value: p=<0.001
Cuff material (nylon vs. elastic) does not affect acute muscular responses during blood flow restriction exercise when pressure is individualized to the specific cuff's arterial occlusion pressure.
Cuff material yields similar BFR responses at matched pressure; leaves open optimal cuff selection and AOP standardization for practice and trials.
The purpose of this study was to examine the acute skeletal muscle and perceptual responses to blood flow restriction (BFR) exercise to failure between narrow nylon and elastic inflatable cuffs at rest and during exercise. Torque and muscle thickness was measured pre, post, and 5, 20, 40, and 60 min post-exercise with muscle activation being measured throughout exercise. Resting arterial occlusion pressure was different between the nylon [139 (14) mmHg] and elastic [246 (71) mmHg, p < 0.001] cuffs. However, when exercising at 40 % of each cuff's respective arterial occlusion pressure [nylon: 57 (7) vs. elastic: 106 (38) mmHg, p < 0.001], there were no differences in repetitions to failure, torque, muscle thickness, or muscle activation between the cuffs. Exercising with cuffs of different material but similar width resulted in the same acute muscular response when the cuffs were inflated to a pressure relative to each individual cuff.
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Buckner et al. (2016) conducted an RCT in Healthy resistance-trained individuals (n=15). Blood flow restriction with elastic cuff (3 cm) vs. Blood flow restriction with nylon cuff (5 cm) was evaluated on Resting arterial occlusion pressure (p=<0.001). Exercising with narrow elastic and nylon cuffs resulted in the same acute muscular responses when inflated to a relative pressure, despite the elastic cuff requiring a significantly higher resting arterial occlusion pressure (246 vs 139 mmHg).
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