Key result
The combination of blood flow restriction and neuromuscular electrical stimulation significantly increased isometric leg strength compared to control (32 kg vs 3 kg, P = .03), but did not significantly increase muscle mass.
Why the study?
Does combined blood flow restriction and neuromuscular electrical stimulation improve muscle strength and mass in healthy young adults?
RCT (n=20)
Within-subject random allocation of legs
No
Does combined blood flow restriction and neuromuscular electrical stimulation improve muscle strength and mass in healthy young adults?
Absolute Event Rate: 32% vs 3%
p-value: p=.03
The combination of blood flow restriction and low-intensity neuromuscular electrical stimulation significantly increases muscular strength, but not muscle mass, compared to no treatment.
Should not yet change rehab practice; hypothesis-generating for combined BFR-NMES on leg strength pending larger trials.
CONTEXT: The combined effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) and blood flow restriction (BFR) on muscle mass and strength has not been thoroughly investigated. OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of combined and independent BFR and a low-intensity NMES on skeletal muscle adaptation. DESIGN: Exploratory study. SETTING: Laboratory. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty recreationally active subjects. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Subjects had each leg randomly allocated to 1 of 4 possible intervention groups: (1) cyclic BFR alone, (2) NMES alone, (3) BFR + NMES, or (4) control. Each leg was stimulated in its respective intervention group for 32 minutes, 4 days per week for 6 weeks. Mean differences in size (in grams) and isometric strength (in kilograms), between week 0 and week 6, were calculated for each group. RESULTS: Leg strength increased 32 (19) kg in the BFR + NMES group, which differed from the 3 (11) kg change in the control group (P = .03). The isolated NMES and BFR groups revealed increases of 16 (28) kg and 18 (17) kg, respectively, but these did not statistically differ from the control, or one another. No alterations were statistically significant for leg size. CONCLUSION: Compared with a control that received no treatment, the novel combination of BFR and NMES led to increasing muscular strength of the knee extensors, but not muscle mass which had a large interindividual variability in response.
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Slysz et al. (2017) conducted an RCT in Healthy (n=20). Blood flow restriction (BFR) + Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) vs. Control (no treatment) was evaluated on Mean difference in isometric leg strength (kg) between week 0 and week 6 (p=.03). The combination of blood flow restriction and neuromuscular electrical stimulation significantly increased isometric leg strength compared to control (32 kg vs 3 kg, P = .03), but did not significantly increase muscle mass.
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