Application of blood flow restriction in hypoxic environment augments muscle deoxygenation without compromising repeated sprint exercise performance

Repeated sprint exercise (RSE) is a popular training modality for a wide variety of athletic activities. The purpose of this study was to assess the combined effects of systemic hypoxia and blood flow restriction (BFR) on muscle deoxygenation and RSE performance. Twelve healthy young men performed a standard RSE training modality (five sets of 10 s maximal sprint with a 60 s rest) under four different conditions: (1) normoxic control (NC), normoxia (N, 20.9%) + control BFR (C, 0 mmHg); (2) normoxic BFR (NB), normoxia (N, 20.9%) + BFR (B, 140 mmHg); (3) hypoxic control (HC), hypoxia (H, 13.7%) + control BFR (C, 0 mmHg); and (4) hypoxic BFR (HB): hypoxia (H, 13.7%) + BFR (B, 140 mmHg). BFR was only administered during the rest period of the respective RSE trials. In the local exercising muscles, muscle oxygen saturation () and neuromuscular activity were measured using near‐infrared spectroscopy and surface electromyography, respectively. SmO 2 was lower in systemic hypoxia conditions relative to normoxia conditions ( P < 0.05). A rther decrease in SmO 2 was observed in HB relative to HC (Set 1: HC 70.0 ± 17.5 vs. HB 57.4 ± 11.3%, P = 0.001; Set 4: HC 67.5 ± 14.6 vs. HB 57.0 ± 12.0%, P = 0.013; Set 5: HC 61.0 ± 15.3 vs. HB 47.7 ± 11.9%, P < 0.001). No differences in RSE performance were observed between any of the conditions ( P > 0.05). Interestingly, an elevated neuromuscular activity was seen in response to the BFR, particularly during conditions of systemic hypoxia ( P < 0.05). Thus, RSE with BFR administered during rest periods under systemic hypoxia led to severe local hypoxia without compromising training workload.