Acute responses to aerobic and bodyweight exercises with and without blood flow restriction in sedentary individuals – A randomized crossover study

This study aimed to compare the acute cardiovascular and metabolic responses to aerobic and bodyweight resistance exercises, both with and without blood flow restriction (BFR). Sedentary individuals (8 males, 6 females) participated in four randomized exercise sessions: walking with BFR, walking without BFR, walking lunges with BFR, and walking lunges without BFR. Walking trials involved 15 minutes at 5 km.h−1, while walking lunges comprised four repetition sets (30, 16, 16, 16). BFR was applied at 60% of limb occlusion pressure. Metabolic and cardiac responses were higher for walking lunges (57% V˙O2 max, 66% HRmax) compared with walking (47% V˙O2 max, 61% HRmax). BFR application increased these responses similarly for walking lunges (with BFR: 60% V˙O2 max, 70% HRmax) and walking (with BFR: 53% V˙O2 max, 63% HRmax). These similar responses suggest that bodyweight walking lunges may also be considered aerobic, like walking. Given the similarity of responses between aerobic walking and bodyweight walking lunges, and with BFR significantly enhancing the responses of both modes of exercise compared to their non-BFR equivalents, these findings suggest that practitioners have some flexibility in choice of aerobic BFR exercise modes to implement with individuals where these modes may be more suitable.