Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) Therapy

Muscle weakness commonly occurs in a variety of conditions and pathologies. High load resistance training has been shown to be the most successful means in improving muscular strength and obtaining muscle hypertrophy. The problem that exists is that certain people who have undergone surgery, suffer from chronic pain, and have injuries may not be able to tolerate this. Conditions that result in loss of muscle and strength can benefit from BFR.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), optimizing muscular strength and hypertrophy can be achieved through moderate to high intensities of resistance exercise that utilizes 8-10 upper and lower body exercises. These exercises should target major muscle groups 2-3 days per week at a training intensity of more than 65% of the subject’s one-repetition maximum. (Donnely 2009) Unfortunately, people recovering from injury or the elderly may not be able to tolerate these loads, which can limit their ability to have adequate strength and hypertrophy response.

Personalized Blood Flow Restriction Rehabilitation (PBFR) is a paradigm shifting intervention used at The Hartman Center with hundreds of supporting publications in the scientific literature. By applying a tourniquet briefly and intermittently to an exercising limb you can induce significant and substantial strength, hypertrophy and endurance changes while using a very light load.

Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training is a technique that combines low intensity exercise with blood flow occlusion that produces similar results to high intensity training. It has been used primarily in the United Stated Military with a primary focus on rehabilitation and physical therapy for our servicemen and women injured in combat. Over the recent years it has not made is way into healthcare and is now adopted in nearly every professional sports team and almost all Div. 1 athletics programs in the country.[1][2]

Personalized Tourniquet System (PTS) for Personalized Blood Flow Restriction Rehabilitation (PBFR), is manufactured by Delfi Medical Innovations, Inc, a world leader in tourniquet technology and safety. The PTS for PBFR device is specifically designed to safely regulate and control tourniquet pressure for PBFR applications and includes advanced personalization and safety features.

1. VanWye WR, Weatherholt AM, Mikesky AE.Blood flow restriction training: Implementation into clinical practice. International journal of exercise science. 2017;10(5):649.
2. Loenneke JP, Fahs CA, Rossow LM, Sherk VD, Thiebaud RS, Abe T, Bemben DA, Bemben MG. Effects of cuff width on arterial occlusion: implications for blood flow restricted exercise.European journal of applied physiology. 2012 Aug 1;112(8):2903-12.