Blood flow restriction is also commonly known as BFR training or even occlusion training (although that’s not quite accurate as you will read in the article below.) 🙂
I added this to my training regimen about 8 months ago out of pure curiosity. For many years I never took the time to fit in my arm training. It has just always been one of those things that I would do “if I had the time” and often, I didn’t. Going into prep earlier this year, though, I knew I wanted to make every part of my body a priority in an effort to maintain as much mass as possible through my cut. So, I added BFR 3 days a week: 1 day at the end of my full leg day, 1 day after biceps and 1 day after triceps.
My split has had this set up for several months–
Sunday: Off
Monday: Back/Glutes (posterior chain)
Tuesday: Shoulders/some upper chest
Wednesday: Legs (BFR)
Thursday: off
Friday: Back/Biceps (BFR)
Saturday: Shoulders/Triceps (BFR)
I modify it as needed to travel or whatever, but that’s the basic setup I’ve stuck to and I really like it. I also use it for quite a few athletes that have similar physique focused goals bc it allows for pretty high volume and frequency, but also time to recover. I can go into my thoughts/reasons behind programming in another post, let’s not get sidetracked, lol. 🙂
I don’t want to repeat a bunch of stuff that others have already written about so I’m going to post some links for additional info below. I mainly just want to share my experience with BFR and show you how I wrap and fit it into my training.
Here is a video of me wrapping and training legs:
I got these cheap knee wraps from walmart for $10. Here’s the link. They’re perfect and not as large as some higher quality knees wraps that I felt were too big.
Depending on time I either do 2 separate exercises (curl variation and extension variation). This day I was in a hurry so I just superset both exercises and my “rest” was the transition between the two. This was TOUGH, but it get’s the job done quick and that’s the goal.
Here is a video of me wrapping and training biceps:
As I mention in the video, this is my favorite exercise to do BFR, but you can really do whatever you’d like. Get creative and see what feels good to you! I like to use the tourniquets bc they cover less surface area and they’re so quick and easy, but Mitchell says they don’t provide enough restriction so he uses the wraps I posted above on his arms. I’ll have to make another video wrapping your own arms with those…..it’s comical, LOL.
These are the tourniquets I use for my arm BFR.(they were $2.99 when I got them, lol).
Here’s a video of me wrapping and training triceps:
Push downs are my favorite way to do them when training triceps rather than any above head exercise. A friend and I were talking and he pointed out that it’s probably a bit better for the point of BFR as well since the return of blood to your heart doesn’t have to fight against gravity. Eh, either way, I like push downs, lol. I’m not a huge fan of many tricep exercises with my arms above my head bc I often have some kind of shoulder impingement and it’s annoying. (again, a post for another day, haha).
If you have any questions please comment below!!
Enjoy and let me know how you like it!!
Further Reading:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jake-wilsons-project-mass-blood-flow-restriction-training.html
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ask-the-muscle-prof-what-technique-produces-craziest-growth.html
http://www.biolayne.com/training/blood-flow-restriction-training-the-next-generation-of-anabolic-exercise/
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/ask-the-muscle-prof-occlusion-training.html
https://www.t-nation.com/training/blood-flow-restriction-training
*Warning: All information shared on this blog is intended for educational purposes only. Exercise at your own risk.
