Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) Training

DeWitt Physical Therapy been using BFR Training in our rehab paradigm since 2016

we are the ONLY clinic in Santa Cruz to have the Gold Standard Delphi Personal BFR Units

Blood Flow Restriction Training involves the application of a tourniquet cuff to the arm or leg for the purpose of decreasing (not eliminating) blood flow during exercise to build muscle size and strength and increase VO2 Max.

BFR allows us to create a hypoxic (low oxygen) environment in the limb and subsequent region, which emphasizes activation and utilization of our Type 2 muscle fibers - strength and power muscles - that are essential to train to return to function and high level sport activity.

Traditionally, rehab exercises focus more on our Type 1 muscle fibers - endurance - because we are not able to load body regions heavy enough to elicit a response that would train the Type 2 fibers. By restricting oxygen delivery and metabolic clearance, the Type 1 muscles fatigue and the Type 2 have to kick in to perform the movement.

Normally we would have to load a person heavy - 80-85% of their 1-Rep Max - in order to elicit such a response of the Type 2 muscles. But with BFR, we can perform lighter load isolated or compound movement exercises at only 20-40% of their 1-Rep Max and the body will respond as if it were loaded at a much higher intensity.

The ability to elicit such a response from the Type 2 muscle fibers is beneficial in the rehab setting since typically due to injury or surgery, the healing tissues are not appropriate to load at levels above 80%. With BFR, we can perform light exercises and receive the benefit of mimicking the conditions of heavy loading without the actual mechanical stress of heavy load on the tissues.

This allows us to program and progress our strength and muscle building exercises in a safe and gradual fashion, and make the most of our time in the clinic with our patients and athletes.