Tourniquet Training?!?!

[DrHacksq]

Has anyone run across this weird new research on low intensity TOURNIQUET TRAINING? I saw a small thing on it in one of the muscle mags, and it caught my interest, and I am now furthering research.

Here is a snippet of a study summary:

To investigate the efficacy of tourniquet ischemia (in medicine, ischemia is a reference to restriction of blood/blood supply to tissues, generally due to factors in the blood vessels, with resultant damage or dysfunction of tissue) in strength training with low mechanical stress (very low intensity higher reps) tourniquet ischemia was utilized in low-resistance training. Five untrained subjects conducted one-legged isometric knee extension (leg extensions) training with one leg ischemic (I-leg) and the other non-ischemic (NI-leg). Repeated isometric contractions for 2 seconds with 3 seconds relaxation in between were continued for 3 min and conducted 3 days/week for 4 weeks as training. Training resistance was 40% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) of respective leg and tourniquet ischemia was applied during I-leg training. MVC in I-leg after 2 weeks (9% gain) and 4 weeks (26% gain) were significantly higher than pre-training value (p < 0.05). A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE in maximal rate of torque development in I-leg was observed after 4 weeks (p < 0.05). On the contrary, there was no significant changes in either of the parameters in NI-leg (obviously not enough weight or intensity). As a consequence, the DIFFERENCES between legs for both parameters were SIGNIFICANT after 2 and 4 weeks (p < 0.05 or p < 0.01). Not a long time. The substantial gain in strength and maximal rate of torque development in I-leg demonstrated the EFFICACY (results - ability to produce a desired amount of a desired effect) of tourniquet ischemia during low-resistance training of short duration, and suggested the importance of neuromuscular and/or metabolic activity, other than high mechanical stress, to the adapting responses to strength training.

So to summarize, cutting off blood blow to a body part, then doing low resistance exercise produced significant muscle gains! Of course the safety of the technique has yet to be determined and further studies will be done over the next years.

It will be interesting to watch this issue as more studies are done!

Makes me almost want to try it. But I'm sure the dangers are very real as well.

[MFT81]

yeah I read about it in MD......

Seems that lifters in I think japan are already doing this. The results are pretty impressive.........

I think you should start doing it and see what kinda results you get.....

[DrHacksq]

yeah I read about it in MD......

Seems that lifters in I think japan are already doing this. The results are pretty impressive.........

I think you should start doing it and see what kinda results you get.....

I might do some very careful experimentation on the calves...

[Dude-Man]

pretty cool.

[Ajc330]

yepp i read about this i do this for my biceps meno-rest pause...you do about 75% of your max for barbell curls (ex if you do a full set on 100 switch to 75) then do one rep, then rest a second, do two reps, rest two seconds, do three more reps, rest three more seconds, go all the way up to 10, i got up to eight and my arms were burning and you can really feel the contraction if you have good form and go nice and slow, the pain feels so good afterwards and you know that you can stop working on your biceps for the rest of the day and know it got a great workout.

[boostedevo8]

sounds tempting.....I'm going to have to read up on this a bit more and try it out