Occlusion Training with Dr. Layne Norton

[Turkish Juicer]

This workout video is interesting as hell... I thought it would be unfair not to share it with the rest of you guys, so here you are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpKn8...eature=related

[M302_Imola]

Interesting...thanks for sharing!

[scorpion62]

I give that a try and see will let you know

[Turkish Juicer]

Below is a very interesting supporting study for the ''restricting blood'' training system.

Restricting blood flow makes muscles grow

Try this: restrict the blood supply to your legs at the groin and go run on a treadmill. Do two-minute ‘sprints’ of 100 metres, five times each training session. Do that five times a week for three weeks. According to Japanese research, you’ll achieve unprecedented muscle growth.

The Japanese have been doing research for a while on training muscles at low level intensity with reduced blood supply to the muscles. They hope that under these conditions muscles grow faster and that ‘training with restricted venous blood flow’, as it is called, can help people who can’t do ordinary power training to build up strength. Old people, for example.

Power training only ‘works’ with a load that is at least 65 percent of the 1RM. 1RM is the maximum amount of weight you can lift properly for only one repetition.

The researchers fitted their test subjects with a belt that restricted the blood supply to the legs, and then set them to walk on a treadmill. The photo above shows the set up. The control group walked without having their blood supply restricted.

The production of growth hormone rose considerably during and after the session. The concentration of cortisol (which wrecks muscles) remained low.



The researchers also measured free testosterone, IGF-1 and its binding proteins, and muscle damage markers. They found no effects.

The treadmill training did lead to a dramatic growth in muscle tissue, as the graph below shows. Kaatsu-walk = walking with restricted blood flow.



The photos below are from MRI scans. The upper photo shows the results of scan of the two legs of a test subject before the experiment started. The lower photo is of a scan of the legs of the same person at the end of the experiment. Quod erat demonstrandum, as they say in Asterix and Obelix.



Oh yes.

The test subjects got stronger by walking with belts tied around their upper thighs.



Exactly how the anabolic effect of training with restricted venous blood flow works, the researchers don’t know. The theory they put forward is that restricting the blood flow to the muscle cells activates the glucose transporter GLUT4. But they don’t have much evidence to support this theory.

Sources:J Appl Physiol. 2006 May;100(5):1460-6.

ergo-log

[Turkish Juicer]

Calves grow quicker if you restrict the blood supply

Strength training with relatively light weights results in a big gain in muscle strength if you cut off the blood supply to those muscle groups during your sets. It’s called Kaatsu training. Even the calf muscles, the muscle group that reacts least to training, gain strength more quickly if you restrict the blood supply just above the knee during calf-raises. This is the message of an article that sports scientists from Loughborough University in England will publish soon in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

It doesn’t matter how you do it: if you deprive your muscles of oxygen during strength training, they’ll grow quicker. Yesterday we wrote about a study which showed that the anabolic hormone stimulus of strength training increases if athletes train in a room with less oxygen in the air. Another research approach is to restrict the blood supply to muscle groups. Human studies show that muscle protein production increases as a result of doing this.


The most interesting thing about this effect is that relatively low levels of exertion – like doing a short sprint – with Kaatsu training lead to a strong anabolic response by the body. Researchers are optimistic that Kaatsu training may help people who are no longer able to train hard, because of age or sickness. Progressive trainers and athletes are already experimenting with Kaatsu training. They hope to be able to add it to their regular training so they can enhance muscle growth without it leading to over-training.

In the article that will be published soon, the researchers got sixteen untrained women to train their calf muscles three times a week for a period of four weeks. The blood supply to one calf was cut off by a restrictive band, and the other calf received the normal blood supply. Half of the women trained at 25 percent of their 1RM. The other half trained at 50 percent of their 1RM.

The test subjects trained their calves in a sitting position. They did 3 sets and rested for one minute between sets. Each calf training session lasted 5-8 minutes, during which time the women had a band around their knee to restrict the blood supply. The figure below shows the effect of the training on the 1RM.



After 4 weeks the researchers also measured how quickly the blood circulation recovered after removing the restrictive band above the knee. The circulation returned to normal more quickly as a result of the Kaatsu training.



The researchers think that the effect on blood circulation has something to do with the mechanism that’s responsible for the effect of Kaatsu training, but so far no light has been shed on this. Perhaps Kaatsu training results in more and stronger capillaries in the muscles via growth factors like VEGF, they speculate.

There are already gyms in Japan where you can do Kaatsu training. It’s not yet clear though whether Kaatsu training is suitable for everyone. The researchers urge caution. "Concern surrounds the fact that the veins are congested and distended and this may cause problems for normal blood flow by causing damage to the valves within the vein", they write in the conclusion of their article.

Source: Eur J Appl Physiol. [Epub ahead of print].

ergo-log

[Turkish Juicer]

Restricted muscles grow faster

If you do power training with light weights, lots of reps and the blood supply to your muscles cut off, you are likely to gain just as much muscle bulk as you would with regular power training. Researchers at the University of Texas and the University of Tokyo reported this in an article that appeared two years ago in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

We already wrote about Kaatsu-training couple of weeks ago. In the study here, the test subjects trained their thigh muscles on an extension machine at 20 percent of their 1RM. They did thirty reps, waited thirty seconds and then did a set of fifteen reps. Then they did another two sets of fifteen reps, again with a wait of thirty seconds between.

In the experimental group [REFR] the blood flow to the leg muscles was almost totally cut off using a tourniquet. In the control group [CTRL] the blood supply was not restricted. The researchers examined the blood and muscle tissue of the test subjects shortly after the training session to try and find out why Kaatsu-training has such an anabolic effect. You can obtain just as much growth from Kaatsu-training as from regular power training with loads of seventy percent or more.

A possible mechanism is that the production of growth hormone increases by a factor of ten compared with the control group. A GH peak is normal in regular power training, but if you work at 20 percent of the 1RM you don’t see it.

Attachment 122494


The researchers measured more lactic acid in the Kaatsu group than in the control group. The concentration of free testosterone and IGF-1 in the blood did not change in response to the blood flow being restricted. The cortisol levels did rise by a significantly large amount in the experimental group.

Attachment 122495


The mTOR molecule is a key factor in muscle production and breakdown. When the muscle cells attach phosphorus groups to mTOR – which is what happens during power training or steroid hormone use – the resulting phosphorylated mTOR activates other signalling molecules which induce the cells to produce muscle proteins. S6K1 is an important enzyme in power training. The more phosphorus groups attached to the molecule six hours after a training session, the more muscle bulk athletes build up.

mTOR did not react to Kaatsu-training, but S6K1 did. The researchers don’t understand how this happens. mTOR should activate S6K1, but it looks as though this didn’t happen.

Attachment 122496

Whatever, the Kaatsu training did lead to increased protein manufacture compared with the control group training. See below.

Attachment 122497

The researchers don’t think that the increased growth hormone production is a significant factor in the increased muscle tissue production. Instead, they suspect "that a greater number of normally inactive muscle fibers are recruited to lift a similar load when the blood flow is restricted".

Sources:J Appl Physiol. 2007 Sep;103(3):***-10.

ergo-log

[Gambolputty]

I seem to recall reading that while muscle strength and size increased markedly, strength of ligaments and tendons did not. Seems that for those who wish to maintain functional strength for athletics may need to cycle between Kaatsu and traditional heavy lifting.