Low Load, High Gains: Blood Flow Restriction's Impact on Quadriceps Adaptations

NCT ID: NCT06746792

Last Updated: 2025-03-04

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 30 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-10-11
• Study Completion Date: 2025-03-29

Brief Summary

Low-load resistance exercise with blood flow restriction (BFR-RE) presents a compelling alternative to high-load resistance exercise (HL-RE), particularly in scenarios where high loads are not feasible due to various limitations. Blood flow restriction exercise restricts blood flow to the working muscle, creating a state of ischemia. A significant advantage of BFR-RE lies in its capacity to stimulate muscle hypertrophy and strength adaptations using light external loads (20-30% 1RM), comparable to those achieved with high-load (HL) training programs that employ 70-85% 1RM As a result, BFR training has been increasingly adopted in both athletic performance and rehabilitation settings over the past few decades. Quadriceps strength and power are essential factors in both the advancement of athletic performance and the successful return to unrestricted sporting activity following injury. The findings of Culvenor et al.'s review strongly suggest that weakened quadriceps strength is a significant risk factor for symptomatic and functional decline in the knee during both activities of daily living and sport-recreational activities. Numerous electromyographic (EMG) findings suggest that single-joint and multijoint exercises elicit varying muscle activation patterns. For instance, single-joint exercises targeting the quadriceps, such as leg extensions, demonstrate higher EMG amplitudes compared to multijoint lower-extremity exercises like leg presses and squats. Resistance training, characterized by the application of high mechanical tension, remains the cornerstone for promoting muscle hypertrophy, So, research suggests that higher training intensities are associated with greater hypertrophy, up to a certain point. While both light and heavy loads have been shown to elicit similar muscle growth when sets are taken to failure. Studies have reported that high-repetition training with light loads leads to greater central fatigue. Existing literature comparing the effects of BFR-RE and HL-RE primarily focuses on the some quadriceps and hamstring muscle group and its associated exercises. However, none of these studies employed a training protocol in which sets were taken to or near failure.

Conditions

Healthy Individuals

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: OTHER
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Muscle thickness

Muscular hypertrophy , or muscle growth, refers to an increase in muscle mass. There are two types of muscular hypertrophy: myofibrillar, which is an increase in myofibrils, and sarcoplasmic, which is an increase in muscle glycogen storage.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Low-load resistance exercise with blood flow restriction

Intervention Type: OTHER

BFR-RE group performed bilateral leg extension exercises to volitional exhaustion (90 seconds rest between sets, 30% 1RM) with BFR cuffs applied at 60% of limb occlusion pressure.

High-load resistance exercise

Intervention Type: OTHER

The HL-RE group performed the same exercise to volitional exhaustion (90 seconds rest between sets, 70% 1RM) without BFR cuffs.

Muscle stiffness and strength

Muscle and tendon stiffness is defined as an internal resistance to changes in muscle and tendon shape caused by an external force. Muscle strength production takes place with the help of the elastic behavior of the muscles and tendons

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Low-load resistance exercise with blood flow restriction

Intervention Type: OTHER

BFR-RE group performed bilateral leg extension exercises to volitional exhaustion (90 seconds rest between sets, 30% 1RM) with BFR cuffs applied at 60% of limb occlusion pressure.

High-load resistance exercise

Intervention Type: OTHER

The HL-RE group performed the same exercise to volitional exhaustion (90 seconds rest between sets, 70% 1RM) without BFR cuffs.

Interventions

Low-load resistance exercise with blood flow restriction

BFR-RE group performed bilateral leg extension exercises to volitional exhaustion (90 seconds rest between sets, 30% 1RM) with BFR cuffs applied at 60% of limb occlusion pressure.

Intervention Type: OTHER

High-load resistance exercise

The HL-RE group performed the same exercise to volitional exhaustion (90 seconds rest between sets, 70% 1RM) without BFR cuffs.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Other Intervention Names

(BFR-RE); (HL-RE)

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• keep healthy
• must be able to attend training regularly

Exclusion Criteria

• smoking habit
• had orthopedic conditions that hindered lower-body resistance exercise, had hypertension (140/90 mm Hg), or had a BMI exceeding 30 kg/m2

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 25 Years
• Eligible Sex: MALE
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Karabuk University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Mustafa Şakir Akgül

Associate professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Locations

Karabuk University Faculty of Sports Sciences

Karabük, , Turkey (Türkiye)

Countries

Turkey (Türkiye)

Other Identifiers

KarabukUniSportsSciences

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id