Kaatsu / Occlusion training / Blood flow restriction training

rubadub

http://www.projectswole.com/weight-training/how-to-build-muscle-mass-fast-with-kaatsu-training/

What Kaatsu Training Does
Kaatsu training looks like it can increase muscle hypertrophy significantly more than regular resistance training over an extremely short period of time. In fact the results of the studies show that 2 weeks of Kaatsu training increases muscle mass to a higher degree than 5 weeks of regular resistance training.

The Definition of Occlusion
In medical terms, occlusion is the act of occluding or the state of being occluded; a shutting off or obstruction of something; a blocking of the central passage of one reflex by the passage of another.

Kaatsu training applies occlusion by restricting blood flow to target muscle groups, also called Blood Flow Restriction, or BFR.

So, What is Kaatsu Training?
Kaatsu training involves applying a tourniquet or a tight wrap to the proximal portion of the target limb in order to fully or partially restrict blood flow for the duration of a low intensity exercise session.

The guidelines of Kaatsu training are as follows:

Intensity is 20% of 1 rep max.
Training frequency is twice a day, 6 days per week.
The minimum duration of Kaatsu training is 2 weeks, for a total of 24 sessions in 14 days.
At least 4 hours between sessions.
Occlusion is maintained throughout the entire exercise session.

Why Kaatsu Training Works
The theory is that the metabolic buildup within the restricted muscles elicits a number of physiological changes including a significant rise in growth hormone, which is actually higher than that observed with higher intensity exercise. Isn’t that interesting?

“Another factor to consider is hormone action. Kraemer et al. (1990) have demonstrated that a sufficient amount of high-intensity exercise (approximately 6 sets at an intensity of about 80% 1RM for large muscle groups) carried out with an interset interval as short as 1 min transiently provokes more than a 100-fold increase in the plasma concentration of growth hormone (GH). Since such a dramatic increase in plasma GH concentration was not seen after exercise having a longer interset interval (3 min), it has been speculated that local accumulation of metabolites stimulates the hypophyseal secretion of GH. Our recent study with young male subjects also showed that low-intensity (20% 1RM) exercise with vascular occlusion of the lower extremities caused a 290-fold increase in the plasma concentration of GH, whereas no such effect was seen after the exercise without this occlusion (Takarada et al. 2000a). This stimulated secretion of GH may also play a part in the present effects of LIO.”

Source:
Effects of resistance exercise combined with vascular occlusion on muscle function in athletes
European Journal of Applied Physiology

http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ijktr/1/1/6/_pdf

The major finding of the present study was that
two weeks of twice daily LIT-Kaatsu produced
increases in skeletal muscle size (7-8%) that were
similar in magnitude to those reported in traditional
HIT of 3-4 months [Abe et al., 2000; Jones and
Ratherford, 1987]. Previous published studies [Jones
and Ratherford, 1987; Staron et al., 1991; Staron et
al., 1994] have reported that a substantial increase in
skeletal muscle and fiber CSA in the thigh is not
observed earlier than six weeks of HIT. To the best of
our knowledge, there are no published data that have
reported a significant increase in thigh muscle size
following only two weeks of HIT [Akima et al., 1999].
In most of the previous studies, subjects exercised 2-3
times per week during the study, thus only 4-6
sessions are completed during the first 2 weeks of the
training. Our subjects, however, performed 24
sessions of resistive exercises during the 2 weeks of
training. Optimal training frequency is based on the
theories of “supercompensation” and “over-training”
which attempt to generate the greatest growth
stimulus while still allowing for sufficient rest
between exercise sessions [Kraemer, 2000]. Since a
training intensity of 20% of 1-RM produces minimal
muscle damage [Takarada et al., 2000a], less recovery
time is necessary [Abe, 2004], and therefore training
frequency may be increased.

An interesting and surprising finding of the present
study was that LIT-Kaatsu training-induced muscle
hypertrophy occurred not only in the thigh muscle
but also in the gluteus maximus muscle. During the
squat exercise, mainly the knee and hip extensor
muscles are activated. Since a training intensity of
20% of 1-RM was used in the present study, it would
seem reasonable that the load on the gluteus
maximus muscle during the squat would be
insufficient to produce the muscle hypertrophy.
However, this was not the case as significant
hypertrophy was observed in the gluteus maximus.

The usual theory you hear is that muscles must be broken down and then repaired, but these studies would suggest hypertrophy is possible without such muscle damage. I was then wondering if the muscle breakdown is really an unwanted side effect, and so people are rrecognising the wrong trigger i.e. by lifting heavy weights with traditional methods your body might gets the same triggers to grow muscle but to get results you have to train at wieghts which damage your muscle and so you need to recover.

Reading the studies it would seem you could be doing deadlifts & squats twice a day with no bother. There would be other advantages like not having to buy lots of wieghts, I have no squat rack but could get 20% of my 1RM on my back easily, my own BW might well be 20% of my true 1RM already (by true I mean squat figures usually ignore BW while nobody would ignore its effect in a pullup). I have been doing this training for the last few days so it will be interesting to see what results I get. You could do a lot of training with just BW, at 50%1RM I am not even doing regular pushups, I am deadlifting with 41kg. But the huge advantage is the possibility of getting the results of 3-4months of regular training in only 2 weeks. I wonder if this will dramatically stop at some stage though. On other sites I was reading of it being so useful for rehab, it will generate growth hormone in the region so should speed up recovery, so if you had a injury you might still be able to manage 20%RM weights and heal faster, but even without training the injury at all there will be more GH in your system.

Since you are using lower wieghts it should be safer too, and people who usually fear deadlifts or squats might be more likely to do them.

There is an article on the safety of it here
http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ijktr/2/1/5/_pdf

comparing with heavy physical exercises, where
mortality rates of 0 to 2.5% per 10,000 have been
reported, especially in older persons (ACSM, 2000;
Kallinen M, 2005), any fatal complications have not
been occurred in KAATSU training. Thus KATSU
training is a safe and promising method for training
persons including older persons.
In conclusion, KAATSU training is a safe and
promising method for training in the field of sports
and healthy persons, and can also be applied to
persons with various kinds of physical condition
including cerebrovascular diseases, orthopedic
diseases, obesity, cardiac diseases, neuromuscular
diseases, diabetes, hypertension, and respiratory
diseases.

Even if doing normal training this could be incorporated during a warmup set. They have mentioned Kaatsu walking -just walking for 20mins with bands on the legs, but this might not be enough to be in the 20-50% 1RM range for trained people.

Zamboni

It worked for The Ultimate Warrior :pac:

(sorry couldn't resist)

rubadub

Zamboni wrote: »

It worked for The Ultimate Warrior :pac:

LOL, I remember hulk hogan always saying "check out the veins on the warrior!" -but I have read this training might also make you more vascular.

BossArky

Zamboni wrote: »

It worked for The Ultimate Warrior :pac:

(sorry couldn't resist)

Exactly what I was thinking reading the OP