No,
it's not a robot that lifts for you. But this method for lightening the load
could make exercising easier
by Charles P.
Wallace | May 8, 2019
One of the least
pleasant things about getting older is the tendency to lose muscle. Research
shows that starts happening by the age of 40, and by the time you hit 80 you
can have lost as much as 50% of your skeletal muscle.
This decline is known
as sarcopenia, and in addition to reducing strength, it can affect things like
balance and the ability to get out of a chair later in life.
But losing muscle is
not preordained.
You can maintain and
even restore your muscle mass by practicing regular resistance training, also
known as lifting weights. You can regain muscle in as little as four months,
research in older adults has shown, but exercise orthodoxy has always held that
to build muscle you must exercise with heavy weights—70% to 80% of the weight
that you can lift just once.
The
biggest problem with this is not the science but the motivation needed to
follow such a grueling regimen regularly. You may find the prospect of going to
a gym crowded with gorgeous young bodies off-putting, and the prospect of
lifting such heavy weights can be daunting.
Is there an
alternative? For the last year, I’ve been experimenting with a different kind
of resistance training involving extremely light-weight workouts. It’s called
blood flow restriction training (BFR), and extensive research has found it to
be as effective as lifting heavy weights.
Here’s what you need
to know.
The science behind
the bands
Developed in Japan,
which has the world’s largest population of seniors, BFR consists of putting inflatable bands
a bit like a blood pressure cuff on your arms or legs. You use a pump to
inflate the bands to a specific pressure determined by a number of factors,
such as the circumference of the limb.
With the bands in
place, you do a very brief workout using extremely light weights — only 20% to
30% of what’s normally needed to gain muscle. For example, I’ve been getting a
great upper arm workout using BFR and hand weights weighing just two and a half
pounds.
Many
of the benefits can be achieved simply by using the bands when you take a walk.
A 2017 study by
researchers in Sao Paulo involving 23 men and women between the ages
of 51 and 70 found that while high-intensity weight training produced the best
results, BFR training with weights weighing one-fourth as much produced
substantial gains in both strength and muscle mass. BFR “constitutes an
important surrogate approach to high-intensity resistance training as an
effective training method to induce gains in muscle strength and mass in
elderly,” wrote Carlos Ugrinowitsch and his colleagues.
Other research by
scientists at Deakins University in Australia has found that many of
the benefits of using BFR can be achieved simply by using the bands when you
take a walk. What’s more, they seem to help with problems like bone loss and
arthritis.
Peter T. Lansbury,
Jr., an associate professor of neurology at the Harvard Medical School and the
chief scientific officer at drugmaker Lysosomal Therapeutics, told me he
started using BFR bands five years ago when he developed inflammatory arthritis
in his arms and couldn’t even lift a large carton of milk.
“It got me over a
huge hump,” says Lansbury, who is now 60 years old. “My strength has really
improved.”
What’s going on with
BFR
How do the bands work?
I spoke with Jim Stray-Gundersen, a sports medicine doctor in Park City, Utah,
who works with the U.S. and Norwegian Olympic teams. He notes that the bands
collapse the veins directly beneath them in your arms and legs, creating a kind
of valve. When you exercise, that pushes the blood past the valve back toward
the heart.
Like all resistance
training, BFR carries risks if done improperly, mainly bruising or dizziness.
“The bands slow down
the delivery of oxygen so that the working muscle cannot keep up, creating a
bit of a crisis in the muscle,” Stray-Gundersen explains. “Our brains end up
releasing a bunch of hormones, including growth hormone, that pours through the
whole body, and that is the mechanism with which we are able to rapidly improve
the size and strength of muscles, build new blood vessels, and actually
strengthen bone.”
Like all resistance
training, BFR carries risks if done improperly, mainly bruising or dizziness.
In fact, Lansbury recommends getting some type of training in how to properly
attach and inflate the bands as well as how to work out with them before trying
them. (More on that below.)
Plus you need to know
the difference between occlusion—blocking the blood flow to your arteries—and
BFR, which should employ only moderate pressure that just slows the blood in
your veins. Some bands on the market use occlusion, which could be dangerous
and won’t give you the benefits associated with BFR.
How to get started
I’ve been working
with two systems that use inflatable bladders in the bands to apply just a
measured amount of pressure. The first, developed in Japan by a medical doctor
named Yoshiaki Sato, is called KAATSU, which means “additional pressure” in Japanese.
The KAATSU system has been
extensively studied in Japan. For example, a group of
researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University achieved between 7% and 10%
increases in strength after two weeks of twice daily workouts.
At $2,100 for the
KAATSU Nano I have been using, KAATSU is not cheap. One advantage of the high
price is that a course on using the bands is included. In addition, you’ll find
a large network of KAATSU trainers in the U.S. who can come to your home for
lessons and workouts.
A second, much more
affordable system called BStrong
has been developed by Stray-Gundersen, who formerly worked with
KAATSU. Instead of an electric pump guided by a small computer, which the
KAATSU system has, BStrong uses a small hand pump much like you find with blood
pressure devices. It relies on a smartphone app, online videos, and a user’s
guide instead of a separate device. With four bands, BStrong sells for around
$300.
I’ve found both
systems give me a great workout, including that “pump” you get from lifting
heavy weights. In addition, there is an added sensation that feels like your
skin is momentarily itchy. That’s a sign that blood is really flowing in your
smallest capillaries.
If you’re looking to
start a little slower, you can get a 4 pack of BRF bands on
Amazon for under $30.
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