The effects of muscle blood flow restriction during running training on measures of aerobic capacity and run time to exhaustion

Purpose Training with blood flow restriction (BFR) is known to enhance muscle mass and strength during resistance training activities. However, little is known about the BFR effects during aerobic training. This investigation examines the effects of running training performed with or without BFR on physiology and performance. Method Sixteen subjects (age 24.9 ± 6.9 years, height 172.9 ± 7.8 cm, weight 75.1 ± 13.8 kg) were assigned to a BFR or control (CON) group for eight sessions of training. Before and after training, subjects completed an incremental test to determine peak running velocity (PRV) maximal oxygen uptake ( V ˙ O 2 max ) and running economy (RE), followed by a time to exhaustion run (TTE) performed at PRV. Training for both groups consisted of progressively increasing volumes of 30-s repetitions completed at 80% of PRV. Results The BFR and CON groups reported gains (6.3 ± 3.5 vs 4.0 ± 3.3%) in V ˙ O 2 max following training with only trivial (ES = 0.18) differences between groups. Similarly, PRV and incremental test time increased in both training groups with a small (ES ~ 0.3) additional enhancement in favour of the BFR group. Running economy improved in the BFR group but not in CON (ES = 0.4). TTE also increased in both BFR (27 ± 9%) and CON groups (17 ± 6%) with a small (ES = 0.31) additional benefit in favour of the BFR group. Conclusions Using BFR during training appears to confer small but potentially worthwhile improvements in RE, PRV and TTE measures. The improvements following BFR training are likely due to muscular rather than cardiovascular function.