Comparable Acute Metabolic Responses when Walking with Blood Flow Restriction and Walking with Load Carriage: Implication for Tactical Professionals

The current study aimed to investigate exercise with blood flow restriction (BFR) as a low-intensity conditioning strategy in tactical professionals with load carriage. During the low-intensity exercise, researchers examined the acute metabolic responses from low-intensity BFR walking, walking with load carriage, and walking with BFR and load carriage. Twelve healthy adult males (age = 21.8 ± 1.5 yrs, height = 181.3 ± 7.2 cm, body mass = 84.4 ± 11.1 kg and BMI = 25.6 ± 2.6 kg·m ) completed five bouts of 3-min treadmill walking at 4.8 km·h with 1-min rest interval under three different conditions: 1) blood flow restriction (BFR), 2) loaded with 15% of body mass (LOAD) and 3) loaded with 15% of body mass with blood flow restriction (BFR-LOAD). Oxygen consumption (V̇O ), heart rate, and local muscle oxygen saturation was measured during the exercise bouts. V̇O increased by 7% during the BFR- LOAD ( = 0.001) compared with BFR or LOAD alone. There were no differences in V̇O between BFR and LOAD ( = 0.202). BFR-LOAD showed significantly lower (-9%) muscle oxygen saturation ( = 0.044) and deoxygenated hemoglobin ( = 0.047) compared to LOAD. Low-intensity walking with the addition of BFR shares acute metabolic characteristics similar to walking with a load. These characteristics suggest there is potential for the use of BFR to increase exercise intensity for individuals training with load carriage.