BFR Radio

Accelerate recovery from muscle injuries BFR - Understand how it works.

It's competition time for a lot of athletes. Unfortunately, athletes get muscle tears and injuries. I've had a lot success using BFR to accelerate return from injuries in much quicker than normal expected timelines. 

The mechanisms and concepts involved in this process is quite complex. So in this BFR Radio "shorts" I've broken it down and tried to explain it in a more relatable way, so you too can understand what is going on. 

I've spoken a lot about this concept and had unbelievable success with getting athletes (and non-athletes) back on the track in record time. 

This podcast is from the paper, 
The role of inflammation and immune cells in blood flow restriction training adaptation: a review. (2018). Rossi, F. E., De Freitas, M. C., Zanchi, N. E., Lira, F. S., & Cholewa, J. M. Frontiers in physiology, 9, 1376.

If you enjoy this short version of the podcast let me know and I'll add them. 

Stay tuned for our next podcast which will be an interview where we look at how BFR has been helping bad backs and building bigger biceps. 

Chris

Supercharge your Squat - BFR High Load Lifting

Welcome to the first episode for 2023, 

Today's episode continues the theme of adding BFR to high-load lifting. With most of BFR strength training focuses on low-load lifting (20-30% RM), where does this leave the addition of BFR strength training for strength/power athletes. Typically (non-BFR) loads of >60% of 1RM are required to improve strength and power. So today's article continues the concept of high-load BFR strength training.  The last episode focused on the benefits of the Bench Press and today's episode moves onto the Squat.

The article I review is called

”"Acute effects of different blood flow restriction protocols on bar velocity during the squat exercise," and the primary author is Michael Wilks.

I've done a lot of lifting using BFR with high loads with my own training and also with the athletes that I work with.  

I'm excited for next podcast already - it's an interview and it's jam packed with lots of great practical ways to implement BFR; and you don't have to be an athlete.

 

If you are looking to get into blood flow restriction training please visit our website which is www.thebfr.co  where there's lots of information, free resources and you can also purchase your own set of BFR cuffs.

 

You can also catch us on:

• Instagram - @thebfr.co 
• Twitter - @thebfr_co
• YouTube - The BFR. co

If you do want to get into blood flow restriction, you can purchase your cuffs there as well. Thanks for listening and remember to keep the pump.

Chris

Big Benching with BFR

Welcome to today's episode, 

With most of BFR strength training focuses on low-load lifting (20-30% RM), where does this leave the addition of BFR strength training for strength/power athletes. Typically (non-BFR) loads of >60% of 1RM are required to improve strength and power. So today's article looks at the concept of high-load BFR strength training. 

”Short Term Blood Flow Restriction, Increases Power Output, and Bar Velocity during the Bench Press”, and this was published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, and the primary author is Michael Wilks.

The podcast not only reviews the article, but I've also done a small study of my own.  I add some of my own findings and thoughts on how you can use this in a training program.

 

This will be the last podcast for the year. Thanks for all of your support throughout the year. I appreciate you all.

 

If you are looking to get into blood flow restriction training please visit our website which is www.thebfr.co  where there's lots of information, free resources and you can also purchase your own set of BFR cuffs.

 

 

You can also catch us on:

• Instagram - @thebfr.co 
• Twitter - @thebfr_co
• YouTube - The BFR. co

If you do want to get into blood flow restriction, you can purchase your cuffs there as well. Thanks for listening. See you in the New Year and remember to keep the pump.

Chris

Extreme Injuries - BFR can bring back hope

Hi there,

Thanks for your patience in between episodes. If you've been following me on Instagram, you'll the scene that I've been overseas traveling in the UK and also in the us. And in particular, I. Coach track and field athlete and de athlete, Cedric Dubler who? Firstly, we went to the us and we competed at world champs where he finished eighth.

One of his best finishes as a senior in the decathlon. And then 10 days later we went and competed. The Commonwealth games in the UK. And he finished third there, which was an incredible effort considering it was only 10 days in between. So firstly, just to do one decathlon is pretty tough and to do two is pretty amazing.

Today's article review is perfect for to highlight how BFR can assist with anyone who has had quite an "extreme" injury and struggled to get back to some level of normal function. In particular such injuries typically result in significant loss of muscular strength and size. This articles reports on 7 different cases and highlights what kind of improvements can be achieved in a short period of time.

The article is:

Blood flow restriction rehabilitation for extremity weakness: a case series.

J Spec Oper Med, 15(1), 50-56. Hylden, C., Burns, T., Stinner, D., & Owens, J. (2015). 

 

I hope you enjoy this episode.

If you are looking to get into blood flow restriction training please visit our website which is www.thebfr.co  where there's lots of information, free resources and you can also purchase your own set of BFR cuffs.

You can also catch us on:

• Instagram - @thebfr.co 
• Twitter - @thebfr_co
• YouTube - The BFR. co

If you do want to get into blood flow restriction, you can purchase your cuffs there as well. Thanks for listening. See you in a couple of weeks and remember to keep the pump.

Chris

Jacqui Narracott - Olympian, Medal Winning & Champion Skeleton Athlete

Welcome to Episode 50 of BFR Radio. And what a way to celebrate this milestone with Winter Olympian, Jacqui Narracott who won Silver at the recent Beijing Olympics for Skeleton.

I've been Jacqui's strength coach for over 7 years and it's been an honour to see her awesome achievements - especially in the last year. This is a great episode and we discuss quite a lot. In particular we focus on the period of time after her first Olympics and leading into her second and most recent Winter Olympics in Beijing. Aside from just BFR -related training we go through quite a bit. In particular:

• Reliving Beijing - enjoying the moment & having fun.
• Her team and how it worked with everyone living all around the world.
• How 2 months out from the Olympics, she injured herself and it nearly derailed her campaign.
• Dealing with COVID - lots of training, travel and competitions stories here.

This is a real behind the scenes podcast. So if you're a fan of Jacqui and want to hear some never before heard stories in the lead up to the Olympics this is a podcast not to miss. And yes, there are some new ways we used BFR as well so something for everyone.

I hope you enjoy this one. 

 

Testosterone & BFR - how to maximise your hormonal response.

Welcome back to BFR Radio.

Thanks for your patience in between episodes – I’ve just realized its been a couple of months since the last episode. In short, I’ve devoted pretty much most of my spare time and energy to the launch of my new website and rebranding. In case, you’re unaware, I’ve rebranded to TheBFR.co. My goal with TheBFR.co (or The BFR company) is to have a one-stop shop for all things BFR. So I still have my BFR cuffs – they are still branded as the sports rehab tourniquet but slowly over time (or once I renew my stock), they will be rebrand with my new logo. So make sure you check out my website - click here.

There are a few new exciting additions to the website including online BFR training and rehab programs and an online BFR course for those who want to learn more about how to apply BFR to their athletes/clients.

 

The last few episodes focused on hormones & BFR. The first 2 episodes looked at Growth Hormone & Insulin – Growth Factor 1 (or IGF-1). Not only do these hormones have a performance benefit, but they also are critical for proper development and function of many major organ systems. Today’s episode will focus on one a the more well-known hormones and that is Tesosterone

 

The majority of this information comes from a paper called:

Acute and Chronic Testosterone Response to Blood Flow Restricted Exercise and appeared in the journal of Hormone & Metabolic Research

The primary author is Jeremy Loenneke who is one of the more prolific authors in the world of BFR. I will also add to the discussion with a few interesting papers including a case study that I have done with an elite athlete that I  used to coach.

before I go, a couple of favours from me to you:

If you know of someone who would benefit from this episode, please share it. And, if you’re enjoying the podcast please give it a rating on iTunes

Thanks for listening, see you in a couple of weeks and remember to keep the pump.

 

Chris

Hormones & BFR - Insulin Growth Factor 1. What is it? Why is it important and how BFR can help.

Welcome back to BFR Radio and this short mini-series on hormones & BFR.

In particular one of the mechanisms as to how & why BFR works is the increase in acute anabolic hormones. Since we talk about, I thought I’d go into a little more detail about each hormone, why it is important and the types of BFR sessions that are associated with increases in these anabolic hormones.

The general flow of these episodes is to summarise the importance of these hormones, mechanisms behind how it gets activated and how BFR can be used to activate these useful hormones.

The last episode looked at Growth Hormone and today's episode we look at Insulin Growth Factor 1 (IGF-1). Although the more known action of IGF-1 is to stimulate protein synthesis (muscle growth), it is both GH & IGF-1 that is proposed to act in concert to stimulate protein synthesis.

There are other important functions of IGF-1 signalling and in particular, they are both critical for proper development and function of many major organ systems.  There is very strong evidence for neuroprotective effects of IGF-1 in different situations, including aging.

As I delved deeper into why IGF-1 is important to us, I started to realise that it was more about increasing muscle size but rather the positive effects as we age. In particular the role that it plays in cognitive function, learning and memory tasks.

So although we typically see BFR as a way to increase muscle mass and strength, for ageing populations incorporating BFR into physical activity has implications that go beyond this. I go through a couple of studies and in particular one involves a 91-year old gentleman with sarcopenia. Its a simple study, but the outcomes are pretty amazing.

I bring in quite a few papers for this episode and probably a few too many to mention.

The papers from the studies though are:

Endocrine responses to upper-and lower-limb resistance exercises with blood flow restriction. 

Madarame et al. (2010). Acta Physiologica Hungarica

Strength training with blood flow restriction–a novel therapeutic approach for older adults with sarcopenia? A case report. 

Lopes et al.   (2019) Clinical interventions in aging

 

If this review of hormones and BFR training, has sparked your own interest in starting an exercise regime, get in touch with me through my website or socials (@chrisgaviglio). The sports rehab tourniquet brand of BFR cuffs can also be purchase from my website and you can find it at sportsrehab.com.au

And lastly, before I go, a couple of favours from me to you:

If you know of someone who would benefit from this episode, please share it. And, if you’re enjoying the podcast please give it a rating on iTunes

Thanks for listening, see you in a couple of weeks  and remember to keep the pump.

Chris 

Growth Hormone & BFR - what is it, what it means for you & how BFR can benefit you.

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to BFR Radio’s first podcast for 2022. 

Hope you all had a good festive season and recharged for 2022. I’m excited for this year and in particular I am working hard to put together my accreditation course on-line and also provide BFR on-line training programs (along with general strength & fitness programs). This means if you’ve been thinking about learning more about BFR in a structured manner or you want to improve your training, I can help provide this for you. Just contact me through my socials or the contact us page on my website (www.sportsrehab.com.au).

 The next series of articles will focus on the hormonal benefits of BFR. A lot of the articles I review, look at training intervention studies (ie. You train with BFR cuffs and it usually results in a positive response). These studies are great to highlight the practical  side of BFR and the benefits of adding it to your training.

Some of the positive responses that we see with BFR training are due to increases in anabolic hormones within the body and in particular increases in anabolic hormones is one of the main mechanisms of BFR. A lot of these anabolic hormones may be familiar to you – Growth hormone, Testosterone, IGF.

Therefore the concept behind the next few episodes is to look at some of these different anabolic hormones.  In particular I am going to highlight the basics of each hormone and its benefits from a health viewpoint. From there I will bring in BFR.  To prevent you all from getting bored, I will try to pick out the best bits. So if these episodes sparks your interest, please research more in detail

Growth hormone is our first hormone. To bring this episode together I’ve referred to numerous general articles and reviews on growth hormones and then moved onto more BFR specific studies.

The specific articles are too many to mention here but 2 of the main reviews on Growth Hormone are: 

• Godfrey, R. J., Madgwick, Z., & Whyte, G. P. (2003). The exercise-induced growth hormone response in athletes. Sports medicine, 33(8), 599-613.
• Sonksen, P. H. (2001). Hormones and Sport-Insulin, growth hormone and sport. Journal of Endocrinology, 170(1), 13-26.

Before I go, a couple of favours from me to you:

If you know of someone who would benefit from this episode, please share it. And Also, if you’re enjoying the podcast please give it a rating on iTunes

Thanks for listening, see you in a couple of weeks  and remember to keep the pump.

 

Chris

BFR use in youth athletes - interview with S&C Coach Nathan Norris

Hi everyone, 

My last episode answered as few questions around using Blood Flow Restriction in younger age groups and youth athletes. I pieced together a few concepts and papers to give some positive evidence around using it in this age group. After the podcast a fellow S&C coach, Nathan Norris reached out about his use with the athletes that he trains. 

Therefore I thought I'd get him on the podcast to tell his experiences. This is a really practically based podcast with lots of great examples and I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it. 

A little bit about Nathan: 

He has been a S&C Coach for 10+ years working with elite, professional, semi-professional and junior athletes. Currently the Lead S&C Coach at Burnley College, Lancashire, North West England. Leading a team of S&C Coaches to delivered the S&C Programme at the College. The programme includes working with 16-21 year old student athletes who compete regionally, nationally, and internationally. As well as running the S&C Programmes for Burnley Bobcats Swimming Club, Blackburn Harriers & Athletics Club, and Manchester Giants Basketball Juniors (U15 & U16 squads). Along with working with professional footballers (soccer) in the area.

If you want to get a hold of him:

Intagram: @welshnath_coach

Email: n.norris@burnley.ac.uk

This will be my last podcast for the year. I'm taking a short break of the Christmas period and looking forward to an exciting 2022. I have a few projects in the pipeline so stay tuned for that. 

Thanks for your support this year and remember to keep the pump.

Chris

BFR use in young athletes and the youth -Your Questions Answered

Hi everyone and welcome back to BFR Radio. Thanks for joining in and hope that your training is going well.

 

Before I head into today’s article review, a quick reminder that if you’re looking for practical ideas on how to implement BFR into your own training check out my Instagram (@chrisgaviglio) or my Youtube channel which is SportsRehabAus. If you follow me on social media, I’ve also been trialling a few different things. The first one is 60second snippets of the best bits of the podcast as well as Instagram text image posts – which do you prefer? Also if you’re enjoying the podcast, please give it a rating on iTunes.

 

Its also been a while since my last episode and I thank you for your patience. I’ve had a few presentations recently and one was for the ASCA. This year was an online style conference and my presentation I spoke about how I periodise strength training utilising a myriad of different concepts. In particular it was a case study of one of the decathletes that I coached for the Tokyo Olympics. I’ve also had a work change as well so navigating that has taken some of my time. One of the positives is that I am spending more time putting together some other S&C and BFR concepts that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. In particular I am providing an online S&C service which means that if you’ve been thinking about improving your training, I can help provide this for you. Just contact me through my socials or the contact us on my website. I also have some big plans for BFR specifically so stay tuned for that.

 

The last few episodes was a short series of papers which reviewed different sports specific training with BFR and highlighted potential direct benefits to sports performance. For me it shows that BFR can be used for more than just strength training and stationary cardiovascular-based training.

 

To change it up, it’s time for a “Your questions answered” segment. Interestingly I got 3 independent emails on a very similar subject within the last month. In particular it is on the subject of using BFR with youth athletes. Hopefully not too controversial, but I thought I’d tackle this subject.

To give some context behind the questions the first question was from a physiotherapist who is  involved in the training of elite Artistic gymnasts aged between 10-26. Common injuries include growth-related injuries such as osgoods and, tendinopathy injuries especially the Achilles Tendon as well as boney stress injuries (foot, shin, and back). And in previous podcasts I’d alluded to BFR being a great tool for tendon pain as well as recovering from bone stress injuries and such could BFR be used in this specific population.

 

The second question was from another physiotherapist who works with dancers and in particular young dancers and pretty much similar. They want to know the youngest age I’d use BFR training with? And are there any contraindications for use in those under 18years?

So how to best answer this question? Unfortunately there isn’t any position statement with respect to BFR and Youth. There is very little out there but I will piece this together to give you a balanced answer and perhaps rather my opinion. No use sense sitting on the fence right??

 

To answer this question, I am going to break this into 3 parts. Firstly I want to briefly discuss the idea of strength training in youth in general (that is without BFR). Secondly, I will highlight a few studies in younger age groups and then finish up with my own view and personal experiences.

I hope you enjoy this one. I feel I have given a balanced view with respect to this concept and before I go I want to emphasis a few points if you decide that BFR may be useful with the youth athletes that you train:

• Like all training interventions you need to be clear why you are using it.
• This type of training needs strict supervision, and at this age in particular.
• At a young age who are fit, healthy and performing general training, I would not prescribe it. I think there are so many other skills and physical activities that you need them to be exploring before worrying about BFR.
• However if they are have specific injuries or issues that need addressing it may be a useful intervention.

The paper’s that I briefly mention are:

Effects of practical blood flow restriction training on adolescent lower-body strength. 

(15-18year old girls) Luebbers, P. E., Witte, E. V., Oshel, J. Q., & Butler, M. S. (2019).  The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 33(10), 2674-2683.

Effect of eight-week aerobic training with blood flow restriction on lipid profiles and body composition in obese adolescent boys.

(13-16year old boys) MOHAMMADI, S., Rajabi, H., Motamedi, P., Khaledi, N., & Abdollahi, M. (2019). 

Response of Myostatin to Resistance Exercise with and without Blood Flow Restriction in Immature Male Athletes. 

(10-14year old boy gymnasts) Shabkhiz, F., Choobineh, S., Ghafarioun Isfahani, A., & Yari, M. (2017).  Sport Physiology & Management Investigations, 9(3), 9-19. 

A pediatric case with an unstabilized neck treated with skeletal muscle electrical stimulation and KAATSU training®. 

(2yrs-4months boy ) Iwashita, H. (2015).  International Journal of KAATSU Training Research, 11(1), 7-12.

 

The Australian Strength & Conditioning Association (ASCA) position stand on youth strength training link: Resistance Training for Youth - Position Stand

I’d love to hear from anyone who’s used BFR in these age groups. I think it could be a good extension to this podcast. Contact me through my website (sportsrehab.com.au) or DM me through my Instagram or Twitter @chrisgaviglio.

Before I go, A couple of favours from me to you. If you know of someone who would benefit from this episode, please share it. And if you’re interested in purchasing your own set of BFR cuffs please visit my website which is www.sportsrehab.com.au

I can also help you with your training so contact me via my website or DM me through my socials which is @chrisgaviglio.

Thanks for listening and remember to keep the pump.