Physiological and perceptual responses to acute arm cranking with blood flow restriction

Lower-body aerobic exercise with blood flow restriction (BFR) offers a unique approach for stimulating improvements in muscular function and aerobic capacity. While there are more than 40 reports documenting acute and chronic responses to lower-body aerobic exercise with BFR, responses to upper-body aerobic exercise with BFR are not clearly established.

We evaluated acute physiological and perceptual responses to arm cranking with and without BFR.

Participants (N = 10) completed 4 arm cranking (6 × 2 min exercise, 1 min recovery) conditions: low-intensity at 40%VO_2peak (LI), low-intensity at 40%VO_2peak with BFR at 50% of arterial occlusion pressure (BFR50), low-intensity at 40%VO_2peak with BFR at 70% of arterial occlusion pressure (BFR70), and high-intensity at 80%VO_2peak (HI) while tissue oxygenation, cardiorespiratory, and perceptual responses were assessed.

During exercise, tissue saturation for BFR50 (54 ± 6%), BFR70 (55 ± 6%), and HI (54 ± 8%) decreased compared to LI (61 ± 5%, all P < 0.01) and changes in deoxyhemoglobin for BFR50 (11 ± 4), BFR70 (15 ± 6), and HI (16 ± 10) increased compared to LI (4 ± 2, all P < 0.01). During recovery intervals, tissue saturation for BFR50 and BFR70 decreased further and deoxyhemoglobin for BFR50 and BFR70 increased further (all P < 0.04). Heart rate for BFR70 and HI increased by 9 ± 9 and 50 ± 15b/min, respectively, compared to LI (both P < 0.02). BFR50 (8 ± 2, 1.0 ± 1.0) and BFR70 (10 ± 2, 2.1 ± 1.4) elicited greater arm-specific perceived exertion (6-20 scale) and pain (0-10 scale) compared to LI (7 ± 1, 0.2 ± 0.5, all P < 0.05) and pain for BFR70 did not differ from HI (1.7 ± 1.9).

Arm cranking with BFR decreased tissue saturation and increased deoxyhemoglobin without causing excessive cardiorespiratory strain and pain.