Tuesday, November 25, 2014

What is Occlusion Training?





There are many methods to build muscle including forced reps,negative reps, rest-pause, omni-contraction and so on. Now there is a new one. Its called Occlusion Training and is done by using light to moderate weights for your training while using knee wraps or other straps to restrict the blood flow in a muscle while being exercised. Sounds strange, right? 

The idea is to restrict the blood flow to your veins while avoiding any restriction to blood flow to your arteries. To do this you need to buy a pair of long wrist wraps and a pair of knee wraps. Prior to training your arms wrap them using the wrist straps at the top of  the biceps.Don't make the straps too tight; on a scale of 1-10 use a tightness of 5. Select a weight that is 20-30% of your 1RM and take the set to failure on your first exercise. Do the desired amount of exercises before removing the wraps. Make sure not to tighten them too much and remove them immediately after completing your arm training. 

For legs use the knee wraps and tighten them to a level of 7 on a scale of 1-10. Do your sets to failure using weights that are 30-40% of your 1RM. To train your chest and back attach both the wrist and knee wraps before training. This way you occlude the blood flow to the thorax.

How does this work? First, by restricting blood flow you fill the muscle fibers with alot of fluid which forces them to grow! Secondly, the low oxygen level in the muscle's blood causes the body to recruit larger amounts of fast twitch fibers, which are the ones responsible for the majority of muscle growth. Lactic acid buildup in the muscle increases the level of protein synthesis in the muscle, leading to further growth. 

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