5 BFR Training Benefits

BFR Training can have a long-range of benefits to it. Most people tend to back off of the training due to its name (Blood Flow Restriction) or Occlusion Training. Fair enough, it sounds dangerous and many people think they would get injured with it, but this isn't the case. (1) could be if you do it incorrectly which is why you should check out my article on how to utilize BFR training.

However, when done correctly, it can provide a wide range of benefits that can have an exceptional impact on your training and how you tailor your routine. I include it into my routine all the time and I always highly recommend others to use. If you wish to find out exactly what is BFR training, click here.

So let's not waste too much time and get right into it!

BFR Training Benefits You if You're Overcoming and Injury

Injury is almost unavoidable if you're an advent lifter.  I've had many injuries over my years of weight lifting and I've seen others get injured plenty of times.

Not only is the physical aspect of it daunting, but the mental aspect as well especially when you're trying to regain your strength. You're bound to lose strength with an injury and to regain strength can take time and patience.

It would be great if you preserve your strength as much as possible, right? Yup! That's one of the best benefits of BFR training. Now obviously, if you tore a muscle of some sort, you probably won't be jumping back to lifting anytime soon. However, for other injuries like joint injuries, BFR can be great.

Why is it Better for Injury?

If you're coming back from injury, you're usually doing low-load training in general, meaning 20-30% 1RM. One of the benefits of BFR Training though is that low-load BFR training in comparison to normal low-load training is that BFR Training is better for strength. The thing is, if you're doing BFR training, you're going to fatigue your muscles a lot faster than you would without it, and you'll have less muscular damage(1). With an injury, you don't want to keep performing more and more reps that lead to more stress on the joints.

BFR Training Can Help You Gain Muscle

BFR Training can be a great tool to use if you're trying to gain muscle as well. It's something I've personally incorporated into my training regimen and have seen great results with it. The reason why it's so much better (As mentioned above) you can reach a higher muscular fatigue level with the same amount of reps you would normally do. You can incorporate BFR training consistently within your training days for a specific exercise. You can also take a specific week to do BFR Training as well. This specific study showed that were was growth in slow-twitch muscles in a group of powerlifters when 1 group performed BFR Training and the other didn't(2). 

Better Recovery

Like mentioned before, BFR training can cause muscle fatigue fairly fast. What's great about BFR training is that even though you're fatiguing your muscle quicker than you would with non-BFR Training, you won't experience the same amount of muscular damage(3). That means your recovery would be better and if anything might even help with preventing injuries in the future. 

Can be used During Deload Week

If you want to know if deload weeks are necessary, you should check out this article. If you do take deload weeks, using BFR Training can be something that will have a great impact on you. With the ability to have the ability to fatigue your muscles and not do muscular damage and perform this with low-load training, this makes this a game-changer for deload weeks! If you want to really up your deload weeks, incorporating can help you reap plenty of benefits. 

The Best Pump of Your Life

Okay granted this is more of a bro-tip, but BFR Training will give you a great pump. If you're doing a bodybuilding competition or maybe about to go out for the night, BFR training might be great for you considering how great your pump will be. Granted, you can build muscle without always getting a pump, but getting a pump always feels great and will probably up your confidence a bit more too, so it doesn't hurt.

Final Thoughts

I've been incorporating BFR Training in my regimen for years now. The training might put some people off due to the name, but don't be afraid of it. Check out my guide on how to use BFR Training and you will learn how to utilize BFR Training and not get injured. If you've been contemplating doing BFR Training, I hope these benefits put you in the direction of using them. I haven't seen any negative effects of it and I've got plenty of clients on it before with great benefits. These are the BFR Bands I currently use.

Note: The link above is an affiliated link.

References:

• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19826283/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30188363/
• https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23446173/

Photos:

• Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels