Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2026

Abstract

Introduction: This study examined muscular and cardiovascular responses to light-intensity aerobic exercise with different blood flow restriction (BFR) protocols. Methods: Ten males performed four protocols on the cycle ergometer: low-intensity exercise with no BFR (LIE), LIE with continuous BFR (CONT-BFR), LIE with intermittent BFR (INT-BFR), and high-intensity exercise (HIE). Each protocol consisted of five 2-min work intervals (INT) at 35% of peak work rate for LIE, CONT-BFR, and INT-BFR and 70% of peak work rate for HIE. During CONT-BFR, cuffs were inflated to 60% of arterial occlusion pressure (AOP) at the start of INT 1 and remained inflated until the end of INT 5. During INT-BFR, cuffs were inflated to 60% of AOP during INTs and deflated during recovery intervals. Tissue oxygen saturation (StO2) and rate pressure product (RPP) were measured to assess hypoxic stimulus and myocardial work, respectively. Results: StO2 response was similar between CONT-BFR (−23.2 ± 12.4 change from baseline arbitrary units ΔBSL AU), INT-BFR (−23.1 ± 13.1 ΔBSL AU), and HIE (−26.1 ± 13.1 ΔBSL AU); StO2 response was the smallest in LIE (−2.8 ± 13.0 ΔBSL AU). RPP was not different between CONT-BFR (20,872.8 ± 2,393.3 mmHg·bpm) and INT-BFR (21,056.7 ± 2,701.5 mmHg·bpm), but both were lower than HIE (30,760.2 ± 1,729.1 mmHg·bpm). RPP during LIE (17,893.2 ± 2,202.6 mmHg·bpm) was lower than all protocols. Discussion: There were no differences in hypoxic stress or myocardial work between BFR conditions. BFR conditions, regardless of restriction protocol, produced similar hypoxic stimulus with lower cardiac work compared to HIE; BFR protocol could be an alternative to HIE.

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Frontiers Media originally published this article.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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