BLOOD RUSH!
WORK THROUGH enough reps of any exercise with a challenging weight and you’ll experience the mythic pump, a swelling of blood and metabolites within the muscle that, over time, gives you the superhero muscle you want.
But what if you could skip the agony of lifting heavy weights and still build serious muscle?
That’s the promise of blood-flow-restriction training, a method by which you tighten a few Velcro cuffs around your upper thighs or arms, do reps with featherlight weights, and let your body do the rest. If BFR sounds fringe, in 1937, detailed how doctors used the method to regenerate tissue and increase walking capacity in patients with lower-body circulation disorders.
