I’m a big fan of occlusive training and have used it with quite a few clients. The research shows it can have profound impacts for muscle hypertrophy and cardiac output with low loads. Typically when we think of building muscle we use loads in the 70-90% range of a one rep max, however it has been repeatedly shown that with occlusive training low loads of 20-30% of a one rep max, can elicit similar hypertrophy results. However, traditional strength training is still king and occlusive training is not meant to replace it. I would typically use occlusive training if someone could not fully load their tissues due to injury/pain or as an accessory piece to incorporate some extra volume in training without having to use heavier loads.

Mike
TRS Staff