Date of Award

5-2017

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Kinesiology

First Advisor

Peter M. McGinnis, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Philip Buckenmeyer, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Kevin Dames, Ph.D.

Abstract

Traditional training methodologies that improve muscular strength use loads as low as 75% of a person’s one-repetition maximum and as high as 110% of a person’s one repetition maximum. With these high loads comes a greater risk for injury. Blood flow restriction (BFR) training is a potential solution to this problem. BFR training originated in Japan, where it was called Kaatsu. With this method of training, a trainee ties a tourniquet around the proximal end of a limb to reduce blood flow to and from the limb’s muscles. The purpose of this study was to determine whether three-weeks of BFR training on the QuadMill™ was more effective at increasing peak isometric knee extensor torque than three-weeks of non-blood flow restricted training on the QuadMill™. Twelve college-aged participants began the study and nine, five males and four females, completed the study. Each participant performed three one minute sets on the QuadMill™ three times per week for three-weeks. Blood flow to the one leg was restricted at the upper thigh during exercise sessions. The same leg was blood flow restricted at each exercise session. Peak isometric knee extensor strength was measured with a hand held dynamometer before and after the three-weeks of training. Peak isometric knee extensor torques were calculated as the product of the force measured by the hand held dynamometer and the moment arm of the limb (the perpendicular distance from the knee joint center to the line of action of the dynamometer force. The left or right limb of each subject was randomly chosen as the blood flow restricted limb throughout the study. A 2x2 (limb, time) ANOVA with repeated measures found significant differences in torque from pre-test to post-test in both limbs (p = .016), significant differences in torque between limbs (p = .022), and a significant limb by time interaction (p = .034). A paired sample t-test compared the changes in peak isometric knee extensor strength from pre-training to post-training for both the BFR limb and non-BFR limb. There was a significant difference between the changes in the BFR limb and the non- BFR limb from pre-training to post-training (p = .016). This study shows that both BFR training and QuadMill™ training are effective training modalities for the lower extremities.

Download

Share

COinS