Can you lift lighter weights and still build muscle? By exercising with less oxygen, you might.
It has been known since the 1960s that strength training with the addition of pressure (variously named Kaatsu, vascular occlusion or blood flow restriction training) produces similar results to traditional high-load resistance training.
Lincoln University Associate Professor Mike Hamlin, of the University’s Sport and Recreation Research Group, will be presenting to a conference in Thailand the results of research on whether performing resistance training in systemic hypoxia (via breathing hypoxic air, or air with less oxygen) might provide similar training benefits.
“The International Conference of the 40th Anniversary of AMS-KKU Foundation in Conjunction with the 4th Allied Health Sciences Symposium” runs from 6-8 November.
The research used subjects doing knee extensions, and groups of netballers doing sprints, found low-load resistance training in hypoxia is as good as (if not better) than traditional strength training.
While the blood flow restriction training can only be used on limbs, the hypoxia training is more versatile and could be used for full body workouts.
It could also assist athletes rehabilitating from injury that cannot manage high resistance loads, or be alternative to traditional training, and used for people with conditions where muscle function may be inhibited and therefore traditional high-load resistance is impractical.