Acute and Chronic Responses of Aerobic Exercise With Blood Flow Restriction: A Systematic Review

Júlio Cesar Gomes Silva; Elísio Alves Pereira Neto; Patrick Alan Souza Pfeiffer; Gabriel Rodrigues Neto; Amanda Santos Rodrigues; Michael G Bemben; Stephen D Patterson; Gilmário Ricarte Batista; Maria S Cirilo-Sousa

doi:10.3389/fphys.2019.01239

Acute and Chronic Responses of Aerobic Exercise With Blood Flow Restriction: A Systematic Review

Front Physiol. 2019 Oct 4:10:1239. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.01239. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Júlio Cesar Gomes Silva^{1

2

3

4}, Elísio Alves Pereira Neto^{1

2

5}, Patrick Alan Souza Pfeiffer^{1

2}, Gabriel Rodrigues Neto^{2

3

4}, Amanda Santos Rodrigues², Michael G Bemben⁶, Stephen D Patterson⁷, Gilmário Ricarte Batista^{1

2}, Maria S Cirilo-Sousa^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Associate Graduate Program in Physical Education, Department of Physical Education, Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil.
² Laboratory of Kinanthropometry and Human Performance, Department of Physical Education, Federal University of Paraíba, João Pessoa, Brazil.
³ Faculty Nova Esperança (FAMENE/FACENE), Coordination of Physical Education, Nursing and Medical Schools, João Pessoa, Brazil.
⁴ Coordination of Physical Education, University Center for Higher Education and Development (CESED/UNIFACISA/FCM/ESAC), Campina Grande, Brazil.
⁵ Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA), School of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
⁶ Department of Health and Exercise Science, Norman, OK, United States.
⁷ Faculty of Sport, Health and Applied Science, St Marys' University, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

This study systematically reviewed the available scientific evidence pertaining to the acute and chronic changes promoted by aerobic exercise (AE) combined with blood flow restriction (BFR) on neuromuscular, metabolic and hemodynamic variables. PubMed, Web of Science^TM and Scopus databases were searched for the period from January 2000 to June 2019 and the analysis involved a critical content review. A total of 313 articles were identified, of which 271 were excluded and 35 satisfied the inclusion criteria. Twelve studies evaluated the acute effects and eight studies evaluated the chronic metabolic effects of AE + BFR. For the neuromuscular variables, three studies analyzed the acute effects of AE + BFR and nine studies analyzed the chronic effects. Only 15 studies were identified that evaluated the hemodynamic acute effects of AE + BFR. The analysis provided evidence that AE combined with BFR promotes positive acute and chronic changes in neuromuscular and metabolic variables, a greater elevation in hemodynamic variables than exercise alone, and a higher energy demand during and after exercise. Since these alterations were all well-tolerated, this method can be considered to be safe and feasible for populations of athletes, healthy young, obese, and elderly individuals.

Keywords: adults; aerobic exercise; blood flow restriction; elderly; hemodynamic.

Publication types

Systematic Review