PillarofBalance
Strength Pimp
- Feb 27, 2011
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Maximize muscle growth with occlusion training
Occlusion training, or kaatsu training as is more commonly referenced, is the act of limiting or cutting-off bloodflow to a working muscle during resistance training. It is a highly effective strategy, especially for those who are unable to lift near their one-rep-max.
Skeletal muscles have the distinct advantage of being able to regenerate themselves and heal perfectly after being injured. Skeletal muscles also have the ability to induce hypertrophy, or muscle cell size increase. The reasons for increases in muscle cell size can be from several reasons, including:
The funny thing is, tearing up the muscle with heavy weight alone is not the only thing you can do to gain muscle mass. You can trick your muscles into thinking there is less oxygen, thereby stimulating an anabolic response in your fast-twitch muscle fibers. This is accomplished by “occluding” or cutting off blood flow to a limb or muscle during reduced intensity contractions. The muscle will confusedly run out of oxygen, and switch to muscle glycogen as a fuel source.
This will cause a hormonal cascade within the muscle tissue, signalling a low-oxygen environment. When the occlusion is released at the end of the routine, there will be a large dump of lactic acid and other metabolic byproducts which will signal your pituitary to release growth hormone. Your muscles will directly be influenced by “starving” them of oxygen, which will cause them to utilize anaerobic metabolic pathways, including the extra storage of muscle glycogen.
A typical routine for occlusion training your arms with kaatsu or occlusion training would be 3 sets of 20 with 50% of your 1RM (one rep max). You would fully occlude the arms between the biceps and deltoids (shoulder). You can use wrist straps to manually hold and isolate your muscles, or you can splurge on some sweet katsumi straps. (Be sure to not leave the straps on and occluding the muscle for more than a few minutes at a time, because you can cause excessive muscle damage by starving it for oxygen too long.)
Another benefit of occlusion training is the ability to train a muscle much more frequently. You can effectively kaatsu or occlusion train a muscle every day due to the near complete lack of muscle fiber damage. I would recommend keeping the training volume to less than 3-4 per week regardless.
With proper muscle occlusion training, you will effectively be damaging muscle less, while stimulating it for anabolism as well as or greater than resistance training alone. I personally utilize occlusion training for my arms at least a couple times a month.
Occlusion training, or kaatsu training as is more commonly referenced, is the act of limiting or cutting-off bloodflow to a working muscle during resistance training. It is a highly effective strategy, especially for those who are unable to lift near their one-rep-max.
Skeletal muscles have the distinct advantage of being able to regenerate themselves and heal perfectly after being injured. Skeletal muscles also have the ability to induce hypertrophy, or muscle cell size increase. The reasons for increases in muscle cell size can be from several reasons, including:
- More proteins for contraction (strength)
- More muscle glycogen for repetitive contraction (stamina)
- Thicker muscle cell proteins (hardiness and flexibility)
- Increased fast twitch/slow twitch ratio (strength/endurance)
The funny thing is, tearing up the muscle with heavy weight alone is not the only thing you can do to gain muscle mass. You can trick your muscles into thinking there is less oxygen, thereby stimulating an anabolic response in your fast-twitch muscle fibers. This is accomplished by “occluding” or cutting off blood flow to a limb or muscle during reduced intensity contractions. The muscle will confusedly run out of oxygen, and switch to muscle glycogen as a fuel source.
This will cause a hormonal cascade within the muscle tissue, signalling a low-oxygen environment. When the occlusion is released at the end of the routine, there will be a large dump of lactic acid and other metabolic byproducts which will signal your pituitary to release growth hormone. Your muscles will directly be influenced by “starving” them of oxygen, which will cause them to utilize anaerobic metabolic pathways, including the extra storage of muscle glycogen.
A typical routine for occlusion training your arms with kaatsu or occlusion training would be 3 sets of 20 with 50% of your 1RM (one rep max). You would fully occlude the arms between the biceps and deltoids (shoulder). You can use wrist straps to manually hold and isolate your muscles, or you can splurge on some sweet katsumi straps. (Be sure to not leave the straps on and occluding the muscle for more than a few minutes at a time, because you can cause excessive muscle damage by starving it for oxygen too long.)
Another benefit of occlusion training is the ability to train a muscle much more frequently. You can effectively kaatsu or occlusion train a muscle every day due to the near complete lack of muscle fiber damage. I would recommend keeping the training volume to less than 3-4 per week regardless.
With proper muscle occlusion training, you will effectively be damaging muscle less, while stimulating it for anabolism as well as or greater than resistance training alone. I personally utilize occlusion training for my arms at least a couple times a month.
