The quest for building big muscles is something men have always placed a lot of importance on. Let's face it: We've spent more time coming up with ways to build muscle than we've devoted to space travel, say, or teleportation. We'll try anything that sounds remotely helpful in our pursuit of skin-tight sleeves.
With that in mind, it’s time to channel your inner 80s wrestling fan boy because muscle occlusion training may just be the secret to building muscles faster and larger than any other technique you’ve tried. We should have realised this a long time ago – why on earth did the Ultimate Warrior have those arm bands on if not to make his muscles bigger? Here’s how you can make your muscles pop so well you won’t even need to paint your face to stand out from the crowd.
What Is Muscle Occlusion Training?
Doctors call this type of muscle-building hack Blood-Flow Restriction training. What do the fancy titles really mean? Ultimately, it means stopping blood flow, but not in the way that you’d think. The goal of occlusion training is to basically trap blood in the muscle, not prevent the blood from getting there in the first place. How do you do this? Well, before you reach for some multi-coloured shoelaces and start cutting off the circulation to your biceps on your sprint towards the ring (last Warrior reference, we promise), the science, which was published in the journal ofMedicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, goes further than just advising you to force blood in the muscle longer than it would naturally stay there. In fact, the technique calls for using a wider surface like a knee wrap on the arms, but not so tight that it blocks blood flow altogether. Instead, according to Nathane Jackson, CSCS, author of Nathane Jackson’s Whole Health Revolution, “your wrap should be at a tightness of a seven or eight out of ten.” This slows the flow out of the muscle to allow the magic to happen.
Doctors call this type of muscle-building hack Blood-Flow Restriction training. What do the fancy titles really mean? Ultimately, it means stopping blood flow, but not in the way that you’d think. The goal of occlusion training is to basically trap blood in the muscle, not prevent the blood from getting there in the first place. How do you do this? Well, before you reach for some multi-coloured shoelaces and start cutting off the circulation to your biceps on your sprint towards the ring (last Warrior reference, we promise), the science, which was published in the journal ofMedicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, goes further than just advising you to force blood in the muscle longer than it would naturally stay there. In fact, the technique calls for using a wider surface like a knee wrap on the arms, but not so tight that it blocks blood flow altogether. Instead, according to Nathane Jackson, CSCS, author of Nathane Jackson’s Whole Health Revolution, “your wrap should be at a tightness of a seven or eight out of ten.” This slows the flow out of the muscle to allow the magic to happen.
How Does Muscle Occlusion Actually Work?
The simple answer as to how this technique works is to say that muscles grow when you train them through a process of tearing and repairing. So it would stand to reason that leaving your blood, the repairing agent, in your muscles longer would exponentially boost your chances of growth. The Strength & Conditioning Journal published research that outlines theexact processes of muscle occlusion. Bottom line: Slowing the blood flow away from a muscle that has just been worked forces fast twitch fibres in the muscle to grow. Why is this good? Fast twitch fibres are bigger than slow twitch fibres and they’re also the ones that are hardest to activate.
The simple answer as to how this technique works is to say that muscles grow when you train them through a process of tearing and repairing. So it would stand to reason that leaving your blood, the repairing agent, in your muscles longer would exponentially boost your chances of growth. The Strength & Conditioning Journal published research that outlines theexact processes of muscle occlusion. Bottom line: Slowing the blood flow away from a muscle that has just been worked forces fast twitch fibres in the muscle to grow. Why is this good? Fast twitch fibres are bigger than slow twitch fibres and they’re also the ones that are hardest to activate.
Lift Light And Get Heavy Results!
Science backs it up and it can help you build muscle. All good news, right? You don’t even know the best part yet! This technique can give you a similar pump with light weight as what you would get through lifting heavy. Oh yes. According to research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, you don’t have to kill yourself with a stack of weights to get a great workout that will build muscle. Instead, you can let science do the heavy lifting with an assist from a wrap and a couple of light dumbbells. According to Jackson, you should “lift a light to medium weight, perform 25 to 30 reps on your first set, rest for 30 seconds and be sure to leave the wraps on throughout this protocol.” He advises three to four additional sets of 15 reps, with 30 seconds rest between each set but he cautions: “It's expected that you won’t get to 15 reps on your last set.” Don’t worry, your arms won’t explode before you hit 15, you’ll just reach muscle exhaustion – and that builds serious muscle!
Science backs it up and it can help you build muscle. All good news, right? You don’t even know the best part yet! This technique can give you a similar pump with light weight as what you would get through lifting heavy. Oh yes. According to research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, you don’t have to kill yourself with a stack of weights to get a great workout that will build muscle. Instead, you can let science do the heavy lifting with an assist from a wrap and a couple of light dumbbells. According to Jackson, you should “lift a light to medium weight, perform 25 to 30 reps on your first set, rest for 30 seconds and be sure to leave the wraps on throughout this protocol.” He advises three to four additional sets of 15 reps, with 30 seconds rest between each set but he cautions: “It's expected that you won’t get to 15 reps on your last set.” Don’t worry, your arms won’t explode before you hit 15, you’ll just reach muscle exhaustion – and that builds serious muscle!
Not Just For Biceps
If you think you can pass this off as just another bigger arms promise, think again. This training technique can be used for any muscle. It works best on the arms and legs because wrapping your limbs and the muscles in them is a heck of a lot easier than trying to wrap a section of your abdomen without sacrificing form on the exercises you’re performing. Jackson advises utilising this technique “as a workout finisher after completing your regular strength work, especially when you reach a plateau, when you’re bored with your current plan, or when you aren’t seeing the gains you’re hoping for after a full workout cycle, but not every time you train.”
If you think you can pass this off as just another bigger arms promise, think again. This training technique can be used for any muscle. It works best on the arms and legs because wrapping your limbs and the muscles in them is a heck of a lot easier than trying to wrap a section of your abdomen without sacrificing form on the exercises you’re performing. Jackson advises utilising this technique “as a workout finisher after completing your regular strength work, especially when you reach a plateau, when you’re bored with your current plan, or when you aren’t seeing the gains you’re hoping for after a full workout cycle, but not every time you train.”
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