This study aimed to evaluate whether near‐infrared spectroscopy ( NIRS )‐derived reperfusion slope would detect the effects of a 12‐week rehabilitation program on lower limb microvascular responsiveness in patients with coronary heart disease ( CHD ). Ten CHD patients (7 males and 3 females; 57.3 ± 7.6 years) underwent 12 weeks of drug treatment and high‐intensity interval training ( HIIT ), 2 times per week (40 min/session). Microvascular responsiveness was assessed by using NIRS assessment of muscle oxygen saturation (StO 2 ) combined with a vascular occlusion test ( VOT ) ( NIRS ‐ VOT ). NIRS ‐ VOT measures were taken at pre‐ and postintervention, and microvascular responsiveness was evaluated by examining the slope 2 of re‐oxygenation rate (slope 2 StO 2 ) and the area under the curve (StO 2 AUC ) of StO 2 signal following cuff release subsequent to a 5‐min occlusion period. The slope 2 StO 2 was significantly steeper after 12 weeks of training (4.8 ± 1.6% sec −1 ) compared to the pretraining (3.1 ± 1.6% sec −1 ) ( P < 0.05). The area under the curve for the change in the % StO 2 signal during re‐oxygenation increased significantly from 3494 ± 2372%∙sec at pretraining to 9006 ± 4311%∙sec at post‐training ( P < 0.05). NIRS ‐ VOT technique detected the improvements of 12 weeks of rehabilitation program in the lower limb microvascular responsiveness of CHD patients.