The effects of resistance exercise with and without different degrees of blood-flow restriction on perceptual responses

Abstract

The aim was to compare exercise with and without different degrees of blood-flow restriction on perceived exertion (RPE) and discomfort. Participants were assigned to Experiment 1, 2, or 3. Each completed protocols differing by pressure, load, and/or volume. RPE and discomfort were taken before and after each set. For pressure and RPE, the 20% one repetition maximum (1RM) blood-flow restriction conditions were affected by increasing the pressure from 40% to 50% blood-flow restriction (~12 vs. ~14). This did not appear to happen within the 30% 1RM blood-flow restriction conditions or the higher pressures in the 20% 1RM conditions. The similar RPE between 20% and 30% 1RM to failure was expected given both were to failure. For discomfort, ratings were primarily affected by load at the lowest pressure. Increasing pressure to 50% blood-flow restriction increased discomfort at 20% 1RM (~2.6 vs. ~4). There was a further increase when increasing to 60% blood-flow restriction (~4 vs. ~4.8). The high-load condition had the lowest discomfort, while ratings were highest with 20% 1RM to failure. In conclusion, exercise with blood-flow restriction does not appear to augment the perceptual response observed with low-load exercise to failure.

Perceptual and arterial occlusion responses to very low load blood flow restricted exercise performed to volitional failure

“…1). This also supports previous findings in which lower loads performed to volitional failure resulted in greater discomfort than heavier loads (20% 1RM: 7; 70% 1RM: 5Á5; Loenneke et al, 2015), although a direct comparison across these conditions was not made in that study. This is further supported in that the application of blood flow restriction during exercise to volitional failure did not reduce RPE despite reducing volume, which also corroborates the findings of others examining knee extension exercise (Wernbom et al, 2009).…”

“…rehabilitative populations (Ohta et al, 2003), older adults (Vechin et al, 2015)] or less willing to engage in resistance exercise with heavier loads. Previous studies, however, have not made a direct comparison to high load exercise (Wernbom et al, 2009;Loenneke et al, 2015;Jessee et al, 2017) or have not considered the cardiovascular and perceptual responses to these protocols performed to volitional failure (Yasuda et al, 2010;Loenneke et al, 2015). These variables are important to consider as individuals may be less likely to adhere to exercise if it is not perceived favourably, and the augmented cardiovascular responses have raised concerns (although speculative) among some researchers (Spranger et al, 2015).…”

“…These variables are important to consider as individuals may be less likely to adhere to exercise if it is not perceived favourably, and the augmented cardiovascular responses have raised concerns (although speculative) among some researchers (Spranger et al, 2015). Previous studies, however, have not made a direct comparison to high load exercise (Wernbom et al, 2009;Loenneke et al, 2015;Jessee et al, 2017) or have not considered the cardiovascular and perceptual responses to these protocols performed to volitional failure (Yasuda et al, 2010;Loenneke et al, 2015). This is an important consideration as this likely provides the most fair comparison across protocols as opposed to simply prescribing an arbitrary number of repetitions to be completed .…”

Differentiation between perceived effort and discomfort during resistance training in older adults:Reliability of trainee ratings of effort and discomfort,and reliability and validity of trainer ratings of trainee effort

“…Studies by Hollander et al 31,32 found that, though RPE is typically reported as being higher than discomfort (the authors used the term pain) for a range of RT conditions (different loads and contraction types), both respond in a similar fashion. Studies using blood flow restriction based RT have shown similar findings 33,34 , though it should perhaps be noted that this unique form of exercise typically produces greater discomfort post completion (i.e. during the rest periods).…”

“…19,[23][24][25] Certain manipulations of RT variables appear to have the potential to impact upon RPE in unexpected ways and thus may indicate a conflation of perceived effort and discomfort by participants. [26][27][28][29][30] Indeed, even where studies have attempted to differentiate the two, strong relationships in their responses manifest both during traditional RT and blood flow restriction based RT [31][32][33][34] . This may be potentially be due to these studies in some cases using high effort RT conditions known also to anecdotally produce high levels of discomfort (e.g.…”