COMPARISONS BETWEEN LOW-INTENSITY RESISTANCE TRAINING WITH BLOOD FLOW RESTRICTION AND HIGH-INTENSITY RESISTANCE TRAINING ON QUADRICEPS MUSCLE MASS AND STRENGTH IN ELDERLY

Vechin, FC, Libardi, CA, Conceicao, MS, Damas, FR, Lixandrao, ME, Berton, RPB, Tricoli, VAA, Roschel, HA, Cavaglieri, CR, Chacon-Mikahil, MPT, and Ugrinowitsch, C. Comparisons between low-intensity resistance training with blood flow restriction and high-intensity resistance training on quadriceps muscle mass and strength in elderly. J Strength Cond Res 29(4): 1071-1076, 2015-High-intensity resistance training (HRT) has been recommended to offset age-related loss in muscle strength and mass. However, part of the elderly population is often unable to exercise at high intensities. Alternatively, lowintensity resistance training with blood flow restriction (LRTBFR) has emerged. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of LRT-BFR and HRT on quadriceps muscle strength and mass in elderly. Twenty-three elderly individuals, 14 men and 9 women (age, 64.04 +/- 3.81 years; weight, 72.55 +/- 16.52 kg; height, 163 +/- 11 cm), undertook 12 weeks of training. Subjects were ranked according to their pretraining quadriceps cross-sectional area (CSA) values and then randomly allocated into one of the following groups: (a) control group, (b) HRT: 4 x 10 repetitions, 70-80% one repetition maximum (1RM), and (c) LRT-BFR: 4 sets (1 x 30 and 3 x 15 repetitions), 20-30% 1RM. The occlusion pressure was set at 50% of maximum tibial arterial pressure and sustained during the whole training session. Leg press 1RM and quadriceps CSA were evaluated at before and after training. A mixed-model analysis was performed, and the significance level was set at p <= 0.05. Both training regimes were effective in increasing pre-to post-training leg press 1RM (HRT:; similar to 54%, p < 0.001; LRT-BFR:; similar to 17%, p = 0.067) and quadriceps CSA (HRT: 7.9%, p < 0.001; LRT-BFR: 6.6%, p < 0.001); however, HRT seems to induce greater strength gains. In summary, LRT-BFR constitutes an important surrogate approach to HRT as an effective training method to induce gains in muscle strength and mass in elderly.