Blood flow occlusion pressure at rest and immediately after a bout of low load exercise

The purpose of this study was to determine whether arm circumference is predictive of arterial occlusion in the standing position and to determine the change in pressure before and immediately after exercise. Thirty-one participants had their arm circumference, blood pressure and standing arterial occlusion determined before exercise. Participants then completed elbow flexions at 40% of resting arterial occlusion at 30% of their one repetition maximum (1RM). The goal repetitions for the exercise included one set of 30 repetitions followed by 3 sets of 15, with 30s rest between sets. Immediately following the last set, post-exercise arterial occlusion was determined. Two different models of hierarchical linear regression were used to determine the greatest predictor of standing arterial occlusion. Our final model explained 69% of the variance in arterial occlusion with arm circumference (beta = 0.639, part = 0.568) explaining more than brachial systolic blood pressure (beta = 0.312, part = 0.277). Standing arterial occlusion increased from pre- [138 (15) mmHg] to post- [169 (20) mmHg] exercise (P<0.001). In conclusion, the cardiovascular response to blood flow restriction (BFR) in the upper arm following 4 sets of elbow flexion exercise decreases the relative arterial occlusion pressure. In addition, we confirm previous data that circumference explains the most unique variance in arterial occlusion pressure in the upper body. These findings are important as they provide additional insight into making the pressure more uniform between participants throughout exercise.