A critical appraisal of "The effects of a 7-week practical blood flow restriction program on well-trained collegiate athletes"

Luebbers et al. researched the effectiveness of blood flow restriction (BFR) with respect to muscular strength and size development. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the study and its associated presentation. Resistance training and BFR are both shown to help increase muscular strength and hypertrophy, but they occur by different means. Using keywords associated with resistance training and BFR articles on the databases of Pubmed and SPORTDiscus 14 articles were found and evaluated. The Effects of a 7-week Practical Blood Flow Restriction Program on Well-trained Collegiate Athletes was chosen as the article because the study compared the effects of BFR to non-BFR resistance training. The study allocated a football team into four random groups with different interventions to see the effect of supplemental BFR training compared to a traditional resistance training program alone. The article presented gave adequate background as a basis to the research project. The methods in the study tried to limit errors but constraints effected the group allocation negatively. The results were clearly stated and showed that BFR in addition to a resistance program could yield greater muscular strength and hypertrophy. Discussions made related the findings appropriately to the current knowledge of BFR. The findings from this study indicate ways BFR can be utilized to help more patients with muscular development. Using this research as a foundation there can be better implementation and further investigation into the effects of BFR.