A Hot Fitness Trend Among Olympians: Blood Flow Restriction
Some athletes in Tokyo are indulging in a trendy technique to enhance the effects of training and stimulate recovery. Credit a Japanese former power lifter.
Every four years, the Summer Olympics shows the world the latest training or recovery method the greatest athletes have taken up. In 2016, many swimmers had red circular marks on their skin from “cupping,” an ancient Chinese practice involving suction on sore muscles and tendons. This year, the hot thing appears to be tourniquets. No, there is no outbreak of cuts. But the American swimmer Michael Andrew is wearing tourniquet-like bands in the practice pool. Galen Rupp, the defending bronze medalist in the marathon, sometimes straps similar bands to his legs while training. They are among the elite athletes who have become disciples of a practice known as blood flow restriction, which is exactly what it sounds like: cutting off blood flow to certain muscles for limited periods to both enhance the effects of training and stimulate recovery.