Kyle Kimbrell, PT, MPT joins Kory Zimney and JJ Thomas to discuss using Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) in the clinic. Kimbrell was first exposed to BFR through research and Johnny Owens’ twitter and now works as an instructor for Owens Recovery Science in the West Coast Division.

Here are some of the highlights:

The clinical reasoning behind using BFR with the right patients comes down to a better understanding of the muscle and how it responds to load.

One of the best cases for BFR are people that have an osteoarthritic knee. You can make the quadricep work hard and the knee doesn’t have to

Getting your patients discharged quickly doesn’t mean that you were successful with your patient. Many patients need capacity building and biology building takes time, and BFR helps with building that biology.

In building muscles, load isn’t as important as making the muscle tired.

Convincing your patients that are scared of BFR can be as easy as just telling them that the pressure can be tight, but it will only be for a few seconds. Then, you can underload and give them the highest pressure just to let them see how the muscle feels and be familiar with it.

BFR can reduce the time under tension, because it makes your muscles fatigue faster.

When your patients starts counting all by themselves, you have the right load for your patient.

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More Links:

Kyle Kimbrell’s LinkedIn

@primalphysicaltherapy

@ZimneyKJ

@EIMTeam