Blood flow restriction exercise in high-performance sport settings: A practitioner survey

Matthew J Clarkson; Brendan R Scott; Stephen D Patterson; Stuart A Warmington

doi:10.1080/02640414.2025.2525710

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Blood flow restriction exercise in high-performance sport settings: A practitioner survey

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Blood flow restriction exercise in high-performance sport settings: A practitioner survey

Matthew J Clarkson, Brendan R Scott, Stephen D Patterson and Stuart A Warmington

Journal of sports sciences, pp.1-12

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2025.2525710

PMID: 40793934

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Abstract

rehabilitation

athletes

sports

Physical conditioning

athletic performance

The purpose of this study was to characterise how blood flow restriction (BFR) exercise is utilised by practitioners in high-performance sports settings. Participants (n = 154) engaged with the questionnaire, of which 123 provided data about their use of BFR with athletes in high-performance sports settings. The main findings indicated that BFR was primarily used for injury rehabilitation (81.3% of practitioners) or supplementary to traditional strength and conditioning programs for muscle hypertrophy (80.4%), limiting loss of muscle mass (71.9%), or muscle strengthening (51.6%). Participants used BFR with both team and individual sports, but with only a small subset of the athletes they worked with (65% of practitioners used BFR with less than 25% of their athletes). Cuff pressures were prescribed using both measured individualised occlusion pressures (56.1%) and arbitrary set pressures (52.8%). Despite practitioners’ awareness of contraindications and the need for screening, formal screening tools were underutilised (55.7% of practitioners did not use a screening tool for clearance to use BFR). Ultimately, BFR exercise was largely prescribed in line with established guidelines, although the application of individualised cuff pressures and health screening processes may require further attention from practitioners in high-performance sports.

Details

Title: Blood flow restriction exercise in high-performance sport settings: A practitioner survey
Authors/Creators: Matthew J Clarkson - Victoria University
Brendan R Scott - Murdoch University, Centre for Healthy Ageing
Stephen D Patterson - Faculty of Sport, Allied Health & Performance Sciences, St Mary's University, London, UK
Stuart A Warmington - Deakin University
Publication Details: Journal of sports sciences, pp.1-12
Publisher: Routledge as part of the Taylor and Francis Group
Number of pages: 12
Identifiers: 991005807950007891
Murdoch Affiliation: Murdoch Applied Sports Science Laboratory; Centre for Healthy Ageing; School of Allied Health
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Citation topics: 1 Clinical & Life Sciences; 1.172 Sports Science; 1.172.414 Training Optimization
Web Of Science research areas: Sport Sciences
ESI research areas: Clinical Medicine