Another BFR Success Story: Protect and Serve
Respect. R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Find out what it means to me. It’s a good thing to consider. There are many reasons why someone would respect or disrespect someone.
On June 11, 1997, the Chicago Bulls played the Utah Jazz in Game 5 of the 1997 Finals. Michael Jordan played 44 minutes, scored 38 points, had 7 rebounds, dished out 5 assists, and hit the game-winning 3-pointer. Oh…and he did all of that with a fever and after a night of vomiting from food poisoning …#Respect.
“I love Harry Potter!”
“Awesome, me too! What is your favorite book?”
“Oh, I’ve never read the books, but I’ve seen the movies.”
#Disrespect
Anyone who puts his/her life on the line to protect my loved ones and me has my full respect. Today, we are showcasing an individual who was preparing for the police academy, but was plagued by severe knee pain. Steve was a 25-year-old male with great ambitions to protect and serve. Steve developed severe pain in the front of his knee rated 8/10 at worst. Steve had pain with stair negotiation, bodyweight squatting, walking for more than 5 min, sitting for more than 10 min, kneeling down, and running for any duration. Steve needed to be in the best shape of his life from a strength and endurance stand point or his dreams of service to his community were going to be out of reach.
Steve had built a solid foundation of overall fitness, so he was in fairly good shape despite his knee pain. Steve needed some way to achieve gains in size, strength, and cardiovascular capacity despite his easily provoked pain. Blood flow restriction training was definitely worth a shot!
We started Steve off with low intensity walking with 60% LOP. Pressure was maintained for 5 min on, 1 min off, 5 min on, 1 min off, etc. for 20 total minutes initially. After one week, we moved on to 4 sets of non-failure knee extensions using 60% LOP with pressure maintained throughout all four sets. The following week, we performed 4 sets of non-failure leg presses and squats at 60% LOP with pressure maintained throughout all four sets. From there, we progressed load and proximity to failure in a linear fashion. After four weeks, Steve reported 3/10 pain with descending stairs only and no pain with moderately heavy leg presses and squats. Steve was also able to run 2 miles at a moderate intensity without reproduction of pain.
That brings us to the current day. Steve is continuing to progress his strength training and running protocol, according to the academy requirements. We stopped BFR training at four weeks, because as we preach here at the BFR Pros, BFR should be used as an adjunct to, not a replacement to, traditional training. I will keep you posted on the rest of Steve’s journey!
****Remember, the decision to use BFR, or any treatment for that matter, should be based on the pillars of evidence-based practice.
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