Apex proudly hosted their first continuing education course for physical therapists on June 26th.

The Owens Recovery Science group taught their Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) certification course. BFR is an exciting tool in physical therapy and strength training that has increased in popularity in the last decade. BFR works by using a tourniquet system to limit blood flow in and out the legs or arms.

It is typically combined with low intensity exercise for 5-6 minute bouts. This sounds medieval, but it is safe for the majority of patients.

BFR works great for patients with decreased tolerance to heavy loading such as people post fractures, early in ACL or Tommy John surgery recovery, or clients dealing with strong enough pain where hard exercises are not tolerated. The low oxygen state in your muscles from the BFR cuffs elicits the positive hormonal responses that high intensity exercise would cause normally. This hormonal cascade signals your body to build muscle. This is needed for typical muscle loss after a surgery which leads to decreased strength and function.

There is evidence that it can help with pain too!

If you have questions on BFR please feel free to contact Jon and he can answer your questions.