Acute Effects of Blood Flow Restricted Resistance Exercise on Heart Rate Variability

It is recommended that low-load resistance exercise with blood flow restriction be employed as an alternative method for individuals unable to perform traditional high-load resistance exercise. This study investigated the acute effects of low-load resistance exercise with blood flow restriction (BFR-RE) and traditional high-load resistance exercise (HL-RE) on heart rate variability. Sixteen recreational male participants aged 18-24 volunteered to participate in the study and 14 completed the study. Participants were randomly divided into two groups (BFR-RE:8, HL-RE:8). The BFR-RE group performed the leg press exercise (30-15-15-15 reps, 30-seconds rest between sets, 30% of 1RM) with BFR cuffs (60% of arterial occlusion pressure). The HL-RE group performed the same exercise (3 x 12 reps, 90 seconds rest between the sets, 70% 1RM) without BFR cuffs. Heart rate, variability, and time domain parameters were assessed using the POLAR H7 heart rate monitor with the Elite HRV mobile application. Twoway analysis of variance (ANOVA) with 2×2 repeated measures was used to analyze differences between groups. Significance was set at p