Alex: You mentioned BFR training also in our discussion couple of weeks ago: May I ask you what was your setup and device, please? How long did you use it? I guess it was only for legs?
I knew I saw this question, but I was not sure where it was. It stayed in the back of my mind, just moved it to a new topic.
I have some smart cuffs for arms and air bands for legs. They are both from Australia and I am sure the same company as they both work with either app. I have an outdoor gym and so when the weather is better I am a more inspired weight lifter. Winter I am doing the minimal just to survive…
My pro Coach friend Andrea suggested that doing 20-minute HIIT sessions with BFR could have rapid benefits. He personally saw great results on less than 1-hour a week. 65kg / 230 FTP. But returning back to previous level is much easier than achieving new peaks, especially when you are closer to your likely limits.
Anyway, I also like Peter Attila and he also talks about BFR for muscle building.
So I have done it but again not consistenly enough or scientifically enough to be sure of any clear results. Last year I was doing low RPM, high torque training (SFR) with BFR. So SFR with BFR 
It’s a pretty intense feeling and I would say anyone with blood pressure issues or aging (whatever that means) should probably be more careful.
I plan on starting again soon, trying to get a bit of boost before biking season with my kids. They get stronger and stronger one of these years I will be struggling to keep up if my training practices don’t improve
I also have an SMO2 device, Humon which is now defunct. It seems these devices work well for some and not so well for others. I talked to the guys from Moxy and they confirmed this. So I clearly 3 deflection points indicating aerobic threshold and anaerobic threshold. As a real scientist, Andrea was using his BFR devices with Moxy.
For upper body, I was just doing bicept and tricepts to see if I could help them grow a bit faster. Generally with BFR you take things pretty easy and feel pretty intense discomfort even going easy. Hence people use the for injury recovery because of the low intensity required.
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BFR is still puzzling me (even thinking about it makes me feel ‘embarrassed’), despite knowing already the modality of that exercise.
When you do an isometric training (no weights necessary), you also restrict the blood flow for few seconds, depending on intensity. Cats exercise that way for about one minute a day, their legs are trembling in slow, full range movement. We know from Critical Power Curve, that 5-12 seconds of maximum intensity (alactic phase) is what makes sense. Cats know it without long studies. 
In some Bruce Lee movies and others, guys do also that kind of slow arms movement with high intensity. Perhaps it is enough, at least for recruiting more fibers and develop strength…
I think that main problem is that we do not know how to develop isometric 100% contraction (unless we pump iron).
I am not sure that lifting iron is considered isometric but I guess there is overlap between maximum efforts and isometric. It’s interesting how most people that train with weight use the body building style focused on hytroperphy. 8-12 reps and failure. And to get the strongest it should be more like 3-5 reps not to failure.
You can actually do body weight exercises that are just as hard as iron and take a very incremental approach to increases. As one example modality being. Starting with wall pushups and the end when you are seriously strong you are doing 1-arm hand stand pushups. 1-arm pullups… There are super hard body weight for full body. Backpack pistol squats. Don’t worry I am not this strong on any of these… Just saying iron just simplifies the process, especially mentally, but no reason you can’t do the same with body weight.
Also, I would say if we are not embarassingly confused by all this stuff, then we don’t know what we are doing When you are sure you understand it, it’s time to start over…
Absolutely! I’ve just posted some comments about AphaHRV on Intervals. Hot topic, but I’m sceptic to the method, as noise in HRV params is overwhelming and putting one’s head in the sand and pretending that it is not important will not help.
But I have some ideas…
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