Walking with blood flow restriction improves the dynamic strength of women with osteoporosis

Abstract

Introduction: Improving strength levels is important to women with osteoporosis. Resistance and aerobic exercise are effective means of reaching this goal; however, the use of low-load exercises with blood flow restriction is an alternative to traditional methods of exercise to achieve the same strength gains in this population. Objective: To analyze the chronic effects of aerobic and resistance training combined with blood flow restriction on the maximal dynamic strength (MDS) of women with osteoporosis. Methods: Twenty women (61.40±4.63 years of age, 61.82±12.54 kg, 1.51±0.05 m, 27.16±5.55 kg/m2) were randomly assigned to four groups: 1 - high-intensity resistance training (HI); 2 - low-intensity resistance training with blood flow restriction (LI-BFR); 3 - aerobic training with blood flow restriction (ABFR); and 4 - control group (CG). Unilateral knee extension MDS was assessed using the one-repetition maximum (1RM) strength test before and after the 6th and 12th weeks of intervention. The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a Bonferroni post-hoc test performed using SPSS (version 21.0), considering a significance level of P<0.05 for all tests. Results: Baseline comparisons showed that HI and CG had lower strength levels than LI-BFR and ABFR groups (P<0.05). The ABFR group exhibited a significant increase in MDS between the 1st and the 6th week (9%, P=0.001) and between the 1st and the 12th week (21.6%, P=0.008). The LI-BFR group exhibited increased MDS between the 1st and the 6th week (10.1%, P=0.001), between the 1st and the 12th week (24.2%, P=0.003) and between the 6th and 12th week (12.8%, P=0.030). The HI group exhibited a significant difference between the 1st and the 6th week (38.7%, P<0.001), between the 1st and the 12th week (62%, P<0.001) and between the 6th and 12th weeks (17.4%, P=0.020), whereas the CG had no significant differences between the timepoints (P>0.05). Conclusions: ABFR and LI-BFR effectively increased the MDS of women with osteoporosis.