Blood Flow Restriction Machine

It’s called the blood flow restriction machine. Lee Health Physical Therapist Janice Smeigh said, “Pro athletes use it all the time, just for strength gains and or recovery.” It helps people build muscle quicker. “Instead of waiting 6 to 12 weeks to gain strength, this is going to decrease the time to 3 to 4 weeks.”

It can be used to help people with a wide variety of conditions. “So you can use it with people after total replacements, ACL surgeries, meniscal surgeries, pretty much below the cuff injuries,” said Smeigh.

It works kind of like a tourniquet. Smeigh said by regulating pressure throughout treatment, the machine can switch the bodies aerobic cycle. “We want to switch cycle so we can recruit different kind of muscle groups. We want to increase the fiber type of the type two fibers, versus the type one fibers. The type one fibers are the smaller muscle groups, we want to increase it to the larger muscle groups, so we can build the muscles to be stronger.”

The machine tricks your brain so it feels like you’re lifting more weight than you actually are. “It’s going to feel pretty heavy, so if you need to lift 20 pounds what I would do is take you down to about 8 pounds,” said Smeigh. “Our brain is going to think that we’re causing damage to the tissue, but we’re not actually damaging the tissue, because we’re only working out at about 20 to 30% of our maximum weight.”

Treatment can last 3 to 6 weeks after injury. You can be referred to physical therapy through your doctor.

Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries. Lee Health - Caring People. Inspiring Care.