BLOOD RUSH

WORK THROUGH enough reps of any exercise with a challenging weight and you’ll experience the mythic pump, a swelling of blood and metabolites within the muscle that, over time, gives you the kind of superhero muscle you’ve always wanted.

But what if you could skip the agony of lifting heavy weights and still build serious brawn?

That’s the promise of blood-flow-restriction training (BFR), a method by which you tighten a few Velcro cuffs around your upper thighs or in 1937, detailed how doctors used the method to regenerate tissue and increase walking capacity in patients with a range of lower-body circulation disorders.