Blood Flow Restriction Resistance Exercise and Cardiac Cycle Dynamics

February 11, 2026 updated by: Montclair State University
Blood flow restriction resistance exercise uses partial vascular occlusion of a limb during low weight resistance exercises to stimulate muscle strengthening and growth. This is commonly used during rehabilitation from an injury. Because blood flow in and out of the limbs is decreased, this may have consequences for blood flow through the heart. The purpose of this study will be to test cardiac dynamics during blood flow restriction resistance exercise to determine if cardiac blood flow is impacted. It is hypothesized that both non-BFR exercise and BFR exercise will increase heart rate shortening various cardiac cycle parameters, but BFR exercise will increase the isovolumetric contraction time vs non-BFR exercise due to an increase in total peripheral resistance. It is also hypothesized that BFR exercise will lower early ventricular filling parameters due to lower venous return.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Generally healthy

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Uncontrolled hypertension
  • Peripheral vascular disease
  • Lymphedema
  • Sickle cell anemia
  • Heart failure
  • Stroke history
  • Heart attack history
  • Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Chronic kidney disease
  • Diabetes
  • Severe neuropathy
  • Any condition that may make blood flow restriction resistance exercise riskier like history of blood clots
  • Use of coagulant therapy
  • Susceptible to blood clots
  • Obesity

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention group
Blood flow restriction resistance exercise
Behavioral: Blood flow restriction resistance exercise
Blood flow in and out of the limb will be artificially with an occlusion cuff.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Cardiac cycle durations
Time Frame: During the intervention for approximately 10 minutes.
During the intervention for approximately 10 minutes.
Ventricular filling
Time Frame: During intervention phase for approximately 10 minutes.
During intervention phase for approximately 10 minutes.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Montclair State University

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

February 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

January 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 7, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 7, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

January 15, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 13, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 11, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB-FY25-26-5034

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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