Differential muscle hypertrophy and edema responses between high-load and low-load exercise with blood flow restriction.

We sought to determine whether early increases in cross-sectional area (CSA) of different muscles composing the quadriceps with low-load resistance training with blood flow restriction (LL-BFR) were mainly driven by muscle hypertrophy or by edema-induced swelling. We also compared these changes to those promoted by high-load resistance training (HL-RT). In a randomized within-subject design, fifteen healthy, untrained men were submitted to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for CSA and edema-induced muscle swelling assessment (fast spin echo inversion recovery, FSE-STIR).