#167 Benefits of Blood Flow Restriction Training and KAATSU

John Doolittle (0:00)

Even if you do absolutely no functional movement, and you're just laying there, it's almost like you're exercising from the inside out. Because every time a blood vessel is expands and contracts, expands and contracts, your mind interprets that as some form of exercise, and reacts accordingly.

So even if you're not doing a lifting movement or a workout movement, there's still all kinds of benefit to the passive aspect of it.

SPEAKER_2 (0:34)

Do you want to know what it is?

Siim Land (0:38)

Body Mind Empowerment.

SPEAKER_2 (0:40)

Get stronger, faster, smarter, quicker, friendlier, more helpful, more driven.

Siim Land (0:46)

Everything the body needs.

SPEAKER_2 (0:47)

Control your mind.

Siim Land (0:51)

Welcome to the Body Mind Empowerment Podcast. I'm your host, Siim Land, and today we have two guests from KAATSU Global, Steven Munatones and John Doolittle.

KAATSU is a form of blood flow moderation training that can mimic heavy weightlifting with lighter loads. It's the most researched and most advanced form of blood flow restriction training in the world, and it's amazing. It's especially useful for promoting recovery, treating certain injuries, as well as just slowing down aging. If you want to get yourself the KAATSU bands, then you can use the code SIIM for a 10% discount at katsuglobal.com.

But on that, let's begin with the show. Yeah, before we get on to the topics, why don't you guys give us maybe a brief introduction about you guys as well, and can I let the listener know which one is which with your voices?

Steven Munatones (1:40)

John, why don't you go first, and then I'll go second.

John Doolittle (1:46)

Hello, everyone. My name is John Doolittle.

I was introduced to KAATSU about four years ago while I was active duty in the US Navy.

I spent a career working in the SEAL teams, and I got hurt like a lot of guys do on a pretty regular basis.

In my last rehab, the physical therapist used KAATSU on me. And it was the same injury I had had when I was six years younger. It was a torn rotator cuff that they repaired. And I was pretty blown away by how quickly my rehab was. It was basically half the time from the same injuries when I was six years younger. So they definitely had my attention. The job I was working at was in US Special Operations Command. There's a human performance program, and I was overseeing that program. And so a lot of the athletic trainers and physical therapists, I worked with them. And that's how I got introduced to KAATSU and basically fell in love with the capability and the protocols. It was more on the rehab side for me.

Siim Land (3:12)

Yeah, well, Steven.

Steven Munatones (3:16)

And myself, I was introduced to KAATSU and the inventor of KAATSU, Dr. Sato, in Tokyo in 2001

At the time, I was a volunteer coach with the USA National Swim Team. And I had seen athletes in Japan use KAATSU and I didn't know what it was. And they introduced me to Dr. Sato. And when I, when Dr. Sato first used KAATSU on me, I asked them two simple questions. I said, why isn't this, why isn't KAATSU known around the world? And what can we do to introduce it to the world? And he said, well, I don't travel outside of Japan and I don't speak English. And so I, so we decided then that we should form a partnership and start introducing KAATSU to the rest of the world. But it took me 13 years to understand everything that Dr. Sato was doing.

He invited me to Japan four times a year, and I saw him utilize KAATSU in hospitals with sumo wrestlers, with professional athletes, with golfers, with old people, with people who were comatose, people who were bedridden, people up to the age of 104

And all this time, he was explaining in Japanese, and I was documenting everything in English. And when that entire mentorship, that training program was over, both he and I decided that we had enough information about KAATSU in order to properly introduce it to the rest of the world. And we started in 2014 So that was my experience and introduction to KAATSU.

Siim Land (5:26)

So it looks like both of you had like firsthand experience, and then you just got more into it.

But maybe what is KAATSU in general? Like, how do you define it and such?

Steven Munatones (5:39)

Yes, there are several steps to... This is Steve. There are several steps to KAATSU. The first step is to put pneumatic bands on your arms or your legs.

And then when you do that, you actually engorge your limb and blood.