How Blood Flow Restriction Changes Exercise Science | Dr. Jeremy Loenneke

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (0:00)
Welcome to The Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Show, where cutting-edge science meets innovation and practical application for everyone. In today's episode, I sit down with the epic Jeremy Loenneke. He's an Associate Professor of Exercise Science at the University of Mississippi. His research group focuses primarily on skeletal muscle adaptations to exercise with and without the application of blood flow restriction. Dr. Loenneke is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and a member of the American Physiological Society. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles. He is an Associate Editor of many top-tier journals. Now, there are very few labs in the world that do blood flow restriction, and he's arguably one of the best. Join me in this conversation with Dr. Jeremy.
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**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (2:13)
Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's wonderful to be here.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (2:15)
Now, rumor has it that you were at the University of Illinois, maybe it was for a summer, where you ran into a mutual friend of ours. The story goes, and that mutual friend is Lane Norton, the story goes that I think you guys were at the gym, and maybe you said something about this blood flow restriction thing, or maybe he said something about it, and then here you are, a pioneer in blood flow restriction. Is it true?

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (2:44)
It is true. Before I went to Illinois, I was an undergraduate student. I was reading the literature, trying to just learn as much as I possibly could. I read a paper on blood flow restriction, so that was before I met Lane.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:00)
You got Lane?

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (3:01)
It was kind of talking about restricting blood flow and then beneficial things happening. So for me, I was like, I must just not understand what I'm reading. This doesn't even make sense. So I never, I didn't think anything more of it. I went to Illinois, and at the time, the mecca of natural bodybuilding was gold gym champagne.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:22)
Was it really?

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (3:22)
It was. You had Lane, a couple of other people there, Chris Foz, Gabe Wilson. But I saw these guys in the gym kind of trying to do blood flow restriction with knee wraps in the gym. I'm like, what are they doing? Then I was talking with them and I found out that, maybe I was reading that correctly. Maybe there is something to this blood flow restriction. So that's kind of how I just started reading more and more and more about it. And then I never stopped, essentially.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (3:54)
And just to be clear, you are the director and you have your own lab. And this is the Kevser, Kevser Ermin Applied Physiology Lab. And you focus primarily on skeletal muscle adaptation, adaptations to exercise and without via blood flow restriction.

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (4:16)
Correct.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (4:16)
Is that true? And by the way, you are a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (4:20)
I am.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (4:21)
Congratulations.

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (4:22)
Thank you so much.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (4:22)
That's pretty outstanding.

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (4:24)
Yeah, I appreciate it.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (4:25)
Why muscle? Why did you even carry? Here you are, undergraduate student. You were in Missouri, right? The first before you got to...

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (4:31)
Southeast Missouri State.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (4:33)
Before I went to WashU.

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (4:34)
Oh, nice.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (4:35)
I did my fellowship there. Why muscle?

**Dr. Jeremy Loenneke** (4:38)
Yeah. So early in my life, I was a mediocre wrestler.

**Dr. Gabrielle Lyon** (4:43)