Saving Muscle in Midlife Menopause: The Case for Blood Flow Restriction with Ashley Selman, CSCS (Episode 286)

Saving Muscle in Midlife Menopause: The Case for Blood Flow Restriction with Ashley Selman, CSCS (Episode 286)12 Aug1 h 02 min

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Can’t lift heavy loads but still want the benefits of heavy lifting? Blood flow restriction (BFR) training—using cuffs to partially restrict venous blood flow so you can get heavy‑lifting‑like gains with much lighter loads—could be just what you need, says this week’s guest, veteran strength coach Ashley Selman, CSCS. In this episode, we dig into what BFR training is, how it’s done in real‑world workouts, who it’s for, and why it can be a powerful option for midlife athletes who can’t tolerate traditional heavy lifting but still want to build and maintain muscle, strength, bone health, and even VO₂ max.

Ashley Selman, MA, CSCS, is a veteran strength coach with 30+ years’ experience working with elite athletes, collegiate programs at Stanford and the University of Oregon, and clients at every level. She was named one of the Top 100 Trainers in the U.S. by Men's Journal and founded Evolution Trainers in Mountain View, California, voted the number one health club in Silicon Valley. After a difficult hip replacement and early menopause at 43 left her losing muscle despite “doing everything right,” discovering blood flow restriction (BFR) training allowed her to rapidly regain strength she hadn’t felt in over 15 years, which inspired her to create Seli Strength, a virtual BFR program now serving hundreds of midlife women. She recently developed "Coaching Blood Flow Restriction Training: The Future of Fitness" with the American Council on Exercise (ACE), for fitness professionals who want to bring BFR training to their clients. You can learn more about her and her work at www.selistrength.com

Resources

Get $50 off BFR bands with the code Feisty50 at Selistrength.com/bfr-bands

Blood Flow Restriction Training for Athletes: A Systematic Review here

Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of blood flow restriction training on bone health in older adults here

Vascular occlusion for optimising the functional improvement in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a randomised controlled trial here

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