46.69 Anchor Leg By Zach Apple Clinches Olympic Gold For USA

46.69 Anchor Leg By Zach Apple Clinches Olympic Gold For USA

For who? Baby Boomers, competitive athletes
For what? Strength, stamina, functional movement, mobility, flexibility, jet lag recovery

American swimmer Zach Apple of Indiana swam of the history fastest 100-meter freestyle legs at the Tokyo Olympics. The incredibly fast (46.69 second) 100m anchor split clinched the Olympic gold medal in the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay yesterday at the Tokyo Olympics.

Apple said later,

“It is easy when these three guys [Caeleb Dressel, Blake Pieroni, and Bowen Becker] are leading off, giving me a lead. I love living in the pressure. It is why we race. It brings out the best in us.”

Apple has been using KAATSU ever since he was introduced to it by coach Jonty Skinner at Indiana University a few years ago. Like his track colleagues, the American Olympic runners in the 100m and 200m sprints, Apple uses the KAATSU equipment for performance and recovery advantages.

Olympian Glenn Mills told Parade Magazine,

“Cupping, which leaves circular marks on the skin of athletes remains popular, along with KAATSU, a blood flow moderation exercise that involves strapping bands around specific points of muscles to restrict blood flow and make those muscles work harder.”

While Mills is correct in describing KAATSU as a blood flow moderation modality, KAATSU does not restrict blood flow or necessarily make muscles work harder – as experienced KAATSU users know well.

“We started to use and sell the Masimo MightySat™ Finger Pulse Oximeter with KAATSU equipment in order to demonstrate that there was no restriction of blood flow while doing KAATSU,”

said Steven Munatones.

“People often use the words ‘cuff’ or ‘tourniquet’ to describe the KAATSU Air Bands. Nothing could be further from the truth. Blood pressure cuffs and tourniquets are specifically designed to occlude – or cut off – arterial blood or blood that flows from the torso to our limbs.
The reason why we use the Masimo MightySat™ Finger Pulse Oximeter [shown above] is to demonstrate that arterial blood flow continues even while doing KAATSU and wearing KAATSU Air Bands. We place the oximeter on a fingertip and we can not only measure our pulse rate but also our SpO2 or oxygen saturation rate that increases with KAATSU. If KAATSU did restrict blood flow or functioned as a cuff or tourniquet, then the SpO2 would decrease and our skin color would turn whiter or paler than normal.”

But with KAATSU – even when the KAATSU Air Bands are inflated to its maximum while following the standard protocols, the arterial blood flow continues and is measured by the pulse oximeter – a clear indication that there is no blood flow restriction.

What actually happens is that the slow, gradual, rhythmic compression and decompression of the KAATSU Air Bands enables the vascular tissue to become more elastic and the limb becomes engorged in blood.

The photos on the left show an older user (a 56-year-old woman) with a KAATSU Air Band on her (darker) left arm and no band on her right arm (with her normal skin color). The KAATSU Air Band was only moderately inflated.

Within a few minutes, her veins become distended and her skin color becam darker as the capillaries and veins become filled with blood. There is no pain, discomfort or magic secret involved.

The appearance of this ‘KAATSU Color’ is a physiological phenomenon that happens naturally and safely.

“It occurs both in the arms and legs of KAATSU users, of any age or with any physical condition,”

says Munatones.

“From our perspective as KAATSU users, the three vascular walls of our arteries, veins and capillaries throughout our bodies are a muscle. So, in that sense, KAATSU is definitely muscle training.

Our vascular tissue gradually becomes more elastic in a gentle, safe way while using KAATSU.

It is a convenient and perfect recovery modality. KAATSU equipment is easy-to-carry and easy-to-use. The compact compressor automatically inflates and deflates the bands on either your arms or legs. This forces blood into the very small capillaries and enhances recovery, improves circulation, and oxygen flow to muscles just after prolonged or intense bouts of exercise.

This is how Olympic swimmers, runners and other athletes are using KAATSU at the Tokyo Olympics, especially those who have multiple races or events over the course of the day or days while in Tokyo. The KAATSU Air Bands helps flush the metabolic waste out of the tissue after or between events.

With the Masimo oximeter, you can see the athletes’ oxygen saturation levels increase while their pulse rate and respiratory rate concurrently decrease as they sit down and relax after their races. KAATSU is quite versatile. You can use the equipment to make your muscles work harder, but you can also use the device to make you relax and recover.”

Munatones continues,

“The commonly misunderstood effect of KAATSU is that the equipment necessarily makes muscles work harder – as Mills described. If KAATSU users utilize the KAATSU Air Bands for recovery after an intense workout or to avoid jet lag or for recovery after a competition, then their muscles work LESS, not more. The parasympathetic nervous system is engaged and metabolic waste products are more effectively and efficiently removed from the working muscles.”