Remote Ischaemic Preconditioning Combined With Exercise Training on Vascular Function.

Remote Ischaemic preconditioning' (RIPC) is defined as short controlled sequences of repeated inflation of a blood pressure cuff on the upper arm (to reduce blood flow) for 5 mins followed by recovery (cuff deflation so blood flows normally again). An intervention consisting of 4 cycles of 5 min of arm cuff inflation followed by deflation performed 3 times per week, spread over 8 weeks has been shown to improve blood vessel function in young individuals without any medical conditions. This is a simple and easily applicable intervention that could help the blood vessels capacity to deliver blood to an organ (e.g. heart or the muscle).It is currently unknown if RIPC combined with exercise training, provides stronger benefits to our blood vessels than RIPC alone. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate if combining RIPC with an 8 week exercise training programme improves blood vessel health more than 8 weeks of RIPC alone.