That said, five minutes is the general recommendation, and you can absolutely get your sets in around that time-frame.

So if it’s leg day, maybe you start with squats for the foundation. When you head over to the quad-extension machine, add on your BFR cuffs, lighten-up the weight, and aim for 15-30 reps. Once I hit week six of my squat program, my knees were starting to feel quite tender. So I didn’t want to add more stress by doing heavy quad extensions. By adding BFR cuffs, I can still get an excellent pump with a third of the weight. That’s where the magic of BFR cuffs comes in handy in my opinion. SAGA Fitness Review The Cuffs The most high-profile user of SAGA cuffs is the Hollywood stuntman, Bobby Holland Hanton. And he was the stunt-double who played Batman in the major fight scenes of The Dark Knight Rises.SAGA offers two sizes of cuffs: the medium, which will fit on your arms, and the large, which is designed for legs. Like I said, I’ll aim for 30 reps on the first set, which usually gets my arms (or legs) burning. After your set is finished, you can hit “Pause Workout,” which will momentarily deflate the cuffs.

This is more helpful if you’re running a superset (one movement followed by a different movement as a single set). I’ve been using the cuffs for one movement only, and just aiming for single sets.

Running, basketball, weightlifting...we're not saying you need a boost, but if you want one, compression shorts are a good bet. These are our favorites. The app features a timer, too, so you can make sure you’re not leaving your muscles occluded for too long. According to the research, the upper limit of how long you should leave your muscles occluded is around 20 minutes. I love how easy it is to throw the cuffs on either my legs or arms, inflate them within the minute, and get in 10 minutes of intense BFR training. For me, it offers a different way to hit the target muscle groups that’s not heavy, but still just as intense. When I’m working with the cuffs, I typically aim my first set at 30 reps, and then shoot for three more sets at 15 reps each. But each set gets harder and harder as the BFR cuffs restrict the outflow of lactic acid, too. That burning feeling you get at the end of a set just stays with you.