Dr Luke Hughes

Associate Professor

Department: Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation

Dr Luke Hughes is an exercise physiologist specialising in clinical exercise and aerospace physiology. He obtained his PhD in clinical exercise physiology in 2019, which developing a novel exercise rehabilitation technique termed “blood flow restriction exercise”.

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests:

My research focusses on understanding the physiological mechanisms of health and deconditioning, and development of novel interventions to optimise human health, performance and rehabilitation in high-performance (e.g. professional/elite sport, human spaceflight) and clinical medicine populations. Within clinical medicine, my work focusses on the use of ‘blood flow restriction exercise’, a novel low-intensity exercise intervention, to improve health in deconditioned populations and improve post-surgical outcomes in several medical conditions and diseases. I have implemented this technique in the UK National Health Service, initially through clinical trials and now as part of standard rehabilitation. I am now working to develop blood flow restriction exercise as a countermeasure to improve astronaut health and mitigate deconditioning during spaceflight, and optimise post-flight rehabilitation outcomes.

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Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Acute hypoalgesic, neurophysiological and perceptual responses to low‐load blood flow restriction exercise and high‐load resistance exercise, Norbury, R., Grant, I., Woodhead, A., Hughes, L., Tallent, J., Patterson, S. 1 May 2024, In: Experimental Physiology
Blood flow restriction: The acute effects of body tilting and reduced gravity analogues on limb occlusion pressure, Swain, P., Caplan, N., Hughes, L. 17 Aug 2024, In: Experimental Physiology
Idiosyncratic bone responses to blood flow restriction exercise: new insights and future directions, Hughes, L., Centner, C. 1 Feb 2024, In: Journal of Applied Physiology
It's time to regulate - The importance of accurate surgical-grade tourniquet autoregulation in blood flow restriction exercise applications, Hughes, L., Swain, P., Lai, T., McEwen, J. 1 May 2024, In: Physical Therapy in Sport
No sex differences in oxygen uptake or extraction kinetics in the moderate or heavy exercise intensity domains, Solleiro Pons, M., Bernert, L., Hume, E., Hughes, L., Williams, Z., Burnley, M., Ansdell, P. 1 Mar 2024, In: Journal of Applied Physiology
The Discrepancy Between External and Internal Load/Intensity during Blood Flow Restriction Exercise: Understanding Blood Flow Restriction Pressure as Modulating Factor, Bielitzki, R., Behrens, M., Behrendt, T., Franz, A., Centner, C., Hughes, L., Patterson, S., Owens, J., Behringer, M., Schega, L. 4 Sep 2024, In: Sports Medicine - Open
Blood Flow Restriction Training and Return to Play Following Knee Surgery, Hughes, L., Patterson, S. 9 Oct 2023, Knee Arthroscopy and Knee Preservation Surgery, Cham, Switzerland, Springer
Editorial: Clinical application and impact of blood-flow-restriction training, Behringer, M., Franz, A., Hughes, L. 20 Feb 2023, In: Frontiers in Physiology
A call to action for blood flow restriction training in older adults with or susceptible to sarcopenia: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Cahalin, L., Formiga, M., Anderson, B., Cipriano Jr., G., Hernandez, E., Owens, J., Hughes, L. 15 Aug 2022, In: Frontiers in Physiology
Beneficial Role of Blood Flow Restriction Exercise in Heart Disease and Heart Failure Using the Muscle Hypothesis of Chronic Heart Failure and a Growing Literature, Cahalin, L., Formiga, M., Owens, J., Anderson, B., Hughes, L. 6 Jul 2022, In: Frontiers in Physiology

PGR Supervision

Bradley Barbour Start Date: 01/10/2024
Luke Gray Optimising the Therapeutic Effects of Blood Flow Restriction Exercise within UK Defence Rehabilitation Start Date: 01/10/2023

Qualifications

Philosophy PhD July 30 2019

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