4.1. Study Design

This study was conducted according to the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki after approval by the Ethical Committee for Region Midtjylland (ref. no. 1-10-72-218-16, 9 November 2016) and registered in the database clinicaltrials.gov ({"type":"clinical-trial","attrs":{"text":"NCT03380663","term_id":"NCT03380663"}}NCT03380663). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Forty-six participants were randomly assigned 1:1:1 to RIC, BFRRE, or HLRE (n = 12 in each group), or a non-intervention control group (NIC) (n = 10) in blocks of four in an open-label protocol (Figure 1). The total study period comprised 9 weeks, including a week with pre-assessment of basal capacity, a week with the single-bout session followed by recovery before a 6-week intervention period, and finally a week with post-training basal assessment. The standardization of visit procedures has previously been described [22,23], as well as the exclusion criteria. Briefly, the exclusion criteria were (1) resistance training within 6 months prior to inclusion, (2) participation in moderate/high intensity exercise training (other than resistance training) more than 1 h/week 6 months prior to inclusion, (3) smoking, and (4) use of prescription medication or intake of dietary supplements potentially affecting muscle metabolism and growth. Moreover, volunteers were instructed to maintain their habitual level of physical activity during the intervention period and to refrain from strenuous physical activity and alcohol for 3 days prior to all tests, including the single-bout session. The volunteers were asked to fast overnight prior to all test days.