Occlusion training thoughts?

As part of a good post in the "Sets and Reps" thread,
new forum member toolin wrote "Recent research in
occlusion training suggests that occluding the muscle
and lifting with 30% 1RM can produce strength and
hypertrophy gains equal to any other set/rep scheme."

I responded with "toolin-- by "occluding" do you mean
isolating a muscle, or constricting it or something?
I've only seen that word in reference to constricted
veins/arteries/lung passages" (I had asthma as a
child).

I found the article below while searching on the topic.
Does anyone have experience with this method of
training, or good critiques of it? I see the article
suggests training beyond failure (which I know is very
unpopular among many here); is this neccessary, or can
it be done by leaving a little in the gas tank, and
just popping off a bunch of partial reps at the end?

The link:
http://www.giantpt.com/blog/2004/12/try-this-at-your-next-workout.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12840643&dopt=Abstract

Here's an interesting study that I found.

Honestly, how can you train beyond "failure"? If you've gone to the point of total exhaustion, how can you go any further? By "total exhaustion", I don't mean that you got tired and asked for mommy...I mean that you LITERALLY could not move.

Occluding is a term some bullshit trainer would use to get you to try isolation exercises.

Occlusion in this context typically involves using rubber medical tubing tourniquet to restrict blood flow. I'll post more on this later... but I don't think its a practical method of training, and it has significant risks.

Honestly, how can you train beyond "failure"?

I'd guess they're referring to concentric failure, which means you can still do forced reps or negatives or possibly partial reps. That's the only context I know of, in which it makes sense to talk about training "beyond failure."

Herts,

I've read about people tying surgical tubing around their biceps while doing curls. That's just ridiculous.

toolin:

those links aren't working for me.

http://kaatsu.jp/english/journal.html

http://s2.phpbbforfree.com/forums/hypertrophyrese-about64.html

http://s2.phpbbforfree.com/forums/hypertrophyrese-about80.html

http://s2.phpbbforfree.com/forums/hypertrophyrese-forum-23.html