KAATSU, (pronounced like catsup without the p), was conceived in Japan by Yoshiaki Sato after for some time in a seiza position during a Buddhist memorial. Seiza is the position when you sit with your legs as it is tucked under the thighs. It is the standard way of sitting formally in Japan.
At the time, Sato was in junior high school and interested in bodybuilding. He noticed that the swelling in his calves was similar to what happened after performing strenuous calf raise exercises. After six months of experimentation using different materials like bicycle tubings to apply pressure on his thighs, he achieved a significant “pumped-up effect” with KAATSU Training. KAATSU is taken from the Japanese “ka” meaning additional” and “atsu” meaning pressure.
Setbacks used to refine KAATSU
Sato continued to train using the pressure techniques as he went into college. At one time, he was hospitalized because of his reckless KAATSU training for leg numbness. Another time he was hospitalized for an acute attack of shortness of breath. He went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism. After learning what he was doing, Sato was told by the doctor to discontinue his training method.
Undiscouraged, Sato continued to refine the appropriate pressures so that he does not have to revisit the hospital.
In 1973, Sato had what he called a “fortunate accident.” On a skiing trip, he crashed and fractured both ankles and tore the cartilages and ligaments of the right knee. Surgery was recommended by the orthopedic surgeon.
However, Sato has just opened his own fitness club at that time and cannot afford to close it. Instead, he pleaded with another orthopedic surgeon to put him in a cast.
If an extremity is put on a cast, the muscles atrophy or get smaller because of disuse. Sato is a bodybuilder at that time, and to avoid atrophy, he applied pressure on his lower extremities using the KAATSU technology that he had developed. It consisted of “pressurizing” and “depressurizing” his legs.
Sato was so successful such that in two weeks, he noticed the familiar swelling that he had before. At one point, his legs became abnormally swollen and decided to see the doctor if something is wrong again.
To the doctor’s surprise, his muscles did not atrophy but instead got bigger. There were no blood clots. Two months after the accident, his casts were removed, and his fractured bones had fused entirely. The knee ligament healed so well such that he was among the ones carrying a massive portable shrine during a festival.
The Refinement of KAATSU
Sato’s success made the members of his club ask him for instructions in KAATSU Training. This was hard because he realized that each individual required unique pressures based on their age, sex, size of the limbs, and how much fat they on their arms or legs.
Sato instructed them and followed them up. Ten years and several hundred thousand students later, the KAATSU Training was released for public use in 1983. At that time, he did away with the bicycle tubing and began working on a flexible pressurizing cuff with a pressure sensor.
The Spread of KAATSU
KAATSU Training became popular in the athletic world, and many athletes proved its effectiveness in improving performance. This caught the eye of Professor Naokata Ishii in 1990. They did research on the effect of acute low-intensity KAATSU exercise on growth hormone, muscle hypertrophy, and strength gains.
The results were published in medical journals and drew enormous attention. In October 2004, the University of Tokyo Hospital established the “Sato Sports Plaza KAATSU Training: Division of Ischemia and Circulatory Physiology.” Sato also started to work with the Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation.
Worldwide Patents
At the moment, KAATSU patents are approved in England, France, Germany, and the United States. In June 1997, the Patent Office in Japan valued KAATSU Training as a “high technological invention utilizing the laws of nature.” That type of patent is difficult to get in Japan.
Currently, there are 47 patents worldwide protecting KAATSU, and it has an impressive and unprecedented safety track record with over 20 million individual KAATSU sessions in dozens of countries across the globe.
Why didn’t KAATSU spread globally if it is that good?
Sato does not speak or write in English. That is why KAATSU Training stayed in Japan. That is until Harvard professors went to Japan around 2007 to learn about Sato’s intriguing method.
It took until 2012 to gain popularity in the U.S. At the moment, The Center for KAATSU Research at the Harvard Medical School is located at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Who Uses KAATSU Training?
KAATSU is applied in diverse organizations like the including the NASA, the United States Special Operations Command, professional athletic organizations like the Oakland Raiders, the Seattle Seahawks and New York Knicks, the Olympics, and businesses like Google.
The future articles will discuss the science behind KAATSU and its uses. There’s a lot.
Further readings:
- The Science of KAATSU Training
- Precautions in KAATSU or Blood Flow Restriction Training
- The Game-Changing Uses of KAATSU
- What Can a Broken Bone Teach about Healing?
- The Dose Makes the Poison
- Where Are Your Drugs From?
- I Have Seen the Promised Land of Health Care! It’s in another Galaxy!
- How to Prepare for that Unplanned Emergency Room Visit Part 1: Why?
- What are Exerkines?
- How to Perform High-Intensity Interval Training
References:
Image Credits:
- Young Yoshiaki Sato The history and future of KAATSU Training 2005
- Seiza position By The original uploader was Ds13 at English Wikipedia. – From initial image taken by Stephane D’AluTransferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by sevela.p., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3774950
- Yoshiaki Sato at 66: Facebook photo from KAATSU International University
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