Author(s): Vimukthi Asahara Samaranada, Shishanthi Anuradha Perera, Sanjula Madubhashi Nayanathara, Koralage Tanika Gayani Kanchana and Denagama Vitharanage Chanaka Gayan

Abstract: “KAATSU”, a Japanese name renowned as "added pressure," is a patented, novel exercise method that restricts the blood flow to the muscle by applying moderate compression. This study aims to review the impact and the relevancy of integrating KAATSU into sports medicine. Based on the comprehensive studies concerning the guideline of PRISMA, the electronic databases of PubMed Central (n=178), Science Direct (n=14), Springer Link (n=2), Cochrane Library (n=19), and Google Scholar (n= 291) were followed by manual screening method using the keywords of "KAATSU," "sports medicine," "muscle strength" and "hypertrophy" to obtain articles related to the topic. After removing duplicates, the total number of 291 articles were screened again and the remained articles were re-screened for the aforementioned keywords. Finally, 21 articles were included and in conclusion this indicates KAATSU s a safe and promising exercise method for the improvement of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and endurance capacity in healthy, elderly and populations with specific disease conditions.