ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Sport Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1654855
This article is part of the Research TopicPhysical Education, Health and Education Innovation-Vol IIIView all 19 articles
Effects of Aerobic Exercise Combined with Blood Flow Restriction on Physical Fitness and Mental Health of High School Students
Provisionally accepted- School of Physical Education, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
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Objective: This study aims to investigate the combined effects of aerobic exercise and Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) on physical fitness and mental health among high school students, providing empirical evidence for the reform and optimization of school physical education programs. Methods: A pre-post comparative design was adopted involving 58 high school students aged between 16 and 18 years, randomly assigned to the Teaching Intervention Group (aerobic exercise combined with BFR n=19), Comparison Group (aerobic exercise only, n=19), and Control Group (no additional intervention, n=20). The intervention lasted 12 weeks, with two 45-minute training sessions per week. Physical fitness indicators, including vital capacity, endurance run, 50-meter sprint, standing long jump, and sit-and-reach test, were evaluated according to the National Student Physical Fitness Standards. Mental health was assessed using the Chinese Middle School Students' Mental Health Inventory (MMHI-60). Results: Both the Teaching Intervention Group and Comparison Group demonstrated significant improvements in all physical fitness indicators (ps < 0.001). However, compared to the Control Group, the Teaching Intervention Group showed significantly greater improvements in endurance run (p < 0.05, d = 0.71), 50-meter sprint (p < 0.05, d = 0.86), and standing long jump (p < 0.001, d = 0.96), along with higher improvements in sit-and-reach test (d = 2.87). Regarding mental health, the Teaching Intervention Group exhibited significantly superior effects in core indicators such as anxiety (d = 1.51), depression (d = 1.72), and academic stress (d = 1.43) compared to the Comparison Group, with a significant difference observed specifically in anxiety (p < 0.05). Correlation analysis indicated ten significant associations between physical fitness and mental health indicators in the Teaching Intervention Group, whereas only two significant correlations were identified in the Comparison Group. Conclusions: Aerobic exercise combined with Blood Flow Restriction effectively improves physical fitness and mental health in high school students, demonstrating greater efficacy compared to aerobic exercise alone. This combined approach also reveals a stronger synergistic promotion of physical and mental health. These findings provide new intervention perspectives for secondary school physical education, supporting BFRT as an effective instructional method in school physical education curricula.
Keywords: aerobic exercise, Blood flow restriction training, High SchoolStudents, Physical Fitness, Mental Health
Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jiang and Che. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tongtong Che, School of Physical Education, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China
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