Hawkes Physiotherapy Blog

So here I am after the first 2 weeks of training with the Compex Update: DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) - So this has eased substantially but I have taken my own advice and used the recovery settings more. I was amazed with them! For example I had some mega DOMS in my Lats so I stuck it on and immediately after the DOMS had eased massively! Strength: So it is early days but I have to say yes, I have noticed some significant strength changes: Week 2: Deadlift:  At baseline: 90kg (including the bar at 15kg)  Now: 105kg Seated Dumbell shoulder press:  At baseline:16.5 kg each side (including the bars at 4kg each)  Now: 19kg Lat Pull down:  At baseline: 50kg  Now: 70kg So as you can see in 2 weeks the weights have increased. So far so good! The Compex itself: So I have been able to increase the intensity I use in the main but you have to be careful with cranking it up on 2 joint muscl...

Check out our new blog here: https://hawkesphysiotherapy.co.uk/blog So as you may have read, my last post was on the Compex muscle stimulator and was all about the research but like all things, the proof is in the pudding so I have decided to be a Guinea pig! My Training history: Now I have performed consistent resistance training for years and realistically I haven't made any real gains for years (getting older maybe?) If anything my strength has reduced! For example, the most that I have ever deadlifted in a training set was easily 5-6 years ago and was 120kg. Currently I can only 85-90kg, so not so good, to be honest. The Plan: So this week I have basically incorporated the Compex into my workout. The plan is to give you feedback on everything every 2 weeks with an ultimate goal of increasing my strength in 12 weeks Now I'm not going to measure every exercise for this blog but I will pre-select the following exercises for comparison and this is not a 1 r...

Weak Glutes, weak Rotator cuff? Sound familiar? Training them but just can't get them firing and working correctly?  This is where the Compex comes into it's own. You see a normal muscle can voluntarily contract up to roughly 60% of it's fibres but when you are injured this number drops even more. So how to you train it correctly? You see, the problem is, that it is all a reflex, which you can't do much about it. With the Compex this bypasses this problem and the muscle can fire up to 99% of it's fibres , meaning that you can train the muscle and get it functioning normally again. Now this level is hard to achieve but possible. The issue is toleration of the stimulus itself, which has be as high as you can tolerate to gain the maximum benefit. Either way though you can recruit more in most cases. I can testify to this myself! Now, don't expect to just sit back with it on and expect that you don't need to do any exercise. You see just sitting...