Compex muscle stimulator (AKA: NMES)

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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 and doing nothing with the unit on has been found to not get the recruitment high enough to compete with true exercise. For example with NMES alone, the percentage of a maximal voluntary muscle contraction achieved ranges from 25% to 90%. Obviously this is very useful for someone immobilised through injury or illness but the best effects are to add the Compex to real exercises. Below are some studies showing the benefits of using the NMES unit:



Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) is useful for strengthening the quadriceps muscle in soccer athletes (Taradaj et al 2014).

 Neuromuscular electrical stimulation & eccentric training restores biomechanical limb symmetry post ACL reconstruction (Lepley et al 2015).

 Neuromuscular electrical stimulation training was effective in increasing muscle strength of the vastus medialis (Canning & Grenier 2014).

 An EMG during an isometric Maximal Voluntary Contraction (MVC) is significantly increased after 7 weeks of NMES in the biceps brachii according to Colson et al (2000).  

 Maffiuletti et al (2002) found a similar increase in the plantar flexor muscles after 16 sessions of NMES.


The effect is more than just muscular:

Due to the fact the NMES stimulates more than just motor nerves it can increase the excitability of the Cortex through long-loop pathways. Recent functional neuro-imaging shows substantial cerebral cortex activation during electrically evoked contractions (Han et al 2003). What this means is that it can create greater voluntary contractions after relatively short periods of time.


What about it's use for muscle wasting or atrophy when i'm injured: 

As we mentioned above another area that the Compex is great with, is minimising the wasting of muscle when you get injured, which is vital, as muscle strength is found to decrease by between 2% to 6% in the first 8 days of immobilisation (Muller,1970). Also after 2 weeks of not training significant reductions in fitness can be measured & improvements can be lost in months (Kisner & Colby 1996).



The evidence for minimising this wasting is here:

Electrical stimulation of the quads supports the regeneration process & results in a provable stronger reduction of the atrophy (Mucha 2004).

 Miller & Thepaut-Mathieu et al (1993) found that NMES was better than voluntary contraction at preventing disuse atrophy when immobilised.

Summary:

So overall, when you have a stubborn weak area or have injured yourself and want to minimise muscle wasting to effectively get you back to normal faster, then using the Compex is a great tool for this.

Here at Hawkes Physiotherapy we can provide this as part of your Physiotherapy management.

So if you want to get assessed and looked at, then you can contact me on any of the following:

Telephone: 01782 771861
Mobile: 07866195914
Email: mathewhawkesphysiotherapy@gmail.com



Comments

  1. SantaMedical1 July 2019 at 03:07

    Santamedical Rechargeable Tens Unit Electronic Pulse Massager is a compact, portable, micro-computer-controlled device. It can be used on many areas of the body, including the arms, neck and shoulders, back, low back, legs, feet, joints etc.

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