faradic electric stimulators aka ems

[funk51]

do any of you remember the ems craze of the 80's when mr canada john cardillo was useing electrical stimulation on himself and getting good results. lee haney also was said to use these devices esp. on his legs. have any of the membership here ever heard of or used this now or in the past. imagine going into a gym and instead of benches, weights, machines, you would have stations with little suitcases containg these stimulators.

[onlyme]

Back in the mid 80's there was a place in Torrance, CA called Body 2000.  And it was a bunch a little rooms like a tanning salon.  You go in and there is a bed and a machine.  A guy or girl comes in and places these little round pads on you then shocks the crap out of you for I think it was 20 minutes.  They would leave the room and you would lie there getting shocked and your muscle would flex.

[Hypertrophy]

Onlyme,

Sounds like torture. What positive effect was there from this, if any?

[Sculpter]

I had the chance to use a machine like that when I was in the armed forces.I had injured my knee at the time & got to use it for that reason.They don't do a thing for any muscle size.Stating that, it was fun placing the pads at different points of the leg & seeing just how much of a shock you could endure.

[onlyme]

Yea, I don't think they worked either.  But, I ruptured my L4 & L5 in 83' I bought two sets of those things.  I think they were called "tenses".  I used to put them on my neck and twitch the hell out of it.  And if you put them on your forearm and slowly increase the power they made your hand close.  I used to try to keep my hand open for as long as I could.  It was cool the things you could do with them. 

[Vet]

They do have some medical benefit.  I injured my elbow last fall doing overhead triceps extensions with just over 200 lbs.  After a couple of weeks of really bad stiffness and more pain than I like, I was bitching to the physical therapist at the hospital where I work.  She  hooked me up to the EMS machine and shocked the crap out of my elbow every other day for two weeks.  After each "treatment" I noticed decreased stiffness and soreness, especially on extension.  According to that therapist, the key isn't how hard you can shock the muscle, but developing a pulsatile curve that helps decrease inflammation through the tendons.  Also, she says they are worthless for "building muscle".


JK

[anvil]

When I was about 9 years old I accidentally pissed on an electric fence... didn't gain any muscle though.

[Hypertrophy]

When I was about 9 years old I accidentally pissed on an electric fence... didn't gain any muscle though.

When I was a kid living near NYC, my grandmother told me about drunks getting electrocuted pissing on the electrified subway tracks. Now there's a Faradic Stimulation...

[Migs]

it is benefical for certain recory techniques and for increase blood flow and some capillary bed formation.

[littleguns]

I have a buddy who is an ex hockey player and had some pretty bad back problems towards the end of his career....

Swore up and down by these little machines, may not have put on muscle but definitely helped relax his back..