electro muscle stimulation?

Its a complete waste of time for healthy people

Duckwah said:

Its a complete waste of time for healthy people

and money.

except for the companies selling them!!

yellowbigwheel said:

Has anyone ever used electro muscle stimulation (EMS)? Ive read some articles that say it is great for building muscle and some that say its a waste of money. I know this is used for rehab after accidents and such and it can also be used for recovery. The idea is not replace the cycling. That will remain, but rather as an addition to your workouts (but without the fatigue of longer workouts). Thanks.

These devices were originally used manage chronic pain without the use of drugs or surgury. Their usefulness for stimulating muscle growth is completely worthless.

There is no magic pill.

And what about recovery by means of ems (for instance after a raceday,durning car-return to home) or "pumping up" muscles (day before raceday)?Has anyone such experiences?

OK . . . Well it sounds like the experts here have little clinical experience with the products out there.

I used Compex's Muscle Stimulator last year to repair server muscular degeneration caused by 19 years of inactivity due to illness. Starting to ride again caused severe bi-lateral Patellofemoral syndrome [ to the point of not being able to walk] due to the lack of strength in the quadricep muscles. I used the product for four months along with a prescribed weight and core training program. The major problem I was having was getting the Vastus Medialia to fire. The Compex product was able to wake up the muscle fibres that were hard to reach with traditional weight training and allowed me to gain back power that I had lost.

With the help of this product I was able to ride over 4000 miles last year.

The product does work . . It is FDA approved and it has clinical studies to back it up.

So does weight training transfer to biking . . . I will let the experts debate that.

t-wrench said:

OK . . . Well it sounds like the experts here have little clinical experience with the products out there.

We were talking about healthy people (i.e., not those with injuries).

Ric

t-wrench said:

OK . . . Well it sounds like the experts here have little clinical experience with the products out there...With the help of this product I was able to ride over 4000 miles last year...The product does work . . It is FDA approved and it has clinical studies to back it up.

Well it sounds like you used it in the way it was originally designed and that's for muscle atrophy. I'm curious though, now that you're riding 4000 miles a year (which clearly qualifies you as a healthy person), are you still using it? Do you notice a difference in your recovery time?

Agree. If you're coming from atrophy, re-building from an injury where you need extensive phyiotherapy, yes. Heck, I've been on a zapper at my physiotherapist in order to 'align' and strengthen a bit of hamstring strain.

But if you're healthy, go ride your bicycle.

Duckwah said:

Its a complete waste of time for healthy people

😠 THAT`S [censored] 😠

POGATA said:

😠 THAT`S [censored] 😠

such intellectual wisdom

have any of you morons actually used EMS? you should be banned from the forum, for spreading such [censored]!

ric_stern/RST said:

such intellectual wisdom

You don`t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that EMS works!

POGATA said:

have any of you morons actually used EMS? you should be banned from the forum, for spreading such [censored]!

moron, or not if you continue swearing you'll be banned.

Now, back to the point in hand, (and try relaxing rather than getting so wound up), your evidence is, what exactly? Repeating that we're morons or talking BS won't cut it.

Remember temper tantrums aren't good.

ric

ric_stern/RST said:

moron, or not if you continue swearing you'll be banned.

Now, back to the point in hand, (and try relaxing rather than getting so wound up), your evidence is, what exactly? Repeating that we're morons or talking BS won't cut it.

Remember temper tantrums aren't good.

ric

Have you ever used EMS?

POGATA said:

Have you ever used EMS?

I'll counter that, with this:

Have you ever smoked?
Have you ever taken heroin?

Do you know if these are good or bad things to do?

Do you need to take heroin or smoke to know if they are good or bad to do? How do you know this?

Ric

ric_stern/RST said:

I'll counter that, with this:

Have you ever smoked?
Have you ever taken heroin?

Do you know if these are good or bad things to do?

Do you need to take heroin or smoke to know if they are good or bad to do? How do you know this?

Ric

I`ve met thousands of people who do, that`s how I know!

Have you ever used EMS?

POGATA said:

You don`t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that EMS works!

Hmmm, I studied a bit of rocket science (an awful long time ago though). Can you explain how EMS can give me that edge as a competitive cyclist? I'm really interested to know.

I saw this item from the FDA in the US:
fda.govems.htmlOpen ↗

And another from healthfitness.com:
healthfitness.com.auabdominal belt ems exercise.htmOpen ↗

Which seem to debunk claims of improvements mostly related to vanity applications but nothing to do with athletic (cycling) performance.

But got a bit lost in PubMed. Couldn't really find much about athletes and enhancing performance. A number of items about injury / atrophy recovery.

ncbi.nlm.nih.govquery.fcgiOpen ↗

ncbi.nlm.nih.govquery.fcgiOpen ↗

POGATA said:

I`ve met thousands of people who do, that`s how I know!

Have you ever used EMS?

I have on several occasions and used it again a couple of weeks ago as part of rehab to a low back injury. The EMS does a great job in blocking a localized pain signal, but I personally would not consider EMS as a training apparatus.