Originally posted by (Fin)Apunen
For front thighs I only need 25mA to allmost make them explode but as I said earlier for hams I need 40mA…I want my hams be the fast twist muscles hahah
the exact opposite occurs with me. for some reason my quads and glutes need a lot to get a max contraction.
Hello All.
This is something that I would really appreciate clarification on.
What are the limiting factors for an effective EMS unit?
Up to now I have based it on the protocols given by Zatsiorsky, particularly in reference to the 2500hz. Assuming this requirement for frequency to be a neccesity, I have overlooked a number of cheaper units.
Limiting Factors?
Pulse Ramp: up tp 5 seconds.
Pulse Frequency: 2-120 Hz
Relaxation: Variable Control ( up to 60sec)
Contraction: Variable control (up to 20)
Amplitude: Constant. Up to ~80mA each channel.
Is Amplitude not Frequency the important factor? Excuse my ignorance in basic physics! Charlie?
Thanks.
btw Quick, sorry for spreading such (mis)information. Will be far more careful with reccomendations from now on.
The issues are confusing for everyone and everyone seems to have a different opinion- usually in favour of their own equipment- so don’t feel bad. Simply put, the real issue is the juice behind the contraction (you’ll be thew best judge of that!) and the frequency seems to be more of an issue of comfort (as long as the hertz is high enough to maintian a tetanic contraction- a series of pulses close enough together so that the athlete can’t differentiate/relax between them- at least 24 for a sprinter) Most stims push for the lowest hertz possible to maintain battery life (2500htz uses up a battery 25 x faster than 100htz) though for comfort, I’ve found 80 to 120 work best. Hope this helps a little.
Thanks Charlie.
Question: does frequency dictate the type of fibre fired?
Frequency does not dictate the type of fibre. With sufficient intensity, current “spills over” throughout the muscle, moving from white (which is picked up first, in the reverse of the natural order) to red fibre.
CF,
I read your article on EMS on t-mag. Are there any EMS units that you recommend and if so what are the various features that they should have? I was kind of shocked when I went to the shopping section of the website and didn’t find any EMS units for sale, I would think you could make some profit off these easliy since at least 30 percent of the forum members would buy one sooner or later. Currently I have a dual channel tens machine that has the features Constant/Burst/Modulation and was wondering if this was similar or exactly like EMS.
P.S. What do you think of the Dr. Ho EMS unit that is always advertised on the T.V.? www.drhonow.com
Sadly, we’re still looking into this. I looked at a device that filled most of the requirements but not the relaxation time requirement. I was told that the numbers I had in mind were too low to justify a production modification but I’m still looking .We know the Compex unit is good- but a bit pricey.
As for Dr Ho’s unit. this is not for muscle building, rather is a tens type device.
A funny story. A friend of mine is a writer/lecturer and an ex-student of his got a job at a financial newspaper and one of her first assignments was to “expose” the Dr Ho device. So she got several devices and handed them around to a number of people and used it herself. Much to her surprise, everybody loved it, including her, so the planned expose turned out to be more of an advertisement when it came out. (At least the paper was fair about it and ran the article even though it wasn’t what they were looking for).
Would it be the best tens machine you’ve seen considering the different settings?
Havn’t seen enough of them to say (though it’s not what the ART guys use) but the price is right for the average person.
The Compex Mi sport 500 runs for about 800 CDN is there anywhere I can get it cheaper?
not quite sure if it helps and it might be too late for you now, but anyway; i found this and thought it might good to send it -just some theoritical background…
Fote-Field C.E. (2004). Electrical Stimulation Modifies Spinal and Cortical Neural Circuitry. Exerc & Sport Sciences Reviews, 32, 155-159.
hope it’s fun reading it… :rolleyes:
If someone wanted to use an EMS to assist in building muscle, how would the protocols change?
Nice find, Sevastocrator! For Canadains the shipping is better than ordering from wisdomking. Too bad you didn’t post this, a month ago!
Charlie, your thoughts on this product?
?? Im curious too about this…
I will repeat. This is an extensive topic and there are hundreds of posts on this site in the archives and there are articles by me on the T-Mag website. If you don’t want to do a search, EMS is covered directly in the Forum Review and CFTS available on the site with all the information you could possibly want and telling you exactly how to use it.
The Superstim looks interesting though the one limitation is the 30sec off time cycle (you’d ideally wat up to 50sec) This, however, seems to be an issue with most of these units. Has anyone got one and how strong is the contraction? The pads are prob not very good but that doesn’t matter as you’ll want to replace them with the sticky pads anyway (they’re not cheap but they’re a massive improvement on anything else). I might try to get in contact with these people because if these units can be serviceable they’d be a huge savings! The high quality Compex units are 800 USD.
Anyone know a good place to get replacement pads?
Charlie,
This would be the ability to adjust the pulse rate or pps (pulses per second), right?
The literature I have read references the pulse rate for Russian Stim from 1-100pps.
For a sprinter one wishes to get the pps as high as one can tolerate?
Thanks for the clarifications.
I have the 6500 unit, and I like it. Contraction is strong with good pads. Got ahold of a lot of pads from my AT friends. The pads that come with the unit are decent, but you can get better. Plus, by applying force on the pad, you will initiate a stronger contraction as well. DB shows this on his estim videos on his site too.
The 6500 unit is a great initial unit, but as finances start to increase, a higher quality unit (such as the compex) will be purchased. Unless my fiance can pull some strings and get me a unit through her physical therapy department @ Iowa. Probably not going to happen. 