GH responses to two consecutive bouts of neuromuscular electrical stimulation in healthy adults; Sartorio, Jubeau, Agosti, De Col, Marazzi, Lafortuna, Maffiuletti;
European Journal of Endocrinology, Mar 2008, vol.158, pages 311-316.
If you go to my Research Page, and click on Bibliography and Abstracts you can find a well organized collection by topic on EMS studies.
I haven’t tried it enough to say what number is optimal yet.
For example, if you shorten the rest, albeit with active recovery added, you will be fine for a set number of reps but might find additional fatigue after that starting number.
So you might start with a maximum of 10 reps, counting on the shorter contraction times to compensate for the shorter rest and move to 15 once you can determine that:
A: You have no training losses elsewhere in your training program
B: The intensity of the contraction remains high to the last rep you use.
Another option is to divide the EMS sessions in a day, divided by 4 hours. IE 2 set of 6 or 3 sets of 5, basically whatever you want.
This is very handy when recovering from an injury that limits other training and we have done this at times .
There is no reason why you can’t be as flexible with the use of EMS as you would be with other training modalities, keeping in mind that you are sparing the nervous system compared to other methods.
Hey Charlie, I’m just wondering how things are going with the new Globus.
Still looking into all it can do. There is a lot there! I think the key is to start with a conservative approach as I listed above and then move towards more reps, to see how much difference the active recovery and a superior wave form available here can do for you. You know it will help but you need to see how much. This option didn’t exist when I first started experimenting so many years ago. I have used it mostly on myself so far but the real test will come when I can transfer it to top athletes who are in a max power training phase. I have some coming here soon for that and it will be very interesting to see how they respond.
Ok, Charlie, so after 8 months what do you think?
This past summer two highly ranked jr 18 year old tennis players from a US tennis academy came to work with Charlie. Unexpectedly one of them arrived with a foot injury so Charlie worked with the one who was healthy and had me work with the one who could’nt play tennis.
I used the mobiliztion 1 and 2, the warm-up for rehab and then used max strength for quads, glutes, hams and the back. She was not very lean on arrival but after one day on bike tempo and stim you could already see an excellent response. We used the stim for the better part of every other day for 10 days with bike and pool. Her body was transformed despite not doing any running or much tennis. ( she was able to hit a ball an hour or less every other day but no running or moving on court until the very end)
I have also been using the stim on one of Charlie’s clients for a knee injury to bring blood flow to the area and strenghen the quad and keep his hamstrings loose as well.
This is an excellent device with options to deal with all sorts of issues.
We love it.
great job and great infos 
As Ange has described, this is a great piece of equipment.
What protocols did you use for this purpose? I feel I don’t use my compex as much as I could and should be. Many of my athletes are starting to get really tight hamstrings, especially in the adductors. Was hoping my unit might be of use in loosening that up. Would active recovery work, or some type of recovery protocol? What parameters might I use for this (time, intensity, placement etc)
I have another athlete who dislocated her knee cap making a cut. We have been doing strength for hamstrings using 6 second contraction, 30 second rest for 10 seconds. (therapist has been doing stim on quads, but neglecting hams). Any suggestions for this athlete?
Thanks in advance.
1 I’d use the active recovery modalities where the tightness is concentrated, most likely low down near the knee.
2 I’d see if you can move the reps up from 10 to 15 at least, as she’s limited in other training activities.
I might also consider active recovery for her quads as well.
I used the active recovery for a knot recently that felt as large as a small grapefruit. I followed up with massage and did this after a light warm-up so he wasnt getting on the table cold. The results were fantasic and this was a non athlete.
For loosening see how the response goes first before changing any variables.
Does your stim have a max strength modality? Quiz the therapist to see what they are thinking and decide from there.
I have max strength (6 sec contractions) with 30 sec rest.
I used active recovery only with an athlete today. She felt immediately better. Curious to see how she feels Monday.
I began playing with my compex today with acive recovery, i’m curious if there is any difference in response in how intense the contractions are. I didn’t feel any difference after a session, maybe I had it too high??
The higher the intensity the better. Intensity means current (mA, or milliamps). Higher current penetrates deeper in the muscle tissue, thus recruiting more muscle fibers. Higher recruitment means helping more blood flowing in a larger portion of the muscle.
Because Active Recovery programs (like those in Globus and Compex machines) are made of twitches rather than sustained contractions, and twitches develop only about 1/3 to 1/4 of the force one develops with a sustained contraction, one doesn’t run the risk of overloading muscle fibers and the tendons, or to make them sore.
There are a couple of differences between the Globus and Compex Active Recovery, if anybody is interested.
Based on my experience, I do believe there is an “optimal” intensity for the recovery settings. While this optimal intensity is not low, it is not necessarily has high as you can handle. I’ve had variable results with different individuals - which I assume correlates with muscle fiber type.
In some cases, I have dialed down the intensity slightly and experienced better results. I would assume it is similar to a massage session, where too hard and deep a massage can have less optimal results. There is likely a point of diminishing returns. As with training, it is your job to determine “how much, how long, how frequently, etc.” based on your experience with various individuals and their tolerances.
i agree. I’d dial down on those with the most FT fibre because they might go “over the top” for ideal recovery. GC is right for most other cases.
Number Two,
I do not disagree with you: personal experience rules over theory. I’m inclined to think though, that if ESTI did not get any result, either the training was not stressing the body (i.e. didn’t need active recovery), or the Active Recovery program was too weak, and didn’t make a difference.
Correct, I did not need the program, was curious to see if how it felt during and after the treatment.
My athlete yesterday left feeling better, and today during a game felt tight and overall not well. Not sure if intensity was high enough, or too high??
There was a good amount of vibration of the muscles during treatment. Any idea how you can gauge intensity of treatment?
I think feedback from the athlete to gauge intensity can be useful.
And I am not sure how much time you spent doing stim with this athlete but don’t be so sure the tightness had anything to do with what you did or didn’t do.
You gotta try and keep records and see how it goes over time.
Think about using the stim on the glutes first ( active recovery) to supply blood flow for tight hams.
Can you explain better this point, please?
Thank You.
Jamirok, glad you asked the question.
The Active Recovery program makes the muscles twitch at frequencies between 1 and 9 Hz. This means that the muscle pulsates from 1 to 9 times per second. However, you can do this in different fashions. At Globus we experimented with different ways of doing this, and found that people seemed to get a better recovery and in a shorter time with a specific variation on this theme. This was adopted as the standard program.
In a nutshell, the change from 1 to 9 Hz can be done in a cycle lasting a certain number of minutes. The cycle adopted by Globus lasts a fraction of a minute and is repeated over and over. The cycle adopted by Compex takes 25 minutes and is done only once. I have my own theory, why cycling active recovery in shorter cycles apparently produces better results. But I would be interested in the opinion of others in this thread.
Some detail: the Compex program increases the frequency gradually during the course of 25 minutes. Every four minutes the frequency increases by 1 Hz, thus at the end you reach 9 Hz. At Globus we tested this against cycles taking 5 minutes, and repeated four times. Then we tried the same with even shorter cycles. Users manifested their preference for the shorter cycle, they also volunteered that they were obtaining their recovery faster. Therefore we were able to shorten the program from 25 to 20 minutes. Younger subjects even claimed they needed only 15 minutes.
If you use the programmable version of the Globus Premium, you should be able to try your own variations of the program and find out for yourself what works best.