the bottom line is that it happened, if a ruptured tissue will heal on its own although not to a state that is ideal for training or competition. i know the guys and i know they werent just making it up. i do believe that this was an extrodinary example of what the ARP can do. the orthopedic surgeons who were going to perform the surgery now do a full series of ARP protpcols on ACL tears before consdidering surgery even for a complete rupture.
yes 3 days. ive said it many times before i had a 3 year hamstring problem and i did every therapy under the sun. including ART, deep tissue, ultrasound ect ect ect ect. 3 days with the ARP and i havent had a problem since.
James do you know what is special about the ARP signal changes. Do they have a patent? Is it just a matter of agonist contract antagonist contract and vice versa - e.g. very fast pnf via reciprical inhibition? Looking at the website it seems to be some kind of special signal, which makes me wonder why hasn’t anyone found it before?
arp actually is a distributer of the thermastime. i believ ethey have taking the technology a bit further with their protocols. ie settings all the variables and stuff. last time i talked to dennis he said he had 100 some odd protocals. so the extra price comes with that service and knowledge of how to best use the machine under what condtion. personally i would pay the difference just because i know that the ARP works. so i would be willing to pay the extra 5000 because the machine would probbaly not be as effective if you didnt have dennis’ knowledge to back it up. as for the science behind it its has to do with the carrier wave/signal. many people get confused, it doesnt cause eccentric contraction, it allows it unlike most EMS which locks up the muscle allowing for not functional training (see fuctional EMS, supertraining). so right there you have a huge training benefit. it also has the added benefit of being able to “track” down the source of injury. for example you may be hurting in one part of your hamstring but the problem is actually somewhere else. you will be suprised they will be searching your body with the ARP and all of a sudden youll jerk and they will have found the source of injury, and thats where they treat you. i reccomend if you want a better understading you read the body electric because they base a lot of their therioes off that. basically it finds the “hot spot” it removes the inflamation and the electrical charge around the injury. once the charge is gone the body can naturally break down scar tissue and regain its normal working condtion. 4 sessions to heal injury another 6 the help regain strength loss from injury. the idea is similar to pnf in that you are attacking the problem via the nervous system (because flexibility is for the most part neurological) but it doesnt use reflexes to do it it actually sends the signal directly to the system. confusing i know i dont completly understand it myself. honestly i dont really need to, cause i know it works. hope that helps.
What is now being marketed and sold as the ARP Program was originally sold and marketed as the TheraStim by Connections Group Inc. out of Birmingham, Alabama. I originally heard about the unit back in 2001 or 2002 and received all of the marketing/information brochures.
Here is some of the history from a brochure in a Q and A format:
Q. How was TherStim developed?
A. Gary Thomas, a hospital pharmacist for 10 years, discovered a unique bioelectric waveform in 1983 while experimenting on his body. He was using a self-made electromygraphy machine (EMG) to observe the signals produced in the body. He discovered that he could reproduce this signal and use it as a catalyst for treating the body for a therapeutic effect and subsequently discovered a waveform that has a classic signature of a weak muscle. His discovery allows the waveform to enter the body without creating surface pain, which permits deeper penetration into muscles and tissues. The unique waveform allows the body to be placed in motion during the treatments. This permits the waveform to more easily penetrate the area of injury. Thomas’ discovery utilizes direct current rather than alternating currents that other modalities are currently using. The direct current approach automatically dissipates a charge, whereas an alternating current must be shut down at a specific moment to dissipate a charge. The importance of direct current is that it does neutralize the charge that a wounded area of the body produces. Any time the body becomes injured, the result is a charged system, which in most cases creates pain.
Q. How long and how frequent should treatments be?
A. TheraStim treatments vary by person and type of treatment. Typically, 8-15 minutes/treatment for 3 to 4 days a week or until the problem is resolved. Sometimes only one treatment will resolve a problem.
There is more information but this gives a basic background. I am not sure if the ARP units have improved upon the original TheraStim units. Maybe James can enlighten us on that! James? The brochure says TheraStim is different primarily in terms of the waveform it uses. They call it Asymmetric Compound Double Exponential. Waveforms you may or not already be familiar with are Interferential, “Russian Stim”, assorted Galvanic and Faradic pulses.
Some of the benefit claims are as follows:
Machine/Body Coupling - Matches the human system’s natural resonance causing the body’s natural resistance to “drop out”.
Utilizes high power but no skin surface burning or pain, TheraStim seeks out trauma areas, the body accommodates, it numbs treatment area, and travels outside treatment area to help identify other charged systems/injuries and trigger points.
Patient can be in constant motion during treatment. One can use the same movement that caused the pain, the motion opens up the field current to the charge of injury, dissipates charge of injury more effectively, and recreating injury sensation during treatment helps identify trigger points
Results are immediate and dramatic (ie. dissipates charge of injury, greatly shortens the healing process, helps in the reduction of scar tissue, enhanced tissue condition, often returns muscle to pre-injury condition, helps prevent production of bradykinin {bradykinin is a major factor in developing effects of trauma: edema, pain, muscle spasms, etc.}, and helps breakdown the collagen binds caused from soft tissue damage
great post especially the last part because that really sums up what the treatments is like. they search for trigger points and when they find one … YOWWW!!! its hurts like a mother. and when you are doing the session and they are turning the machine up its like that body part is numb. they have a i believed changed the treatment because it is painful as all hell ( i was told i by my therapsit i was the only one he had ever seen who didnt curse out loud but believe me i wanted to). but right after it feels better and after all 10 sessions you are good to go.
ok at this point it sgetting to the level where its you just got to try it and see for yourself. if acupucture can get rid of scar tissue than go ahead and use it but really you just got to try it to understand the benefit.
Sorry having got a bit of a better idea about this, I’m actually quite excited about this. Just want to know what makes it special and unique compared to other options. If it is just redistributing the charges then i guess that can be done by accupuncture (?) - or perhaps it can’t i don’t know i havn’t got time to investigate it that much.
My only other resivation about the idea of always relaxing the muscles or using stuff that prevents inflamation is does this affect the body’s normal regeneration mechanisms. As with anti inflamitories can it make the tissues weaker over the long term or is this something no one has looked into?
considering that they use the machine as a means of training i very much doubt it has a negative effect on muscular tissue. you need to look into the what they are trying to achieve visit the thermastim site they have more information on the mahcines specifics than the ARP site does.
Very interesting observations.My experience would support the one regarding acupuncture,actually increasing my interest in the ARP protocols and Therastim apparatus.
Also from monitoring with the OmegaWave the effects of acupuncture protocols over time I would say the “system re-setting” provided does not weaken or worsen adaptive reactions,actually balancing the whole process.
I think acupuncture per se MAY not be enough to get rid of scar tissue,but acupunture coupled with manual therapy MAY well get the job done,possibly with at least comparable results.
Nevertheless I think there might be some additional or better complementary benefit from the use of such a quite unique apparatus as the Therastim,since the peculiarities of the wave used and the possibility to use it DURING movement represent a precious additional option.
You guys have mentioned some interesting stuff regarding ARP for injury. How about for general recovery after a high CNS stress day? Do you guys feel it is superior to regular EMS protocols for this purpose? Also, would this be similar to icing/full body massage in that if this is used too frequently it becomes less effective? Any input on these questions would be greatly appreciated.
well considering that ther eis no such thing as CNS fatigue but only inhibitory pathways the ARP has allowed atheltes to train upwards of 5 times a day. its hard to compare the ARP and regular ems because regular ems is so very limited in comparison. There are protocols with the ARP which allow for “recovery” and stimulation of certain bodily systems. for example they can with the ARP stimulate the immune system.
Again very interesting,as the ARP Trainer protocols really seem to act on the body and achieve the same results as the protocols I developped with my Associates under close guidance of the information flow provided by the OmegaWave System,when indagating and managing the readiness state of our athletes and clients.
I have never seen the apparatus “live”,but from the information I was able to collect it seems a quite unique and precious tool,although my own experience seems to point out that very similar results could be achieved through a more appropriate comprehension of CNS and CNS Fatigue as pertaining to our discussions here-very possibly in the direction of James’ hints-and an accurate,integrated application of the complex training and recovery means which follow.
James already answered your first question I guess ,as from you second question,I do not think the ARP Trainer (Therastim) can actually be compared to other EMS units and protocols at all,at least in the approaches mentioned so far in this thread.
As for your third,icing/full body massage effectiveness question,sorry to pose further questions,but:in which functions the recovery methodics you mention would become less effective over time? How would you determine this?
This is all very interesting stuff. I checked out the ARP website and it did not have alot of information. I saw in previous posts that alot of Denis’s theories are based on things similar to ‘Biologically Closed electric circuits’ and ‘The body electric’. Would these give me a good understanding of the possible applications of ARP? And also is there any other resources I could use to get a better idea of how to apply this? (Obviously I can take the seminar that they offer but I will be a little short on funds for a while and at this time I am just trying to understand it.)
I could be wrong but didn’t Siff mention that some recovery methods lost their initial effectiveness if used too frequently for too long of a time? Similar to any other stimulus that there is less and less of a return in subsuquent(sp?) sessions.
