whats “RFD”
Rate of Force Development.
Ramp time just gets you to high intensity before too much energy is spent getting there- enough graduation to be tolerable but that’s about all.
I let others comment on the rest, since you already know what I think.
Would it be okay for me to start an ems block at the beginning of indoor track. I know that it decreases your co-ordination, but my thinking was that since i’m not that advanced of an athlete(PR in 55m 7.00, sophomore in HS), the immediate benefits of ems might outweigh the loss of some coordination. If not, when should I implement ems into my training?
I was actually wondering the same thing, im a little bit more developed than you but still a novice and probably would be helped by the ems. The pulsing I dont see a problem its the max strength part that im curious about.
anyone else?
Would it be okay for me to start an ems block at the beginning of indoor track. I know that it decreases your co-ordination, but my thinking was that since i’m not that advanced of an athlete(PR in 55m 7.00, sophomore in HS), the immediate benefits of ems might outweigh the loss of some coordination. If not, when should I implement ems into my training?
Um…decreases co-ordination? EMS provides an uncordinated contraction but it you not result in you becoming uncordinated. How long have you been running? Say for the next 7 weeks:
3 weeks max strength weights
1 week medium weights
3 weeks max strength weights
you’d use it on weeks 2+3 and 6+7, I think. Because it sounds like you are a beginner/developing athlete it sounds like your cns will not get as fried as fast as an advanced athlete when doing weights and running therefore you probably wouldn’t need the EMS as much. you will still get benefit from it though.
i am 16, in the 10th grade, ive been running track since 7th grade, didn’t take it seriously until last year.
I have a question about the pulsing mode for warmup for the use of ems and for general recovery. The ems 7500(which i have) has a constant mode that continuely will fire the muscle continously. It is that or a 2 second on period and a 2 second off period. which is dersirable? Also within that mode how strong should it be, do you want to see a slight twitch off the muscle, just feel like its pins and needles or do we want decent size contractions but nothing to strong. Hopefully someone will have advice.
The best method for pulsing would be shorter pulses of a very low intensity. some units allow you to choose the htz that the unit operates on. In that case you can turn the htz right down to a seeting low enough that you get single pulses that way.
I do the 2 on/2 off deal with the frequency at 15Hz. The amplitude is set at 3-4. I guess you could call it a “sitting on washing machine” type vibration. As you get warmer, you might have to turn the amplitude down a bit because the contractions will get stronger.
Not sure if this is exactly what everyone else does, but it works for me. It definitely gets the blood flowing, and I have much less DOMS the next day following pulse mode EMS.
If you are a sprinter, 15 htz will prob not hold your muscles in a tetanic contraction (muscle stays contracted because the body can’t separate on from off fast enough) If it goes lower, you could easily pulse that way. Last time I checked with a Compex unit some years ago, I didn’t go into tetany till about 20htz.
Thanks, thats very helpful, now another question whats the difference between RATE and WIDTH and what sort of settings (higher/lower) for max strength and recovery?
Adam,
Do you do that at night on your HI days? Also, what EMS unit do you have?
I looked it up (it’s been a long time!). The pulse width is the width of the actual pulse itself, not the distance between the peaks- which I should have remembered as these are square waves anyway. I’d check the manual with your stim to see what the optimal pulse width they recommend is. There is always the question of individual tolerance that will determine how much current you can get into the muscle to achieve the most powerful contraction. There will be an optimal combination of duration of the individual pulses (width) and the density of the signal (proximity of each subsequent pulse in the entire pulse train (duration of the contraction when tetany is achieved.)
I’ll do pulse mode whenever I have DOMS, have a hamstring strain, or ankle sprain. HI day, LI day; doesn’t matter.
I got an EMS 7500.
Got ya. I have the same one and I never really felt like I got much out of trying to use it for recovery purposes. I didnt what protocols to use so I’ll have to try your protocols sometime.
You know i had the same feeling, i was thought it was tough but i could go to the max setting, then i increased the rate to 25hz and omg i leg felt like it was going to rip off. And this was at a low setting of just below 4. Now i know what charlie meant by turning it up
You know i had the same feeling with the ems 7500, i was thought it was tough but i could go to the max setting, then i increased the rate from 2hz to 25hz and omg my leg felt like it was going to rip off. And this was at a low setting of just below 4. Now i know what charlie meant by turning it up