Periodically, some coaches and athletes ask about the possible use of
electrostimulation for bodybuilding and other athletic conditioning, so this
recent discussion on the Supertraining list may also be of interest here.
It was asked:
<Dr. Siff, You recently mentioned the use of Electrostimulation (ES) in the
context of a training session (not simply as a restorative measure). What
kind of results have you seen in your experience? Is this something the
layman can learn? >
*** Virtually anyone can learn almost anything fairly competently, given
enough effort and motivation, but the legitimate use of a modality whose use
is often regulated by medical laws is quite another thing. First of all, ES
is not a substitute for standard strength training and, like plyometrics and
other 'shock' methods, needs to be carefully integrated into an overall
training program.
In fact, the use of certain ES procedures will offer more explosive and
stronger muscle recruitment than the weight catching methods that Jay Sch
roeder has been using. Before we discuss this issue further, I would suggest
that you read through the article and especially some of the references in an
article that I wrote for one of the NSCA publications.
Siff MC (1990) Application of Electrostimulation in Physical Conditioning. J
of Applied Sports Science Res, 4(1): 20-26
Incidentally, Charlie Francis regularly used ES in training Ben Johnson, so
that it is not only Russians who have used this modality successfully. In
one controlled study that some of my physio students carried out over 4
months, it emerged that a combination of a specific training scheme
(Autoregulating Progressive Resistance Exercise - APRE) and ES produced
significantly greater thigh hypertrophy than simply the APRE method alone
(even with adjustments made to APRE to take into account the extra training
offered by the ES). Its use for no more than 5 minutes per muscle group
every second day also significantly increased the Totals of several Olympic
lifters who trained in our gym back in the 1970s. However, it must be
stressed that the restorative role played by microcurrent ES can also be very
useful in enhancing any training program.
There are videos of workshops that I offered at one NSCA conference on ES and
at the Australian Institute of Sport in 1988, but I believe that they are no
longer in stock. At one stage I worked for a company in designing and
producing various types of clinical, training and cosmetic ES devices and
still have some of the many prototypes that we manufactured. I generally
display these at my educational Strength Camps - possibly I now need to show
people how they are used in practice. Maybe I need to investigate having
copies made for anyone who may be interested, even though the material is now
over 13 years old. Then again, all the material that I offered during a
similar period (1982-1989) on "Functional Conditioning" seems to have hit
the market all these years later, so who knows - maybe older material is
sometimes still very much up to date?
Since there are often enquiries on this topic, I will post a long article
later today on the Supertraining list (URL below) on the use of ES in sport.
Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/
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