TENS Stimulators

Could have posted this under "Equipment" but wasn't sure. Coach made a statement in a recent post that tendons take 10x longer to heal, which is what makes them prone to overuse. Does anyone have familiarity with electric muscle stimulators? Do they accelerate the healing process? How? Any inexpensive recommendations? or things to watch out for?

Thanks,

JM

...and I just found Slizzardman had a post right here:

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4876&p=41430&hilit=tens#p41430

Sorry for the duplicate!

Errr, I've never heard that these can be used for strengthening tendons and I've already had a bunch of classes on electrostimulators and such.

The fact is if they actually worked to heal tendons then there would be a lot less people with tendonitis because it would be easily solved by just hopping into a physical therapy clinic.

Estim used for tendonitis is for the pain -- not healing the tendon. If there is disuse atrophy, it's used for strengthening the muscles and masking the pain from the tendonitis.

Sounds like some voodoo hocus pocus for tendinopathy healing.

Can help increase strength/mass and neuromuscular reeducation though.

Various protocols may help with the healing process albeit they work through several different mechanisms depending on the protocol

Was just at a massage therapists. He used the TENS on my forearms, because the extensor muscles felt rope-y and hard, like steel cables. After 10 minutes, the muscles have definitely relaxed a little and a more responsive to deep tissue massage. Don't know if they'll accelerate the healing of the tendon because of the stimulation...but is it possible that the extra stimulation encourages bloodflow? And that's helpful?

J

I had a Dr. Ho unit for a while. It was fun to use, put on different muscle groups and make them twitch.

But I returned it because they began to twich on their own after a while

Personally I never found TENS very helpful except to fill some time in a 20-30 minute appointment.

Dr Ho is pretty good though hard to find much now as a stand-alone unit.

I've had achillles tendon issues (tendonosis), and the best treatment so far has come from Graston technique.

That could work on other tendons as well. Yoy can DIY to some degree though it's best to get a few treatments

first to see how it's done.

Nowadays for DIY therapy I mostly find trigger points (spasms), active release, and graston.

And stretching when it's fairly healthy.

Also I go to a chiropractic school's grad student clinic where they give excellent PT, physio and the occassional

adjustment for $20 a visit, when I can't DIY. They have used a microcurrent simulator on me that

was supposed who help healing, but who knows!!

Ounce of prevention ...