What is Combined Muscle Training (CMT)?

Our NMES users and the team at diPulse are fully converted to Combined Muscle Training (CMT), since the physical effects speak for themselves. But what is CMT? Our expert NMES advisor Heiko Van Vliet coined the term and developed the technique after decades of working with top athletes and Olympians, in order to achieve their optimal performance. So what is CMT and what is the theory behind it?

CMT - using all the tools in the toolkit

As we learnt last week, NMES (Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation) has the capacity to recruit muscle fibres - which may either be dormant or not adequately developed - through stimulating the motor points of the muscle. This is where the motor nerves are most superficial and easy to access with electrical currents. In turn, this creates a muscle contraction and depending on the program we choose, we can simulate different types of muscle fibres. CMT is a training technique coupling NMES with actively exercising a targeted muscle group, reinforcing the potential and the effects of your workout. For example, when we lift weights, we do this in order to load our muscles, place a demand on them by exercising them under stress and thereby (re)building our muscle fibres. But is this always a good idea? CMT presents us with a better solution.

Keeping our joints load-free

Studies have shown the damage that can be done to joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles when they are loaded repeatedly with heavy weights, (Molano-Tobar & Vallejo, 2020).  Often for Type II muscle fibre development, using very heavy weights is necessary in order to build muscle bulk for power and inherent strength. But repetitive loading of the body is not a natural process and particularly for the human skeleton, which in its design is not always capable of absorbing such intense pressures. So how can we build muscle power without putting our skeletal structures through undue stress? What if we could workout AND put our muscles under resistance without loading the joints? This is where diPulse and CMT come into play.

CMT- providing resistance without the strain

Our expert advisor Heiko has worked with the principles of CMT now for decades. He firmly believes that the days when muscle stimulation was a passive process, used instead of exercise are behind us and the best results of NMES happen when we workout in conjunction WITH electrical stimulation. And he has vast experience to back up this statement. The diPulse programs have been designed specifically to provide the user with all the options they need to target the type of stimulation to the targeted muscles they want to develop.

The research has demonstrated that the effects of high-intensity exercise combined with muscle stimulation increase muscle volume (Natsumi et al, 2018), but alongside all of this are the overall benefits of CMT to general metabolic health, cardiovascular and physiological fitness. NMES and exercise is a real winner for anyone keen to improve their performance and develop themselves and their workout to the best of their ability - all without the need for weights. This places the user at a real advantage when trips to the gym don’t become a necessity and resistance training takes on a whole new meaning in weightlessness. But let’s not forget that NMES coupled with exercise will also reduce training time for the same (or better) effects. How is that for a more efficient workout?

diPulse has succeeded in harnessing the unrestricted training potential of wire-free, micro-module stimulation controlled conveniently by a smartphone. No sticky electrodes and no cumbersome devices affords the user all the freedom needed to train and have powerful NMES stimulation at the same time. For us and for you, CMT and diPulse have truly become a game changer in the fitness world.

References:

Molano-Tobar, N.J & Vallejo, F.G (2020), “Sports Injuries in the Weightlifting League, Colombia”, International Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Journal, 5:5; 204-207

Natsumi, Ozaki, H, Kakigi, R, Kobayashi, H & Naito, H, (2018), “Effects of training intensity in electromyostimulation on human skeletal muscle”, European Journal of Applied Physiology, 18:7; 1339-1347