What is Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES)?

What is Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES)?

NMES or Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation is the delivery of an electrical current via the motor points of a muscle to stimulate a muscle activation, typically to create a muscle contraction. We are often asked what are the benefits of integrating muscle stimulation into your workout and the answer is simple. Try it and you’ll see what all the hype is about!

We have customers, elite sports people, business innovators and even those who work in healthcare telling us daily how NMES is underused, and how we are at the forefront of revolutionizing muscle stimulation. Our products take NMES to another level - providing freedom of use, world class targeted stimulation and multiple programs on our app for whatever your goals - every new user is astounded. But let’s not tell you what we think, lets dig into the science behind the tech.

Labcoats and test-tubes

NMES has been used in its various forms for decades, as Russian stimulation, interferential current and in fact even centuries ago as Faradism. The concept is basically the same – muscle activation through nerve or motor point electrical stimulation.

So what is a motor point? The motor point of a muscle is the area where a superficial bundle of motor nerve fibres is most accessible for muscle stimulation. Motor or efferent nerves transmit impulses from the brain to the muscle to contract, whereas sensory or afferent nerves take sensation from the body to the brain to be interpreted as different sensations.

With NMES, we are essentially bypassing the brain in order to create a muscle contraction via the motor nerve and without the need for conscious thought. So why would we want to do this? Research shows that even in people who are highly mobile, sporty and fit, we are not making the most of our muscles. Either we are concentrating our training too much on our Type I slow twitch muscle fibres or focusing only on our Type II fast twitch fibres. Or perhaps we aren’t activating enough of any of our muscle fibres! And this is where NMES comes into its own.

If muscles aren’t regularly used and become wasted (atrophied), or if muscle memory is lost and we can’t activate it in the correct way, or if we have an imbalance of muscle fibres for the purposes of our daily activites, then we run into physical problems. It is notoriously difficult to recruit muscle fibres if muscles haven’t been used correctly, or have been dormant for a long time. This leads to compensation in muscle activity meaning we begin using different muscles ineffectively to take the place of the dormant muscle, and this is where bad habits are ingrained and long term problems can arise. Using diPulse NMES system, we can target the muscles we want to develop, and we can decide how we want to develop them. Do we want to facilitate Type I muscle fibres for endurance or should we activate our Type II muscle fibres for power? Do we want to increase blood supply to exercised muscles to help them grow and develop after a workout? Or do we want to add some sensory stimulation and massage to a tired muscle area?

However we decide to use our NMES programs, we can undoubtedly recruit more muscle fibres with electrical stimulation coupled with a workout than with a workout alone, as was recommended in a review of NMES studies by Keyvan and Maffiuletti in 2011. This has been the key philosophy behind the development of the diPulse garments and accessories.

So - we have learnt that 1) electrically stimulating muscles can override a voluntary muscle contraction, 2) we can use programs to target our under-used muscles, and those we want to develop, 3) we can decide what type of muscle fibres we want to build. So how is diPulse different?

diPulse – muscle stimulation for success.

Using NMES has previously been quite a task and has involved leads and wires to attach sticky electrodes (that have a short life span) to a cumbersome device. The result is that electrical stimulation has largely been used while static and so the benefits have been limited. diPulse has essentially provided a game changer. 

Planning the garments and accessories has been a collaborative effort between muscle stimulation specialists, sportspeople, gym users and anatomy experts. Not to mention the tech behind the garments - over 25 years of engineering experience went into developing the STIMMODULE, 7 years of research went into diPulse’s conductive carbon electrodes and endless months were dedicated to perfecting our software and app. Since diPulse garments target exactly the motor point for the stimulation you need, you don’t have to worry about electrode placement again. Our carbon electrodes are rendered into the garments exactly where you need them, meaning you also don’t create electrode waste. Wireless and Bluetooth controlled, you can train while you use muscle stimulation and push your body further, or reduce your training time significantly by recruiting more muscle fibres during each session. The selection of stimulation programs gives you the option to choose what your body needs, and to activate your warm-up or cool-down sessions.

Since not all NMES currents are equal, we can say, hand on heart, that the diPulse STIMMODULES are in a class of their own. That such a tiny device can create the powerful muscle stimulation it provides is truly revolutionary and evident why it has taken over 25 years to perfect.

Want to know more?

Our regular Monday blogposts will highlight how to use our diPulse products to get the best out of your muscle stimulation sessions. Don’t forget to catch up on next week’s post where we look at CMT or Combined Muscle Training. Here we explain how exercising in conjunction with muscle stimulation holds the key to accelerating your workouts, fitness and overall wellbeing. If you are a visual learner, then have a look at our Instagram, Facebook or TikTok page – we are sure you’ll find all the ideas you need there.

References:

Seyri, K.M, MSc and Maffiuletti, N.A (2011), "Effect of Electromyostimulation Training on Muscle Strength and Sports Performance", Strength and Conditioning Journal, 33(1): 70-75

Wahls, T.L, Reese, D, Kaplan, D and Darling, W.G (2010) "Rehabilitation with Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Leads to Functional Gains in Ambulation in Patients with Secondary Progressive and Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis: A Case Series Report", Journal of alternative and complementary medicine, 16(12):1343-9.