EMS Questions

The Compex is designed to be used by healthy individuals to complement their training in the sport they participate in. It is not designed to be used as a rehabilitation device. With that said, if you are recovering from an injury such as a broken bone or a surgery, your Compex can certainly be used to assist with recovery from your workouts and rehabilitation work, and to help rebuild muscle strength. This can only be done once you have been approved by your physician to begin rehabilitation work. Use Active Recovery at low intensities to promote blood flow to a healing area, or use the Resistance program at low intensities to help rebuild strength in recovering muscles. Always err on the side of caution when selecting intensities to avoid making the injury worse.

Use Active Recovery at low intensities to promote blood flow to a healing area, or use the Resistance program at low intensities to help rebuild strength in recovering muscles.

Effective strength building training plans can be found on our website -
http://www.hammernutrition.com/knowledge/electrical-muscle-stimulation/

Statistically significant increases in strength are achieved in a three to six week period.

The Electrode Gel is best used when storing pads between sessions. The amount of moisture in the pad is related to the pad's adhesion. As the pads start to lose their moisture content, the adhesion is reduced. A small dab of gel spread over the pad's sticky side before it is placed on the film for storage will increase the moisture content and adhesion of the pad.

The most benefit will be derived by running Active Recovery within 3 hours of finishing your workout. Beyond this, any metabolic waste that is left sitting in the muscles will have already done its damage. In order for the muscles to recover as quickly as possible metabolic waste needs to be flushed out, and fresh blood and nutrients need to be delivered to the muscle cells as quickly as possible. The longer this process is delayed, the slower the recovery process. If it is not possible to run Active Recovery within 3 hours of finishing your exercise, you may still run Active Recovery at any time. It just won't be as effective as it would be if ran 3 hours or less after your workout.

Active Recovery and Massage have benefits up to about 50 mA. Beyond this point you are likely to cause additional muscle fatigue rather than assisting with recovery. Most individuals will not go quite that high, but it is recommended that you at least reach intensities of 30 mA in order to get the benefits of the program. If sufficient intensities are not reached, the muscle group you are trying to target will not receive a proper flush and the program will not be as effective. Also, in order for the program to be most effective, the peak intensity should be reached as soon as possible.

Electrical Muscle Stimulation has been used for over 40 years as a training tool for elite athletes. No ill effects of any sort have ever been reported in healthy individuals using the units responsibly.

What you are identifying here is a muscular imbalance between the left and right limb. This is normal, as we all have a dominant and weaker side of the body. When we have a limb that is stronger than the other, that limb is stronger in the sense that it has more muscle mass, but also in a neuromuscular sense. What this means is that the stronger limb has less inhibition, and is able to recruit more muscle fibers for a muscle contraction than the weaker side. This is why one limb is twitching more vigorously than the other. The muscle that is more active is actually firing more muscle fibers than the other side, hence, more movement. So, the limb that is twitching more vigorously is the stronger limb. What you need to do is even this out by increasing the intensity to the limb that is twitching less until the twitching or muscle contractions are equal on both limbs or muscle groups. Obviously this is not an exact science as it is based on visual feedback, but you can get the contractions very close to one another. Over time this discrepancy will even out as the imbalance corrects itself. We can never completely resolve these muscular imbalances, but the Compex does allow us to work toward more balanced muscular strength. Even the Active Recovery and Massage programs can help overcome this neural inhibition and promote more balanced muscle contractions over time.

The Compex Sport Elite, Compex Performance U.S., and Compex Edge are covered by a two-year warranty - three years if you registered it with Compex. For repairs during the warranty period, please phone the Compex Repair Department directly at 1-800-336-6569 ext. 1933 to receive a Return Authorization (RA) # and return information.

While you cant really injure yourself with a Compex unit, you can cause some rather severe muscle soreness if you increase intensity on some programs too rapidly. Just as with a weight training program in the gym, you want to start nice and easy and only add additional stress when the body has adapted to the current workload. When first getting started with strength programs we recommend beginning with a low intensity in the 15-20 mA range. Since any soreness you experience from these workouts is very delayed, evaluate how you feel 2 days after the initial workout. If soreness is substantial, reduce intensity by 5 mA until you can complete the workout with minimal to no soreness 2 days later. When you can complete your workout with no soreness, you are ready to increase intensity. Increases of 5 mA every other session are recommended. Increasing intensity in amounts greater than this, or more frequently, is likely to lead to sore muscles.

All three of these programs are designed to promote blood flow to a muscle and/or promote endorphin release from the body to help manage soreness post workout. Each of these programs functions slightly differently, however, which makes one better than the others for certain uses and body parts. Active Recovery is designed to stimulate blood flow, which promotes recovery by flushing out any metabolic waste and delivering fresh blood and nutrients to the muscle group. Active Recovery also stimulates endorphin release from the body. This makes Active Recovery ideal for post workout recovery. Active Recovery can also help manage soreness and discomfort of various muscle groups. Think shoulders after a long day at the office.

Massage simply stimulates blood flow to a muscle group, which makes it ideal for post workout recovery and for relieving stress in muscles that are sore or tight. The end result is similar to Active Recovery, but without the endorphin release. Massage also runs at the lowest frequency of all the recovery programs, making it the best option after very rigorous completion or training. Use this program for post workout recovery and for managing soreness and discomfort. Some prefer this program over Active Recovery, so use both to determine which works best for you

Recovery Plus (found only on the Sport Elite) produces a muscle twitch which clears lactic acid, increases blood flow, and promotes muscle relaxation. This program runs at a lower frequency than Active Recovery, making it a great choice for fatigued muscles.

Hammer Nutrition carries and supports a full line of Compex units & accessories.

Not only will you not get the same degree of contraction between different muscle groups at a given mA setting, but the feel of the contraction from the various muscle groups will be different. This is due to a number of factors such as percent composition of slow and fast twitch muscle fibers and size of the muscle. This is normal. Expect the mA settings used while training various muscle groups to vary. Let trial and error, feel of the stimulation, and degree of contraction guide you.

Yes, there are two cost-related items that you are responsible for, should you return the Compex unit:

1. You are responsible for return shipping costs.
2. If you use more than one set of each pads (2x2 or 4x4) during the trial period, then decide to return the unit, you will be billed for the additional pads used.

Please visit our Compex Electrical Muscle Stimulation knowledge page, where we have a plethora of Compex and EMS-related articles. Learn more about how to use your EMS unit, training tips, comparison charts, proper pad placement, and much more.