Does electric stimulation get better results than lifting weights?
By Cavalier Daily Staff | March 21, 2002ES uses electrical current to induce muscular contractions, simulating what happens when you lift weights. Physical therapists routinely use ES to increase the muscular strength of patients recovering from surgery or from muscle strains and tears. But health experts still are debating the merits of ES as a fitness tool for healthy athletes and the general public. Susan Saliba, a senior associate athletic trainer at the McCue Sports Medicine Center, routinely uses ES to treat injured athletes. But "we don't use it to make them stronger," Saliba said. Researchers have identified a major difference between ES-stimulated and normally stimulated muscle fiber contraction - ES targets "fast twitch" muscle fibers more effectively. Since "fast twitch" muscle fibers have a larger diameter and lower electrical resistance than smaller "slow twitch" muscle fibers, the applied electrical current takes the path of least resistance through the "fast twitch" fibers. According to Saliba, this causes greater muscle fatigue.
