Sebastien Ruiz

Suite au nombre important d’anglais et d’étrangers qui débarquent à Montpellier, ou dans mon cabinet de kiné ostéo.
J’ai décidé de faire traduire quelques articles de mon blog.
De plus la coupe du Monde de rugby 2007, approchant à grand pas, les échanges en anglais vont être nécessaires pour communiquer avec les touristes du Monde Entier venus supporter leur équipe favorite.
Ces articles seront classés dans la catégorie articles en anglais,” In English “.
Avec le tag: Hand Surgery and Rehabilitation.
Je remercie Mme Sawyers T. pour ses traductions du français vers l’anglais.
Voici : la traduction de l’ “electrotherapy muscle”

http://osteopathe-montpellier.com/llectrothrapie-muscle
Does electrotherapy really help build muscle? Can we really obtain bulging abdominals ?
And why does electrotherapy relieve backache?

And here’s the question I am most often asked. People want to know whether  they can really develop bulging abdominals whilst reading the newspaper by simply placing electric currents on their muscles.
I always used to tell them : bulging abdominals, certainly not  (with this method alone) but gain a bit of muscle strength, yes, probably …
Today I would say to them :” I know you’ll gain a bit of muscle strength …if you use the right equipment and the right dosage…”
Indeed, two months ago whilst testing the biceps strength of a  patient in hospital, I had the idea of testing my own  biceps, because I had not done any sport for over 10 months ( apart from physiotherapy and osteopathy ), to find out what my strength was without any training (like judo), and to my great disappointment, I only had 7 kg more than a patient who was going to have an operation on the rotator cuffs.
So I decided to work out a  simple electrotherapy protocol for my biceps over several weeks …and to regularly measure its strength.( for the last two months I’ve been talking about this to patients who are partly treated by electrotherapy at my surgery and here are the results at last!)

Electrotherapy  protocol:
- 60 minutes a week  (if possible split into three 20-minute sessions) jolts or bursts (low frequency ) 10 seconds and visible muscle contractions provoking elbow supination and flexion for 10 seconds (voluntary muscle contraction is not used)
-1 muscular test of the right and left biceps and right and left triceps.( agonist/antagonist muscles)
Position to adopt for measuring strength: subject upright, elbow-to-body, 90 ° elbow flexion, supination for the biceps (flexion strength measurement ) and pronation for the triceps (extension strength measurement).
Strength is measured using an electronic dynamometer.
(only one test per week to avoid the test becoming a strengthening exercise in itself if done every day ).

http://osteopathe-montpellier.com/llectrothrapie-muscle
The right biceps had increased its strength by 6.5 kg  in 7 weeks.
That is to say an increase of 28.26 %.
The left biceps had increased its strength by 4.4 kg  in 7 weeks.
That is to say an increase of 19.38 %

The right triceps had increased its strength by 1.65 kg in 7 weeks.
That is to say an increase of 8.6 %
The left triceps had increased its strength by 4.35 kg  in 7 weeks.
That is to say an increase of 23.2 %
The triceps had not undergone any electrotherapy so its increase in strength may be due to automatic re-balancing of the agonist/ antagonist forces, or quite simply to contracting the triceps muscle to its maximum, once a week (during the test).
Furthermore this measurement on myself was reliable as I hadn’t been doing any sports activities or muscle reinforcement (apart from my 50 hours (approx.) per week of physiotherapy or osteopathy work)
In conclusion it is easier to understand why out-of-condition back pain sufferers who have not done any sport for a long time feel better after a few sessions of electrotherapy with their physiotherapist, their para-vertebral muscles must be stronger and the stability of the joints in the spine as well as muscular endurance will probably have increased.
If  biceps strength can increase by about  25 % in 7 weeks then the back muscles must also improve !!!
The release of endorphin by low-frequency electrical stimulation must play a large role  ….in relieving pain.

Your comments and complementary research will be most welcome.