Bruce and the elsectronic muscle toner???

[Gunjin]

I just saw JackAss the Movie last night and one of the skits reminded me of Bruce Lee. The skit was when everyone was zapping each other with an electronic muscle toner...

I remember a scene from 'Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story' where Bruces character is wearing one of those electric toner things on his pecs and makes a comment something like 'it's like doing X amount of bench presses in five minutes.'

I also remember seeing something about Bruce using one of these in one of the many documentaries out there. I assume he must have or else they wouldn't have included it in the 'Dragon.' I know Bruce was always trying the newest excersise techniques or equipment as he learned about them while developing JKD. So using one of these things doesn't suprise me.

Anyways, does anyones else remember this? I don't remember seeing it in "The Art of Expressing the Human Body" so maybe Bruce found it not to be effective. I'll have to flip through it again.

Also what do others think about this device? Has anyone tried one? I think it's BS and still beleive in sweating at the gym 3 times a week and gaining strength the old fashion way, but I am curious non the less...

[osopardo]

I remember when I was a kid my mom had this thing called the "Relax-a-Sizer" - a gray box with several knobs that controlled the amount of electricity sent to several rubber pads that one would attach to different parts of the body (pecs, biceps, abs, thighs, etc.). "Exercise the modern way while relaxing at home!" I always thought it was a scam.

Then recently, I broke my ankle and had my lower leg immobilized in a cast for about three weeks. When the cast came off, my leg muscles were a swollen useless atrophied mess. I was sent to physical therapy, and guess what one of the treatments was - electric current therapy - supplied by a device that looked just like mom's "Relax-a-Sizer"!!. I asked the therapist about it and was reassured that the electric current would stimulate blood circulation and cause muscular contraction without having to actually move the muscles into flexion and contraction. Standard therapy for my type of injury.

Makes you wonder, but my money's still on good old sweat-producing exercise.

[spiderchoke]

I have no solid evidence, but I have worked with two machines that produce the results that have been described in tales of the electric muscle stimulators.

An EGS or Electro Galvanic Stimulator, can be used and set to cause involuntary muscle contractions at various rates and intensity. The contraction of the muscle is still enough to stimulate its growth and increase muscle strength to a degree. This is why it is used in the rehabilitation of injuries.

A TENS unit is a portable, less powerfull, machine that does the same thing with less adjustment capacity, and less power.

These machines can do damage to the muscles and should not be used with out training on the risk and safety.

I do not advocate the use of the units for complementing your workouts, only for rehabilitation.

"Everyday spent training is one day closer to learning something."
.....Spiderchoke

[Kurt]

big bump on all of spiderchoke's comments, these 'machines' are only useful for rehab.

Many companies have had fines placed against them - about last year sometime - The american government actually funded testing on these devices and found them to be shit! it's just a complete con.

Peace.