The Deep Muscle Stimulator
I just purchased a Deep Muscle Stimulator made by Dr Jake last week. The Deep Muscle Stimulator is a durable and "high tech" massage tool. You can read the actual description about it on the web. Here, I will describe the effects of the Deep Muscle Stimulator on myself and my patients.
I've been using it on my tight right hip for the past week. The hip has been tight for the past 2 years. I herniated a disc and pinched a nerve 2 years ago causing weakness in the left hip. Since then, I've popped the disc back in and relieve the nerve symptoms. However, I was stubborn and decided to continue my weight lifting during that process. Due to my stubbornness, I developed some imbalances and bad neuromuscular compensations. Anyway, the Deep Muscle Stimulator gave immediate relief of the feeling of tightness in the right hip after 10 minutes of use. After 4 days of treatment my IT band which originally feels like a roll of quarters now feels like a roll of dimes. So far, it has definitely helped with the tightness. With such good results, I decided to use it on my patients.
I used the Deep Muscle Stimulator on a patient with a frozen shoulder. I placed it on the insertion of the Pec Major and worked the long head of the biceps for 5 minutes. He was immediately able to perform the pulley abduction exercise with 20 degrees more motion. When he came back, he reports pain free use of that arm for the rest of the day.
I've also had many other patients with "knots" in their neck. They asked me to use the Deep Muscle Stimulator on them. So far, the response has been, "Where do I buy one of these"!
I am very happy with the results so far. I will spend the next few months writing about the results of this amazing device on my patients. It should have amazing clinical applications for frozen shoulders, neck and back pain, and tendonitis. If any of you have experience with it, please let me know. I wonder if other therapists or doctors have developed clinical protocols for specific diagnosis.
I can't be the only one using the deep muscle stimulator. If you are using it, please comment here!
As far as I knew, the DMS was pretty new to field so I haven't heard any news about clinical protocols for specific diagnosis, but I'm intrested. Keep us in the loop!
Myself and the other therapist here have used the DMS unit on a shoulder. We apply the unit to the anterior GH joint, the Mec major insetion point, and on the posterior cuff muscles. Through palpation we decide on the length of time needed at each site (typically 2-5 minutes each). For frozen shoulders, this treatment works wonders to improve range of motion IMMEDIATELY and gives the patient pain relief. We have measured 20-30 degree imporvements in range of motion after the use of the DMS.
I am currently using the DMS unit on a Achilles Tendonitis patient and another with Tibialis Posterior / Fasciitis pain with good results. Pain relief has been verbally rated to be 30% less with one and the other is now pain free with walking. The duration of treatment has been 2-3 weeks only. Based on previous cases, this is much faster!
I have found it to be very effective in "releasing" muscles if the DMS unit is combined with manual techniques. I use the DMS unit on a tight muscle for 3 minutes. Then I place the DMS unit 1-2 inches ahead of my finger/thumb during a deep tissue massage stroke. After just a few, you can feel the muscle "give". What would normally take 20-30 minutes can now be accomplished with 3-5 minutes.
Does anyone have similar experiences?