Cefar®

Work out with EMS
The muscular electrostimulation (MES) is successfully used to train the muscles in various medical fields and in sport. All around Europe, the professional athletes use the EMS as additional training system along with their daily training. The MES stimulates strong and efficient muscular contractions and, then, in order to release the muscle tension, the MES emits relaxing vibrations. Cefar offers a wide range of training programs for sport and fitness, allowing an intensive training.
Normal muscular activity is controlled by the central nervous system (i.e. brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system, responsible for sending nervous signals to the muscles. The MES works similarly, except that EMS sends external electrical impulses through the skin. Through the nerves, the impulse gets to a certain muscle that tightens up exactly as it does when the nervous system sends nervous signals to the muscular fiber.

Sport and fitness use the EMS for different kinds of muscular exercises, for example:

• Warming-up
• Maximal muscle strengthening
• Resistance
• Explosive force
• Endurance
• Muscle recovering
• Capillarisation
• Lipolysis
• Drainage
• Firming-up
• Toning-up
• Sculpting
• Bodybuilding
• Muscular tension relaxation

The main goal of MES is to produce muscle contractions and muscle vibrations.
Place the electrodes on the muscle to be activated. Increase the amplitude until the muscle tightens up or vibrates, depending on the stimulation type. (for further information go to "The MES program"). The contractions should reach a high level, but they should not be painful. Usually the MES contractions are felt more intense than those produced voluntarily. Increase the amplitude gradually.

Bring MES into your regular training program to stimulate the muscle activity between or during training sessions. The stimulator works as a personal trainer who can suggest the training program that fits you best and also the recommended training frequency for each program.

The MES Program
Different formal parameters act on the stimulated muscle having different effects. For the Cefar stimulators all the parameters are preset; we would like to inform you about the frequency adjustments and about time span impulsion.

The warm-up, muscle recovery, relaxation and capillarisation programs use low frequencies, usually between 1 and 10 Hz. This kind of stimulation results in muscular vibrations and not in muscular contractions. Such programs improve the bloodstream (through the circulatory system) and therefore they improve the toxin elimination process. Furthermore, these programs help the body to increase the amount of oxygen and improve the muscle metabolism.

The muscular endurance programs use average frequencies (between 15-30 Hz) since the muscular contractions should be visible. The muscular endurance programs consist of long sub maximal sessions designed to enhance the slow fibers activity and to improve the aerobic capacity.

In order to produce maximal muscular contractions, all strengthening programs use high frequencies, between 50-120 Hz. These programs are designed to increase the muscular mass and muscular strength. There are a lot of muscular strength programs, depending on your exercise type: maximal strength, muscular strength resistance, explosive force etc.

Each impulsion might last for a certain time period, called "impulsion time span". This is a way of controlling the energy amount sent to the muscle. Generally, for the small muscular groups, the impulsion time span should be short, and long for the large muscular groups.

The modulation parameters are all set up on the Cefar stimulators. During workout phase, the frequency stimulation changes between two fixed parameters in order to make the stimulation as comfortable and efficient as possible.

The gradually increasing and decreasing of impulsion time span insure also a high comfort throughout the training period. The serial contractions programs result in a chain contraction: one muscle contracts after another. The serial contractions programs are designed specially for massage, muscle recovery and relaxation.

There are some Cefar stimulators that allow working with two programs in the same time. Thus, you can train your hips with a muscle recovery program while using the massage program for the neck muscles.

The MES Advantages:
The advantages of training with a muscular electro stimulator:

· You can efficiently train your muscles for a short time period

· You can target certain muscles. For this reason, the MES is a very useful training method in case of muscular injuries as additional support might be needed.

· The MES is an excellent recovery muscle method, because it stimulates the bloodstream and improves the toxin elimination process.

· The MES has a muscle relaxing effect.

· The MES stimulates both the slow and fast muscle fibers. The slow fibers are usually involved in endurance sports, while the fast fibers in the strengthening and speed training exercises. In most cases, the regular training cannot efficiently target the fast muscle fibers.

· You can use the MES whenever you like to as an additional training method along with your regular training practice.

· The MES has an analgesic effect.

· The MES is a training method with a small impact on the rest of the body.