To help my VMO learn how fire again, my physical therapist hooked me up to this machine. It's a muscle stimulator. They apply pads to my muscles and crank up the current. I contract when the current fires.
My leg muscles have seemed to have developed a way of contracting without firing the VMO so much due to my ACL/cartilage injury, so the idea is to help sync my brain impulses with the VMO contraction. It seems to be helping. I had the first treatment last night and my knee definitely felt better walking today.
After the physical therapy sessions, they again hook my leg up to the muscle stimulator, but the current is lower this time and just provides sort of a tingling feeling. No muscle contraction. They use four electrode pads around my knee, instead of just the 2 they use for stimulating the VMO. The setup looks like this:
The idea is to help block some of the pain in my knee. I think that seems to help too. My knee usually feels a little less painful for a day or two after a session.
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