The Deal

$56 for a complete chiropractic exam ($335 value)

• One spinal adjustment
• Electronic muscle stimulation
• Intersegmental traction
• Infrared
• Active release technique

Electrical Muscle Stimulation: A Galvanizing Treatment

Your practitioner may use electrical muscle stimulation to help restore the muscular system to health. Read on to learn what to expect—and why it works.

Electricity powers almost every aspect of modern life, but long before Edison and Tesla, humankind had already harnessed the power of voltage with every flexed bicep. Muscles move by electrical stimulation, but it turns out they aren’t too picky about where that stimulation comes from. An electrode placed in the right spot can cause a muscle to extend or contract, and this phenomenon can be used for pain relief, physical therapy, and restoring power to the brain after a thunderstorm. Patients typically feel a mild tingling sensation as the electricity travels through the body, sometimes extending to a muscle twitch.

Power to the People

The uses of electrical muscle stimulation are as varied as the kind of people licensed to use the technique. A chiropractor might use it to relax muscle spasms or gently reeducate a muscle group caught in painful patterns. A physical therapist can help bring an atrophied limb back to life by gradually building up its muscle strength via repeated contractions. Some aestheticians use tiny electrical currents to try to tone facial muscles, and there’s at least one FDA-cleared device designed to tone the abdominal muscles at home.