POSTED BY

Joel Johnson

AT 2:06 PM
Friday January 18, 2008

Sports and Survival

compex • electricity • electroshock • health • michael kanellos • sports • trainer

Compex Sports Trainer: Electroshock Your Muscles to Buffness

kanellosbike.jpgCNET's Michael Kanellos tries out the Compex Sport Trainer, essentially an electroshock machine that shocks your muscles into tensing all at once, Bruce Lee-style. It looks brutal. I want one.

But man, does it hurt. I did a set of seven 7-second intervals on the "resistance" setting and seven 4-second intervals on the "explosive strength" setting. That's 1 minute, 17 seconds of exercise. I was panting and sweating. And when the electricity was going through my muscles, it felt like my legs were in a vise.
Don't miss the video. Kanellos' screams of pain are delicious. (Also, he's pretty ripped for a tech writer. Good job!)

Electrocute yourself for a better you [Crave.CNET.com]

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10 Comments

sharkcellar

#1 – 3:48 PM January 18, 2008

That is HILARIOUS! I found myself holding my breath.

Daniel Hechtman

#2 – 5:29 PM January 18, 2008

Wasn't there some sort of ab shocker machine like this on late night TV?

dculberson

#3 – 5:44 PM January 18, 2008

Wow!! They initially discovered muscle building could be triggered this way when a heart patient's pacemaker electrode slipped off his heart and onto a chest muscle. Over the course of a week or two, one pec got significantly bigger than the other. At least, that's how I remember it from class a decade ago...

It also reminds me of the Matrix when Neo is on the medical table in the Nebuchadnezzar.

dargaud

#4 – 3:11 AM January 19, 2008

Early equipment of this sort is suspected as a leading cause in the death of Bruce Lee...

Anonymous Anonymous

#5 – 3:00 PM January 19, 2008

Guantanimo as found an alternative to waterboarding!

themindfantastic

#6 – 5:55 PM January 19, 2008

#2 Daniel: I am not familiar with the specifics of the one you mention but the ones that say they can give you a toned muscle body without getting off the couch aren't strong enough of a current really to do any good. This is probably a little more equivalent to therapeutic use like devices which give enough current into the body to force the muscles to flex and the workout is to continue to make the motions anyways... or so it seemed in the video, so in essence your not really working against gravity but yourself... it seems that way (I could be talking out of my butt as I am not a physical therapist and really don't know the specifics of how the contractions of muscles work beyond I think it... it moves..)

Anonymous Anonymous

#7 – 8:11 PM January 19, 2008

We need a MAKE project for this

tubgull

#8 – 2:14 PM January 20, 2008

#2: Not only is there an ab shocker, but there is one you put on your *face* for an electric facelift. It's called the "bio-electric rejuvenator" or something. The late-night TV commercial featured a woman who exclaimed, "I can feel it working!" as her face contorted under huge electrode pads. Her waspy friends sat around looking on in faux amazement as she spasmed.

Good stuff.

Anonymous Anonymous

#9 – 9:05 AM January 21, 2008

Don't tase me, bro!

Muscle_Stimulator

#10 – 9:49 AM October 22, 2008

I had heard that a lot of the 2008 US Olympians had been using the the Compex Muscle Stimulator and as a triathlete I thought I'd get one and see what improvements I'd see in my training. I've been using it religiously for the last 4 months and this device is amazing. I've reduced all my times and find myself able to train harder the next day. The active recovery clears out the lactic acid and prevents soreness. I recently read that Jason Lezak used as he coached himself (amazing) to gold in China. He apparantly relied on this device and found it more effective that his regular cool downs. The way he swam on that final leg of the 4 x 100 it pretty apparant he worked for him. These are widely available in Europe as it's part their normal practice over there and Compex is starting to break into the US Market. Their www.compex.us site links to http://www.betterbraces.com/ViewProducts/CompexSportMuscleStimulator/1023.aspx when you can now buy direct

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