Compex Sport Review

I have been using the Compex Sport off and on for the past month and have slowly been getting up to speed on the functionality and trying to incorporate into some sort of workout schedule.  My knee is still sub par and so I have been a little reluctant to push big gears on the bike or crank up the numbers on the compex.  I have been using this unit mostly for discovery:

It has several different 'programs' that activate different parts of the muscles.  The program options are:

• Potentiation
• Endurance
• Resistance
• Strength
• Explosive Strength
• Active Recovery

Each program engages either fast twitch or slow twitch fibers of the muscle (or a combo) and aerobic vs anaerobic systems.  The idea is you want to compliment (as opposed to replace) whatever workouts you are already doing that are sport specific.  There is not a ton of info out there in terms of translating the above programs into sport specific training so you have to read through the literature and determine what the best fit is for you based on your specific training needs. 

Some of the things to think about include frequency of subjecting yourself to the e-stim unit, which programs would benefit most,  avoiding adaptation, what exactly do fast twitch and slow twitch fibers do and how do they translate into athletic goals,  opportunities to focus on weaknesses, etc...

My focus has been primarily on cycling related activity and how to build it into the overall training plan.  The plan is to try to use the unit for active recovery fairly frequently and then also try to incorporate some of the above programs into the existing training.  It is more of a 'learn as I go' mode as opposed to a structured plan - mostly because there is not much out there to specify...

One of the interesting things I have noticed is I have had to pay particular attention to where I place the pads that distribute the e-stim action so that they don't make the knee tendons twitch too much (which in turn seems to inflame them for me).  It was explained to me that some tendon sensitivity is normal because your muscles might temporarily shorten/stay a little more contracted after these workouts.  This is part of the reason I have been stretching more and working with the trigger point roller to work out the kinks.  I am not sure that any of this will do much of anything but at this point it might be purely psychosomatic and it is always fun to learn about something new....the jury is still out on this for now....although the Active Recovery program definitely does seem to help the legs recover faster (more to come  on this when the weather warms up and I put some long days in the saddle).