Comparison of Cheap and Professional Muscle Stimulators
These days replicas are enjoying a renaissance… You have surely experienced that when you buy a significantly cheaper, Chinese-made “replica” of a product, you do not get the same performance. In my childhood, for example, Matchbox cars were popular but expensive. Not everyone could afford them. So many people gifted the much cheaper Chinese knockoffs, which of course often fell apart under the Christmas tree during the first play, causing tears and wailing. My preserved Matchbox cars, however, were played with by my children for years and we put them away in excellent condition for the next generation of the family…
Lately I encounter the same “replica flood” with medical-technology devices. In some grocery stores (e.g., Lidl) you can buy stimulators for 3–4 thousand forints and single-chamber compression therapy units. They are even marketed for serious problems, such as long-standing pain or leg swelling, by companies that have no clue about the device itself, its performance, or its application. For them it is simply an item on their profit list, right between potatoes and salted rolls.
Anyone who buys such a device will be disappointed twice. First, they expect an effect but get nothing meaningful, so they leave with nothing but disappointment for their money. Second, harm is done because the buyer thinks that all TENS or muscle stimulators are as rubbishy as the one they bought. They lump the cheap knockoff from Lidl together with the “original” device… and that is the biggest problem! They lose trust even in devices that truly work and are effective.
In this video I compare a cheap and a professional muscle stimulator device and show the difference. Click the play button! Don’t forget to subscribe so you’ll be notified of further episodes!
I applied a Purecare 982, 2-channel muscle stimulator to one of my thigh muscles. This device is manufactured by the Taiwanese Hivox-Biotec; they also produce some Beurer and Sanitas devices.
On the other thigh I connected one of the highest-quality Italian Globus The Champion devices and ran the thigh treatment program on both.
Findings:
The Purecare device produced only mild, superficial twitches in my thigh muscles even at maximum current intensity.
The Champion, true to its name, provided full-depth, comprehensive contractions.
The difference between the contractions is enormous — about as large as the price difference between the devices.
Predictable in advance!
Examining the technical parameters of the devices, this can already be known beforehand.
The “depth” of the contraction is mainly influenced by the pulse width (pulse width).
Choose a muscle stimulator where this parameter ranges at least 100–420 microseconds.
On cheap devices this value is typically 100–220 µs. These are inherently unsuitable for treating larger muscles. The thigh will contract a little, of course, but as you saw in the video, the difference is significant.
Is the “supermarket” stimulator usable for sports purposes?
In my opinion, this is completely out of the question. No positive effects can be expected from a device at this level.
So what are such devices good for?
They may be useful for minor complaints, such as the pain and stiffness of a pinned neck muscle, forearm muscle pain, and similar issues. For serious complaints, effective muscle treatment, or especially muscle development, they are at best suitable for children or very petite women.
