Electrifying Walk

Last Friday I asked my Chiropractor if my TENZ unit would help with my Piriformis issue.  TENS is an acronym for Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation & is the use of electric current produced by a device to stimulate the nerves for therapeutic purposes (thanks Wikipedia).  My actual unit is called TENZ, I guess the company is trying to be hip or something.

My chiro said it couldn't hurt & showed me where to put the electrodes.  He then told me to try a 30 minute walk with the electrodes in place & as time went by keep cranking up the intensity.  He also said if I felt any pain to turn it up even more.

Saturday morning I decided to give it a shot.  If you haven't already figured it out, I will try just about anything at this point.  My TENZ unit has 2 sets of electrodes, 2 leads each.  

My Chiro told me to put one set on my groin & hip.  The other set was put on my right butt cheek (or as my chiro likes to call it, 'my brain') & the top of my hamstring.

Top of my Hamstring

My Brain

My Groin & Hip

Once the probes were attached & my gear was on I headed to the basement.  I set the treadmill to 3.6 mph, set the TENS unit to about 2 (out of 10) & started my 30 minute walk.  Unless you really like the feel of electrical shock you need to turn up the TENZ unit slowly.  The unit makes the muscles feel twitchy/tingly.  After a few minutes you get used to the sensation so it is good to turn it up every 5-10 minutes.  After 20 minutes I had the unit turned up to 5 & was feeling some serious muscle contractions.  If my muscles were hurting the pain was masked by the TENZ unit.  With about 5 minutes left in my walk I turned off the unit to see how my butt & leg were feeling.  After about a minute I could feel my hamstring a little bit but not nearly like I felt earlier in the week when I tried a 1 mile walk.  I finished off the walk feeling pretty good.  

Afterwards I headed to yoga class.  At the end of class I still felt pretty good.  Most of the day my pain level was around a 1 out of 10.

The next morning I didn't have any pain in my butt, hip flexor or hamstring but one of the muscles in the front of my leg was really sore.  It was the same muscle that was really getting juiced during the walk.  I took the rest of the day off from any exercises.  The pain level was between a 0-1 all day.

Overall, I think the test was a success & in a couple days I will give it another a shot.