Mel Siff Blog

If any one thing that characterises the resolution of musculoskeletal pain
and dysfunction, it is the large number of different approaches which enjoy
some measure of success. It has never been established that there is
definitely one best method of treating problems of the back, shoulder, legs,
arms, yet the claims of many qualified and ‘informal’ therapists suggest that
they alone have developed methods that are far better than any others. In
fact, some of these therapists use such a mixture of different methods, that,
given sufficient time, effort and psychological stroking, they have to
produce some progress.

Some of these therapists, especially those with informal or self-awarded
‘credentials’, spend an inordinate amount of time applying an extensive Read more…

At last I have managed to locate an article that I wrote on the conditioning
and therapeutic applications of microcurrent and macrocurrent. I have also
appended a fairly extensive list of references, but this is by no means
complete – I still have a repository of many dozens more. For those who need
to re-examine the claims being made for microcurrent, please look through
those references to note that some of the claims certainly seem to have
scientific and clinical support. Dan Wathen – any further comments?

MACROCURRENT AND MICROCURRENT ELECTROSTIMULATION IN SPORT

Mel C Siff PhD

(Note: This article draws extensively on material from the textbook, Siff MC
Supertraining 2000. Anyone requiring further information on this topic
should consult Ch 4 of this book.)

The use of electric current on the human body largely has been restricted to
use by physiotherapists to facilitate the healing of musculoskeletal
injuries and control pain. It is fairly arbitrarily applied in two broad
categories:

* Macrocurrent Stimulation (currents over about 1 milliamp)
* Microcurrent Stimulation (currents below about 1 milliamp) Read more…