Will’s experience with the Zimmer emField Pro.
How do you introduce the treatment to patients?
The best way I would describe it to a client is, varies between muscle activation and posture issues. So, a lot of people who struggle with posture problems, like rolling the shoulders forward, I always explain that it allows us to create muscle contractions without the patient having to stand there and perform exercises. So a lot of patients don’t like to do the activity they prefer to lay down and just get on with the treatment. So we introduced the PEMF as a way to activate these tissues and normally to just get people moving.
Do the patients like the treatment?
One of the biggest points that I would say that clients enjoy is especially shoulder, when they have lack of movement in the shoulder, so if they’re struggling to achieve range of motion we apply the PEMF and then this engages everything which has been laying dormant due to stress trauma, so once we do that it allows the client to restore range of motion normally they are unsure, but once they have one they are sold straight away.
What are the most common applications?
I’m noticing more now; I have been using it more for core activation so a lot of clients who come in with lower back pain one of the main problems is that they have lack of strength in the core. So, I keep the frequency low due to it being quite intense, but what I have been doing with a few clients is we have them laying on their back allowing the PEMF onto their abs, and what It does is wakes up all the tissue, really get everything going. It does help increase blood flow you do know it’s caused cause of the muscle contraction that blood pumps in which in turn helps with healing but really it’s amazing for core activation, and core activation is a key issue in which I see.
What does a typical patient look like?
I would say it’s a combination of all ages, but I would say I don’t use it as commonly on the older generation just because although it doesn’t seem it, it can be quite intense, I mean we can moderate that. But a real common I’d say population I use it with is active people. So a lot of golfers, I have a few golfers at the moment who being in the position they’re in striking balls, cause they’re rounded forward all the time, the rhomboids, the traps can eventually become a little bit rounded and that creates a lack of activity. So with this golfer at the moment I’ve been right between the scapular engaging all the rhomboids and the traps then we lower it down just to help with the rotation in the golf swing. It really has proven popular with people who play sports, you can use it with anyone, I think that’s what’s great about the PEMF you can use it with any type of person, any age, because of the way you can moderate frequency. But it is really popular in post-injury, people who are active, gym goers, I could say golf, tennis anything like that. Yet again I am using it with the older population, people tend to roll forward as they become older, so I believe that the PEMF, and I didn’t read this online I more worked this out myself is that really helps to straighten people out. Because one of the biggest things with posture is overactive one side and underactive on the other so by using it on the underactive side and releasing the front side via massage and other machines we can allow the posture to come back upright and then the muscles seem to have the strength.
Could you give us any recent success stories?
With hands-on engagement, we can only hit a certain layer, whereas the PEMF can penetrate through the muscle for example the rotator cuffs which can be difficult to get to in some ways, the PEMF will hit that and allow all the activation to occur. And this range of motion increased drastically, I did two sessions with her, last week was the third, and she had gone from 30% to 60% just from those two sessions. I had applied manual therapy in the sessions beforehand and had reduced pain but hadn’t increased strength. So you know getting that arm to 30% and then the whole body coming back trying to get it up, whereas now we’ve engaged everything she seems to be able to come straight up without the pain, and each time I use it on her she seems to go further. Every patient I have post 20-minute cycle always reports an instant in strength and in just muscle function.
With most of us being sat at a desk all day, do you often have patients with glute/ back issues?
So that’s another good thing you say, so inactive glutes are one of the most common I would say, not just with the PEMF but in general, in the industry, really common with lower back problems, any athletes trying to strike through with balls. I do a lot of testing with it, I will put it on the left glute and will document what percent we start to see a good size contraction, then pop it on the other side, then we can use it as a tool to work out what is active and what is inactive. So, as well as a tool to repair people, it can be used as a diagnostic. We can work out exactly where it’s coming from, then the following week if they’ve done a full 20-minute cycle, I then do the exact same, I repeat the process, I put it on the left glute and then document if there’s been an increase, and more often or not there has been an increase. We put the 20-minute cycle on then they come in, one week they may contract at 20% then the following week they may contract at 15%, then we just know the session the week before has helped engage, and not only that then they go home, go to the gym and because they are engaged after using the machine they just function better day to day.
Specifically, how do you use the two different types of applicators?
More often than not, for shoulder I will use the handheld one because I find it more specific, due to the weight it is better if I have them laying prone then I would use the main head, you do get better contraction son the main head, but all I’ve learnt to do with the handheld one is just slightly turn it up a little bit higher and you get the same responses. If I’m doing anything arm related, I tend to use the smaller one, again because if you were to out the big one on the arm both the triceps and bicep would contract straight away, whereas using the hand-held one you can segregate the muscle groups which is really important.
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