Who is the guy? Let's look him up.
Hello Mr Rippetoe,
I have pain in my left knee and visit a guy who claims to be a pathologist and uses expensive looking machinery with fork-like equipment to "put" current in certain places in the body. He uses the word reflexology, but a google search on the word only showed people applying pressure with their hands. I haven't seen anything like this on the forum concerning rehab. Is it a pile of crap (a pretty expensive pile of crap I may add)?
Who is the guy? Let's look him up.
Sounds like a quack. A pathologist deals only with tissue samples/biopsies (eg. surgical pathology) and dead folks.
I'm from Greece, he is not well known so as to be found over the internet. I am quite worried this method is so unknown to you people, it smells like a scam. I've heard that he has treated many soccer players over here. The problem is I can't really tell if there are any results and by the time he says the knee will heal, I will have lost a lot of money. Anyway thanks for the response.
I suppose in theory the current can accomplish what manual release and pressure do in realignment of the bones and soft tissues like ligaments and tendons. Particularly if you think there is merit in balancing bodily systems along the lines of Eastern medicine (the meridians) or chiropractic like adjustments as found in Western practice. I'm willing to bet you can find such treatment at less cost than the implied expensiveness in your post.
Sounds like a glorified TENS unit.
Although TENS units are endemic to physical therapy practices over here in the U.S., it has been my experience that they don’t do shit and seem to rely on placebo effect. And since I am naturally skeptical and somewhat bitchy, they have done nothing to help me.
Personally, I think their use is more about time management so that practices can fit in more clients. The time spend attached to the damn thing in a darkened, quiet room was time when a therapist didn’t have to be with me.
Maybe therapy with the OP’s machine is more expensive because it requires a professional to be present at time of administration.
I thought reflexology is when they massage parts of your feet that "map" to your internal organs. Or is this something else?
(And the quackery quotient is high IMO)
I've got a TENS unit at home, and I have found that it did help when I was having regular misery from lower back and trap soreness. Ironically, now that I have started squatting and deadlifting again along with cleaning up my form learned by Rip's books, I have had almost no significant back problems. Haven't used the TENS in nearly a year. Heavy loaded core exercises with the squats and deadlifts seem to have helped my problem.
I looked up the TENS thing you are saying and it is the same. Except he does not use pads but fork-like equipment which he applies every time at different spots. Unlike the pads this thing hurts like hell and most of the time I have to tell him to lower the current. The guy who mentioned the placebo effect may be right. I actually feel better after each visit but it seems my crappy form resets the injury after the workouts.