ARP Wave Electro Stimulation

[Mr.Quindazzi]

So, in Brian Shaw's latest video he gets ARP Wave therapy for his torn hamstring. My initial reaction is extreme skepticism, but I thought I'd ask an expert.
I have no need for this sort of thing, but I am curious if there is legitimate science behind this.

As always, thanks for all your high quality content. Looking forward to meeting you in Brooklyn.

[kelleyhenry]

I had ARP Wave done on me about 4-5 years ago for persistent knee pain and the seeming inability to hypertrophy my quad (i had a lateral release way back in 2003 and my vastus lateralis has never been the same). This was right when I started DC school and didn’t have the knowledge and insight I do now on pain etc.

Let me tell you, this thing is fucking terrible. It’s like e-stim on steroids. First, the people administering it have no qualifications aside from being trained by headquarters and those people don’t have qualifications either except for being former patients or trained by the ARP Wave guru. The first thing they do is find what’s contributing to your pain. It’s like a mini electric chair where they take a wet sponge with some electrical current and move it around the painful area and other associated areas. The place that causes the most pain (I would rip their hands off my leg when they’d get there), is where they place the first electrode pad. The second most painful is for the second pad. This is done bilaterally. They chose an exercise to perform during the electrocution, I mean “treatment”. I had squat variations - isometric or Dynamic with the TRX. You do this for 5 min, I think, with some breaks. Everyone has to squat toes forward even though I argued that that is not how it works. (Because of this, my ankle hurt for a good month). So then they turn on the machine and increase the intensity as much as you can tolerate with the goal of getting to 100. This was god damn terrible especially when the pads where on your adductors and would touch at the top of the squat. I eventually got up to 100 because the sadist running the machine would turn it up without my consent. It also felt like my patella were going to dislocate when I squatting with the stupid pads turned on. I did hold an iso squat for so long they made me stop and then I couldn’t stand up so that was fun.

You go through this for 10 days. There are options to continue into training sessions for a boatload of money but I declined as it already cost a shit ton and I got a friend discount. I learned later that my friend who referred me got a kickback.

The only thing I got out of this was more confidence in my knee. You know what actually helped my knee pain and quad hypertrophy - powerlifting.

This thing is overrated, expensive and can be run by unqualified, uneducated people just trying to take your money.