Kneehab?

6th

Just wondering if anyone has heard of this, has any experience with it or knows anyone who has?

My wife's physio mentioned it to her recently and on checking it out it looks good but I am always weary of these type of things and like to heard from real people with experience.

So any comments etc?

Cheers

6th

http://www.kneehab.ie

Hanley

Seems like a pretty sound concept. Alot of non-acute injuries (and acute too I guess?) with weight training can be traced by to poor motor control. "Teaching" your muscles how to contract properly to stabilise a joint is a pretty sound way to prevent it. The VMO is one of the knee stabilisers that people most often have trouble using and can lead to knee pain for example.

I'd say it's a good enoguh idea, but probably nothing that couldn't be achieved with resistance bands and some well prescribed exercises!

Pen1987

Caveat: I am not an expert


It works on the basis of running electrical pulses through the muscle to cause it to contract. In simple terms, it contracts your quad in the exact same manner you do when you straighten your leg, except you don't have to use your brain to tell your quad to tighten. In my opinion [not an expert] this type of thing should only be used on people who cant do the work themselves using their brain, parapleigics etc to prevent muscle wastage]


Emm... I wouldnt pay for it myself, many physiotherapists would have a similar (less expensively marketed) items in their practice and some may even allow you to take it home. Although, I would take into account the basic principles of the recovery process it advocates, that working the small muscles around the knee will improve stability, balance, strength and therefore, recovery, I would just do the basic excercies provided by any physio to recover and do them well, to heed the exact same results without paying for it through the nose. Putting a cylindar under the left knee, then propping up the left side of the cylindar so its at a thirty degree angle, extending the leg, holding for 5 seconds, and slowly lowering would strengthen and work the same small muscle on the right upper side of the kneecap [used for stabilising the patella] as 15 seconds using that kneehab machine would. If its the right knee then switch left for right in that example.


It might be worth noting that accupuncture works off a similar idea of electrical pulses, but instead ot inserting external pulses into the muscle the accupuncture needles are placed in points on the body that connect the electrical outputs that occur naturally on the body, to heal the injured location. So if you're finding the physiotherapy slow to help recover you might want to look into the accupuncture. If you're afraid of needles then accupuncture can be done using light electrical pulse-pads [like the system spoken about] placed on the accupuncture points. Some people respond excellently to it, some dont respond for a long time.


If you remember the fad during the 90's where housewives would wear this belt while sitting on the couch that ran a series of electrical pulses into their "six-packs" instead of doing 10 sit-ups, this kneehab thing is the exact same thing except designed for a knee shape instead of a torso. Its the lazy-mans way to recover in my opinion. It isolates small muscles to much also, doing the excercises perscibed by a physio will work a series of muscles instead of the one-at-time style caused by the electrical pulses inserted externally.

Rogueish

Hi 6th,

The Kneehab is basically a fancy musle stimulation machine that as Pen1987 explained is bypassing the electrical stimulation that the knee would recieve from the brain.

In my opinion (I'm a Rehabilitation therapist) it is only useful in preventing muscle atrophy in cases where the range of motion of the knee has to be limited to allow for healing e.g. in the case of post operative rehabilitation such as a broken bone or knee surgery. Most physiotherapists have similar machines (at a much lower cost!) which can be rented out to the patient. The professional machines probably do not have the same ease of use as this machine does. But when the patient is shown how to use it it is fine. As an example our muscle stim machine cost less than €150 and can be used on pretty much any muscle in the body!

No muscle stim machine can fully replace a well rounded rehabilitation programme and is really only useful in the early stages of rehabilitation. As Hanley said "probably nothing that couldn't be achieved with resistance bands and some well prescribed exercises!"