Paillard Thierry
Laboratoire d'Analyse de la Performance Sportive, Département STAPS, Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, Tarbes, France.
Sports Med. 2008;38(2):161-77. doi: 10.2165/00007256-200838020-00005.
Electromyostimulation (EMS) and voluntary muscle contraction (VC) constitute different modes of muscle activation and induce different acute physiological effects on the neuromuscular system. Long-term application of each mode of muscle activation can produce different muscle adaptations. It seems theoretically possible to completely or partially cumulate the muscle adaptations induced by each mode of muscle activation applied separately. This work consisted of examining the literature concerning the muscle adaptations induced by long-term application of the combined technique (CT) [i.e. EMS is combined with VC - non-simultaneously] compared with VC and/or EMS alone in healthy subjects and/or athletes and in post-operative knee-injured subjects. In general, CT induced greater muscular adaptations than VC whether in sports training or rehabilitation. This efficiency would be due to the fact that CT can facilitate cumulative effects of training completely or partially induced by VC and EMS practiced alone. CT also provides a greater improvement of the performance of complex dynamic movements than VC. However, EMS cannot improve coordination between different agonistic and antagonistic muscles and thus does not facilitate learning the specific coordination of complex movements. Hence, EMS should be combined with specific sport training to generate neuromuscular adaptations, but also allow the adjustment of motor control during a voluntary movement. Likewise, in a therapeutic context, CT was particularly efficient to accelerate recovery of muscle contractility during a rehabilitation programme. Strength loss and atrophy inherent in a traumatism and/or a surgical operation would be more efficiently compensated with CT than with VC. Furthermore, CT also restored more functional abilities than VC. Finally, in a rehabilitation context, EMS is complementary to voluntary exercise because in the early phase of rehabilitation it elicits a strength increase, which is necessary to perform voluntary training during the later rehabilitation sessions.
肌电刺激（EMS）和自主肌肉收缩（VC）构成了不同的肌肉激活模式，并对神经肌肉系统产生不同的急性生理效应。长期应用每种肌肉激活模式会产生不同的肌肉适应性变化。理论上，分别应用每种肌肉激活模式所诱导的肌肉适应性变化似乎有可能完全或部分累积起来。这项研究旨在考察与单独使用VC和/或EMS相比，长期应用联合技术（CT）[即EMS与VC非同时联合]在健康受试者、运动员以及膝关节术后损伤患者中所诱导的肌肉适应性变化的相关文献。总体而言，无论是在运动训练还是康复过程中，CT所诱导的肌肉适应性变化均大于VC。这种有效性可能是因为CT能够促进单独进行VC和EMS时所完全或部分诱导的训练累积效应。与VC相比，CT对复杂动态运动表现的改善也更大。然而，EMS无法改善不同主动肌和拮抗肌之间的协调性，因此不利于学习复杂运动的特定协调性。所以，EMS应与特定的运动训练相结合，以产生神经肌肉适应性变化，同时也有助于在自主运动过程中调整运动控制。同样，在治疗方面，在康复计划中，CT对于加速肌肉收缩能力的恢复特别有效。与VC相比，CT能更有效地补偿创伤和/或手术所导致的力量丧失和肌肉萎缩。此外，与VC相比，CT还能恢复更多的功能能力。最后，在康复过程中，EMS是自主运动锻炼的补充，因为在康复早期它能增加力量，这对于在后期康复阶段进行自主训练是必要的。
