Top Muscle Stimulators: An Overview Of The Best On The Market Today

What Is The Best Mus­cle Stim­u­la­tor For Pain Relief? Have you ever reached for some­thing on a high shelf and sud­den­ly felt an acute pain between your shoul­der blades? Or have you bent down to scrub the kitchen floor only to find your­self grab­bing onto some­thing in order to get stand­ing back up again? No mat­ter how phys­i­cal pain comes upon you – sud­den­ly or slow­ly – there is noth­ing worse than dread­ing what the next slight move­ment may bring. If you’re a busy pro­fes­sion­al who puts in 10-hour days at the office, squeezes in a trip to the gym and then heads home to care for a grow­ing fam­i­ly, you’ve prob­a­bly expe­ri­enced the onset of mus­cle sore­ness or joint pain. The ways these prob­lems can hap­pen are legion – trip­ping over a car­pet, turn­ing your head too quick­ly to catch a glance of some­one – there are too many caus­es of phys­i­cal dis­com­fort to count. Some­times these prob­lems com­pel you to vis­it the doc­tor. Some­times it’s the phys­io­ther­a­pist or mas­sage ther­a­pist. Some­times, if the pain becomes chron­ic, it’s all three. But there are many things you can do at home to help ease joint pain and mus­cle sore­ness from stren­u­ous work­outs or an actu­al injury. A sen­si­ble exer­cise rou­tine is key, of course. But hot baths and over-the-counter pain reliev­ers help, too. And so does the prod­uct we explore in this arti­cle – the Elec­tri­cal Mus­cle Stim­u­la­tor (EMS). These mir­a­cles of tech­nol­o­gy aren’t new, but in recent years their design has been refined and improved. Today, there are mod­els with many set­tings of mas­sage and inten­si­ty. Some are so small you can eas­i­ly trans­port them eas­i­ly for use at the office or while you’re travelling. What does an EMS do, exact­ly? How does it func­tion, and should you buy one to incor­po­rate into your self-care rou­tine? And can an EMS improve your mus­cle tone and fit­ness lev­el, in addi­tion to help­ing with sore­ness from overuse or injury? Con­tin­ue reading!

How Does An EMS Work?

Just like your brain sends sig­nals to your mus­cles, so too does an EMS via puls­es to the skin. These devices were once the sole province of doc­tors, pro­fes­sion­al sports coach­es and phys­io­ther­a­pists, but not anymore. As peo­ple take greater respon­si­bil­i­ty for their health, prod­uct design­ers and man­u­fac­tur­ers have giv­en con­sumers the tools to tend to their bod­ies prop­er­ly at home. You can pur­chase free weights, tread­mills, and plen­ty of oth­er exer­cise gear to equip a home gym, right? Pur­chas­ing an EMS for use at home is pre­cise­ly in keep­ing with that “take charge” approach to your wellness. The fol­low­ing roundup offers an overview of some EMS devices experts rec­om­mend. We scoured web­sites and oth­er sources to find the best, based on how they func­tion, size and price. Keep read­ing to dis­cov­er which EMS is suit­able for you and your needs. (All our choic­es are avail­able for pur­chase on Ama­zon. Also, the mod­els we describe here are designed to work with North Amer­i­can elec­tri­cal out­lets. For inter­na­tion­al out­lets, please check each device’s adaptability).

1- Medvice Professional Solid Gel Muscle Stimulator

This device is made of med­ical-grade elec­trodes that won’t cor­rode or rust over time. You can use it to ease pain and sore­ness from exces­sive work­outs or injuries to your knees, neck, back, neck and ankles. This unit offers 16 dif­fer­ent types of mas­sage and 20 dif­fer­ent inten­si­ty lev­els. In oth­er words, you can go deep and work a sore spot or light­ly mas­sage it to lessen inflam­ma­tion and tight­ness. Its lithi­um bat­tery is recharge­able and com­pact enough to car­ry on the go. Avail­able On Ama­zon.

2- Belifu Portable Muscle Stimulator

This device gets plen­ty of praise online because it’s small enough to car­ry almost any­where – take it to the office, when you’re trav­el­ling, or just about any place you’re going for an extend­ed peri­od. It tucks eas­i­ly into your brief­case or car­ry-on luggage. The Beli­fu relieves pain in your shoul­ders, neck, back and even your waist, which means you don’t need pain med­ica­tions or anti-inflam­ma­to­ry drugs. It offers 24 modes of mas­sage and 20 lev­els of vary­ing inten­si­ty. It also has a time con­trol set­ting, so it turns off auto­mat­i­cal­ly after a set peri­od. You can use this mod­el for up to 20 hours before recharg­ing the lithi­um bat­tery. Avail­able on Ama­zon.

3- iSTIM EV-805 TENS Screen Muscle Stimulator

This excel­lent mod­el is often the go-to prod­uct for phys­io­ther­a­pists, doc­tors, and oth­er spe­cial­ists. (TENS stands for tran­scu­ta­neous elec­tri­cal nerve stim­u­la­tion). This mod­el earns raves from con­sumers and pro­fes­sion­als alike, as it tar­gets back pain, in par­tic­u­lar, but also oth­er areas that get sore. It has four chan­nels, five TENS modes, three EMS modes and 24 inten­si­ty levels. The iSTIM stim­u­la­tor encour­ages the release of endor­phins, which are the body’s nat­ur­al way of treat­ing pain. That means you don’t have to pop pain med­ica­tions or anti-inflam­ma­to­ry drugs near­ly as often. This EMS is a bit prici­er than oth­ers – approx­i­mate­ly $125 on Ama­zon – but online reviews say it’s worth the investment.

4- Auvon Professional Electrical Muscle Stimulator

Com­pa­ny lit­er­a­ture describes this EMS as excel­lent at relax­ing mus­cles and eas­ing pain. It’s equipped with med­ical-grade TENS and offers var­i­ous lev­els of inten­si­ty. This is an excep­tion­al­ly user-friend­ly mod­el, as it is designed with 24 pre-pro­grammed mas­sage modes, mean­ing you don’t need to wor­ry about man­u­al­ly set­ting pulse fre­quen­cy and duration. This is an excel­lent choice for those who want an EMS that’s easy to use and does­n’t require much tech­ni­cal know-how. Like oth­er EMS units, it comes with a recharge­able lithi­um bat­tery but offers up to 16 hours of con­tin­u­al use. Avail­able on Ama­zon.

5- NueMedics User-Friendly Whole Body Electrical Muscle Stimulator

The name pret­ty much says it all! This device can be used on any sore or strained mus­cle or joint. Review­ers cheer this EMS, in par­tic­u­lar for sports enthu­si­asts and body­builders. One review describes it as a “life­saver” — high praise for any EMS! It comes equipped with six pads and 24 dif­fer­ent mas­sage modes. It also includes a treat­ment points chart, which shows you exact­ly how to posi­tion the pads to achieve the best results. This mod­el has a large LCD dis­play screen that’s easy to read. Avail­able on Ama­zon.

6- OMRON Max Power Relief TENS Unit Muscle Stimulator

This unit uses the most recent TENS tech­nol­o­gy to tar­get sore­ness and aches in mul­ti­ple body areas. It offers pain relief for your back and shoul­ders, ankles and knees, and almost any oth­er site expe­ri­enc­ing discomfort. You can cus­tomize this device to meet your spe­cif­ic needs – a plus that gets plen­ty of praise from users online. It has three mas­sage modes that help nine dif­fer­ent areas of the body – lots of relief with­out you hav­ing to use meds of any kind. Avail­able at Ama­zon.

7- Brilnurse TENS EMS

This device has 30 lev­els of inten­si­ty, which allows you to fine-tune your treat­ment to pre­cise­ly the cor­rect amount of mas­sage for your spe­cif­ic injury or strain. It comes with 12 elec­trode pads and a recharge­able battery. This device is easy to car­ry, and you can take it with you when you trav­el or even use it in the car if you’re on a lengthy road trip. How’s that convenient? Online reviews say this mod­el brings almost instant pain relief – music to the ears of any­one try­ing to recov­er from a sore mus­cle and return to their usu­al gym rou­tine. It’s avail­able on Ama­zon.

In Summary

Health and well­ness prod­ucts have come a long way since the turn of the 21st cen­tu­ry. Thanks to tech­no­log­i­cal advances, you can treat your strains, injuries and sore mus­cles at home, which allows you often to forego a vis­it to the doc­tor or phys­io­ther­a­pist entirely. Choos­ing the suit­able elec­tri­cal mus­cle stim­u­la­tor for your body’s needs is an excel­lent addi­tion to your home fit­ness tools. You can find one at a rea­son­able price, but even high-end EMS devices are worth the investment. After all, is there any­thing more impor­tant than your well-being? We don’t think so either! In addi­tion to the sug­ges­tions we’ve made here, check into oth­er EMS devices avail­able on the mar­ket today. You’ll soon real­ize there are far too many for us to explore here. But the ones we’ve list­ed are an excel­lent jump­ing-off point, a place to start when you pur­chase your own EMS. It makes good well­ness sense. After all, you put time and effort into car­ing for your body and stay­ing phys­i­cal­ly fit. Should­n’t you invest in a well­ness tool designed to keep you at peak fit­ness by help­ing heal sore­ness, aches and injuries? Of course, you should!