Dr. Jeff’s experience with ARPwave, Therastim, and the development of the Phoenix Waveform and Neural Fit Methods.
Years ago a patient of mine asked me if I had heard of the ARPwave, which is also known as Accelerated Recovery Performance Trainer (ARPwave). My patient, who was a former volleyball player and a competitive cyclist, told me that this ARPwave Electric Muscle Stimulation device was different from all the other electric muscle stimulation (EMS) modalities out there, and it was producing great results with flexibility and sports performance.
I am always open to new ideas and modalities, so although skeptical, I began looking into the ARPwave. The ARPwave claimed to offer some great results for pain relief, rehabilitation, and sports performance. These claims also came at a really high price. At that time, you could lease your own ARPwave for $15,000, yes that is right $15,000 per year!
Despite the seemingly ridiculous price on a lease, I was intrigued by the claims so I contacted the ARPwave corporate office. I was told that one of the developers of the ARPwave and the ARPwave Protocols, Jay Schroeder, had an office in Mesa AZ, which was only a few miles from my office at the time. So, I set up a time to meet with Jay and get a demonstration on the ARP Wave.
After waiting for some time, Jay and some of his assistants did a demonstration of the ARP Wave Loosening Protocol on me. They attached the ARP Wave electrode to my quads and then I did some squats. Then they attached the ARP Wave electrodes to my hamstrings and I did some toe touches, and the protocol continued like this for other muscle groups. Honestly, I was impressed. Within just a few minutes of having the ARP Wave on me, my flexibility and range of motion improved greatly.
Again, despite the crazy cost of the ARPwave lease ($15,000 at the time), in December 2006 I rented an ARPwave for a month and tested it out on myself and my clients. The ARPwave unit that I rented was the ARPwave pictured to the right, with the black and yellow face cover. It was also the same ARPwave unit that Jay used on me at his clinic during the demonstration. Denis Thompson was one of the developers of the ARPwave and over the course of renting the ARPwave, he was my contact for all my questions on the ARPwave. So, for one month I tried the ARPwave on myself, and my clients, and would talk to Dennis about any questions related to the ARPwave.
One of the things I was most impressed with about the ARPwave was the loosening protocols. The loosening protocol is done to increase mobility, and flexibility, or to warm up before an activity. So, I hooked myself up to the ARPwave and did my squats, toe touches, and then I was off for my run. The first thing that I noticed while running, was that I was out of breath and breathing hard. It would usually take me about a mile of running before I felt warmed up enough to really feel like I was running, but this was within only minutes of running. But, looking down at my pace watch, and there was the answer. I was running two minutes faster and that was why I was out of breath so fast.
What happened was the ARPwave loosening protocol got me warmed up and loose, and therefore I was able to increase my running pace. So, what would usually take me a few miles to warm up, the ARPwave did in minutes. Based on these experimental results with the ARPwave on myself and my clients. I began to search the ARPwave on online strength and conditioning forums. What kept coming up in the discussion forums was an electric muscle stimulation called the Therastim. In fact, people were saying that the ARPwave and the Therastim were actually the same things, just packaged a little differently. The Therastim is pictured on the left with a blue and gray cover.
The Therastim was manufactured by
PhysioDynamics, Inc. The Therastim®, unlike most electronic muscle stimulator (“EMS”) devices, was a DC voltage device. This device could achieve deep tissue penetration at a low voltage, and thereby reduce the level of discomfort that was experienced with AC machines that ran on much higher voltage. Unlike any other machine on the market, the Therastim® enabled the practitioner to locate the electrical discontinuity caused by soft tissue or another type of injury.
When I asked the ARPwave people about Therastim, I was told they never heard of Therastim. As it turns out Dennis and ARPwave actually bought PhysioDynamics a few months after I returned my rental ARPwave to them.
Basically, the Therastim and the ARP Wave, at that time were the same thing. The Therastim was the initial version of the ARPwave, and the black ARPwave was the result of Dennis acquiring PhysioDynamics, Inc. and beginning to operate under the ARP Manufacturing brand name. I found a doctor who was selling a Therastim unit, so I bought it and decided not to lease the ARP Wave, which I returned to the corporate office. Jay and Dennis continued to develop protocols for the ARP Wave and change the design of the Therastim and ARPwave.
Since then I have used Therastim in my office for over 10 years with extraordinary results, reducing chronic pain, improving flexibility, increasing strength, and enhancing performance. During these 10 years, I have been looking for something that could achieve the same results as Therastim. The problem was that the waveform of the Therastim produced a unique signal containing an AC and a DC current, and that unique signal is what is responsible for the great results that we were achieving.
An option, as always, is to buy an ARP WAVE and become a licensed ARP Wave clinic. However, the cost to become an ARP clinic, get an ARP Wave, and use the ARP Wave protocols costs about $20,000 for just ONE ARP Wave. If the ARPwave would have been more affordable, I would have bought a few of them and been an ARPwave clinic for years, but at $20,000 per unit, it was a no-go.
Most clinics around the country that offer the ARPwave charge around $200 for a single ARP Wave session and a lot of the clinics require clients to pre-pay for 10 sessions. Although I do LOVE the ARPwave, the cost to have an ARP Wave in the clinic was too high and I feel that the cost pre-ARP Wave session for the patient was also too high. Therefore, I chose not to purchase an ARPwave and just continue to use Therastim as the main modality in our sports medicine practice.
For over 10 years we have been using Therastim in our clinic with amazing results. We have been developing and redefining our protocols and training methods, and we have been searching for a Waveform that produced similar results that we were experiencing with the Therastim.
In 2016 we decided we needed more units (Arpwave and Therastim) at our office. However, we were not too excited to spend $20,000 on an ARPwave. We also did not want to have to pay for minutes to use the ARPwave. So, we set out to develop our own device that had currents similar to the ARPwave and Therastim. The result was the Phoenix Waveform.
With the Phoenix Waveform, we made a few changes and improvements to the waveform. We changed the shape of the waveform from a sine wave to a more efficient square wave.
The waveform of Therastim/ARP (Sine) is very crude, therefore to obtain some result they have to crank it up to a point where you feel a lot of pins and needles. Do not let the size of the Phoenix units fool you. We have a waveform more powerful than the Therastim/ARP, both from an amp (Ampères) point of view and from a waveform shape point of view.
Our waveform (square) is also cleaner, and more efficient, and by virtue of the fact that it is generated with square wavefronts, so it is not necessary to turn the intensity as high as you can.
In other words, a square wave gets more bang for the buck than a sine wave. Please read over the attached on why we used a square wave over a sine wave.
We then tested the Phoenix Waveform side by side with the ARPwave and Therastim and we found that everything we were doing or using the Therastim and ARPwave we were able to also do with the Phoenix Waveform. In fact, we were able to do even more because we added more current options such as micro-current.
PDF on why a square waveform is better than a sinusoidal waveform Square vs Sine Wave
The Phoenix causes deep muscle contraction but still allows a full active range of motion. Eccentric training, strong muscle contractions by the Phoenix then lengthening the muscles through specific mobility protocols are integral to the Phoenix recovery and training protocols.
From an amp (amperes) point of view and from a waveform shape point of view, this waveform is one of the most powerful EMS units out there.
What Makes The Phoenix Waveform Even Better:
The Therastim wave is a sinusoidal (it curses through muscle tissue in alternating directions) which is based on the work of Dr. Yakov Kots. However New scientific discoveries regarding the contraction, or twitching, mechanism in muscle mass as well as new technology which can generate impulses of different forms (square, triangular, trapezoidal) led to the gradual abandonment of the sinusoidal current for the electric stimulation.
To stimulate a muscle, it is necessary to apply a current capable of causing depolarization of the cell membrane and its consequent contraction, by way of electrodes.
Research has demonstrated that stimulation is more effective and comfortable when current pulses are square and symmetric.
Russian (Sine wave) currents compared to square wave currents have the following shortcomings:
– Require much higher current intensity, which is much less comfortable;
– Do not offer pulse width flexibility for different muscle groups;
– Do not offer different frequencies for different stimulation goals;
– Waste a lot of unneeded energy in the muscle tissue, triggering several possible issues, ◦ skin irritation, ◦ tissue heating, ◦ shorter battery lifespan.
– it releases the action potential of the muscle in a shorter period of time (vertical rump-up)
– it optimizes pulse effectiveness thanks to the larger area (more intensity in less time) of the square wave as opposed to other wave shapes.
Bottom line, the Phoenix waveform is cleaner and more efficient, and therefore it is not necessary to turn the intensity as high as you can. When we connected the Therastim and the Phoenix Waveform to our patients, so that they could experience the updated waveform, all of our patients preferred the feeling of the Phoenix Wave over the Therastim.
The Phoenix edition waveform, protocols, and training methods are designed to help people of all ages and abilities. These protocols will unlock your body’s potential with a biomechanical upgrade to rise up and become the person or athlete you have always wanted to be.
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