The NK8GL TENS Unit & Muscle Stimulator combines modern technology with ancient Chinese medical methods. The device allows you to relieve pain relax your body and fully recover your muscle in a drug-free and natural way. Our Pain Therapy and Muscle Recovery units are both a TENS & PMS Device. The first half is a TENS Unit. TENS stands for Transcutaneous Electronic Nerve Stimulator. They stop pain by sending electrical impulses into your body through your skin (transcutaneous) to your nerves. If you isolate the nerves that are reporting pain then they will register the sensation of the TENS unit as opposed to the pain signal that is being sent. This effectively stops the pain temporarily. Most people have encountered TENS units in one of 3 ways 1) at the chiropractor in this facility a TENS unit is used to temporarily stop pain allowing the patients muscles to relax so that the chiropractor can make an adjustment of the structure without fighting the patients muscles attempting to provide support. 2) At the physical therapist in 2 ways A) After a workout to stop pain while they Ice out inflammation B) after surgery at a very high intensity to wake up an atrophied muscle. 3) In the mall/at a trade show where the TENS is heavily mis-marketed as an “electric message” this is giving the industry a very negative connotation because using a TENS unit like a massage will do more harm than good. This is why most people will say they don’t use their TENS. The second half of a TENS Unit is a PMS Unit (Powered Muscle Stimulator) or EMS (Electronic Muscle Stimulator). A PMS Machine is essentially an electronic machine with the capacity to contract your muscles via an electrical current passed through your muscle. An EMS machine is helpful in the initial phase of muscle strengthening. You strengthen muscle by adding a high resistance to the muscle causing it to tear. When the muscle heals it will be strong enough to take the same stress without tearing. PMS uses this idea but take the brain and therefore the pain out of the equation. If you add a high load to you muscle tissue by adding an outside electrical impulse then the muscle tissue will tear and repair and be stronger when it does so thus strengthening the muscle tissue. One question we get a lot is how does a PMS compare to physical therapy? Both are geared toward conditioning the support muscles surrounding an injury. In physical therapy this is done by adding a load to the joint or structure that is supported by the muscle. A PMS will add a higher load to the muscles without adding any stress to the joint and while blocking the pain signal. With a PMS you can do a much higher intensity more targeted treatment WITHOUT putting any stress on the affected issue. PMS can be used to strengthen the support system for any issue. This helps build structure and strength around the problem which then in turn gives the body protection it to naturally heal.