By Michael Rand, personal trainer and triathlete.
Hello. My name is Michael Rand. Who am I and what am I doing writing this blog to you about ABMMA for athletes?
Well, I am a 51-year-old former Defence Force Personnel. I spent 22 years fixing different aircraft in the RAAF. I am also a qualified Remedial massage therapist and Personal Trainer with a specialisation in Rehab training and Strength Coaching. I owned a small gymnasium in Newcastle for a period of 8 years and treated and trained many hundreds of people in that time.
As an athlete I have completed 5 full Ironman triathlons and about 10 ½ Ironman’s. Along with many other various distance races throughout the last 6 years. Also have spent more than a decade as a competitive cyclist.
My first introduction to Bioelectric Meridian Massage Therapy was back in 2018, where Tracy treated a lower back issue for me with great effect. I was a fan straight away.
Now retired from the remedial massage therapy industry, I am still a regular user of the ABMMA PRO BMT device. As a former Remedial therapist, I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help with niggles and as an avid Age group Triathlete I also utilise the device for its restorative properties and its ability to enhance recovery.
Over the coming months my plan is to tell you how I use the device to aid with recovery and some basic muscle release techniques.
If you have seen the ABMMA PRO BMT Device, you know its 3 pad system. 2 earthing pads (aqua) and the positive terminal or pad (red) that your therapist usually stands on to allow the current flow through them and in to you as the client. When you begin self-treating and using the device for recovery you alone stand on the pads to create a closed loop in your body for the current to flow through you.
The most basic and quite honestly probably, my favourite technique is using 1 earth pad and the positive pad and standing on it. I put it all the way up the front of the foot and have the toes on the pads as well See Picture 2. Then turn the device on and slowly increase the intensity to where I feel the current causing a prickling tingle in my lower limbs.
As an additional performance benefit, I have also been using the same technique on alternate days. On strength training days. When using the device in the same configuration I just described but with the pads on a slightly raised surface Picture 1. I use the device to do calf raises. I find the extra stimulation through the nervous system give a whole new level of calf work and have found the increased neural drive beneficial while running and cycling. Also, for those of you that cramp while swimming. Since utilising the device cramping during swimming has completely stopped.
I have had multiple ankle sprains throughout my life, and I find this is helping free up the ankle mobility quite effectively and since starting using it on a regular basis ankle ROM is drastically improving. I use this technique after most runs, as I find it really relaxes my feet and takes the strain out of the calf tissue very quickly post run.
