Muscle Re-Education With FES and the MyoCycle

If you are one of the roughly 5.4 million people who live with some form of paralysis in the US, you know that regaining function means improved quality of life and independence. Fortunately, some therapies engage the muscles and nerves to help them relearn functional movements. One of the most effective forms of this kind of exercise is functional electrical stimulation (FES) therapy, like that provided by the MyoCycle. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently cleared muscle re-education as another indication for the use of the MyoCycle. Read on to learn more about muscle re-education and its benefits.

What Is FES?

Functional electrical stimulation, or FES, is a form of therapy in which electrodes are placed over the skin or implanted beneath the skin to stimulate motor neurons. The electric pulses encourage and allow paralyzed or weakened muscles to contract and move. FES-assisted movements such as standing or cycling make the most of this stimulation and even encourage the nervous system to recover or relearn functional movement.

FES Benefits

In addition to muscle re-education, research studies have shown that FES exercise has many benefits.

• Strengthened muscles
• Improved cardiovascular health
• Improved joint range of motion
• Increased muscle mass
• Improved fitness
• Increased local blood circulation
• Reduced muscle spasticity

Even beyond these notable physical effects, FES exercise also releases endorphins, helping to combat depression and other mental conditions associated with decreased mobility.

What Is Muscle Re-Education?

Our brains send signals to our nerves to command our muscles to move through complex processes. Movement patterns are then thought to be stored in our memories, explaining why repeated motions such as walking upstairs become automatic. Denervation or loss of nerve supply makes the muscles unable to receive these nerve signals from the brain, usually from events such as trauma or certain neurological conditions. FES helps by supplying external signals to the nerves that reactivate and build new movement patterns.

Muscle re-education restores movement patterns by repeating motions to retrain control centers of the brain and reflexes of the spinal cord. Movement performance depends on muscle strength, muscle fiber conditions, contracting fibers, nerve impulses able to reach muscle fibers, neuromuscular junctions, and the condition of tissues around the muscle fibers.

Muscle re-education is possible because of neuroplasticity.

What Is Neuroplasticity?

Neuroplasticity is a phenomenon in which the nervous system (e.g., the brain or the spinal cord) can reorganize itself to form new neural connections in response to injury or damage from medical conditions. This reorganization is called “axonal sprouting,” as undamaged axons develop nerve endings that connect to other undamaged neurons, creating new neural pathways to accomplish the body’s functions.

Changing and adapting your brain helps you learn new things, enhances your existing cognitive abilities, strengthens areas of declining or lost function, improves brain fitness, and aids in spinal cord injury, stroke, and traumatic brain injury recovery.

Neuroplasticity Types

Functional Neuroplasticity

When one part of the nervous system is damaged, the functions of the damaged part can transfer to another intact part of the nervous system. This is a type of functional neuroplasticity referred to as reactive plasticity.

Structural Neuroplasticity

Structural neuroplasticity is when the brain can change its physical structure through learning and reshaping individual neurons. We have approximately 2,500 synapses in our cerebral cortex neurons. As we age, unused connections are deleted, and the ones used the most are strengthened. Plasticity happens throughout our lives but is especially important during our early years when it allows us to develop senses, language, and other skills.

MYOLYN Works to Help You Enjoy Movement Again

The human brain is a wonderfully complex organ that can adapt and even sometimes overcome injury or dysfunction. In the same way, the brain can retrain itself, muscles can be re-educated through FES to regain movements you may have thought lost. Through FES therapy and our MyoCycle, users can experience movement and enjoy the benefits of exercise. If you are ready to discover what the MyoCycle could do for you, reach out today to the caring and knowledgeable MYOLYN team.