physioplux FAQs

This tool helps the physiotherapist to have a more accurate diagnosis, with an objective assessment (which is not possible with clinical tests); helps to monitor the patient’s progress and establish concrete training goals.

We have proven that it speeds up injury recovery by more than 50% and reduces the recurrence rate of the same injury by 90%. So, the treatment is more effective towards the patient’s real problems and motivates them in the recovery process

No. The physioplux Trainer can only be used by those who already have a physioplux Clinical Kit, as its software is not independent.

You need to prescribe the patients exercise from physioplux Tablet, that are included in Clinical Kits.

This tool helps the physiotherapist to establish a therapeutic diagnosis, allowing him to get access to objective data, which he would otherwise not be able to assess.

For example the order in which the muscles are recruited tells the physiotherapist if the movement is correctly and effectively being done, or if there is some compensation associated (another muscle that is replacing the one within pain/injury).

So, the software doesn’t give you a full diagnosis, because for that you need to get access to another kind of clinical information, but it helps physiotherapists to classify the quality of movement and to establish a differential diagnosis.

The MVC tests will always be necessary, as without them it is not possible to determine what percentage of muscle contraction you want to work on and thus define your training goals.

For example, if you compare the physioplux Clinical Pro and the Physioplux Go, in the physioplux Clinical Pro (in addition to giving access to more EMG channels and various intervention protocols) also gives you assess to the muscle activation order and the pattern of muscle contraction (stabilizers vs. mobilizers muscles) – which are essential to assess the quality of muscle pattern and to make a differential clinical diagnosis – This is actually what will help us (health professionals) to define the pathological from the healthy values. Based on the values obtained in these last two tests, you will be able to define more accurately the percentages you want to work with in the MVC.

Physioplux Go only gives you an estimate of muscle strength as it only measures the MVC before setting training goals.

Physioplux is an interactive real-time EMG-Biofeedback System that allows patients and therapists to have a precise understanding of correctness of the joint movement from a muscular perspective: what were the timings of activation, order and relative muscular contraction, during injury recovery trainings.

It combines a biofeedback certified EMG device with custom-made applications. It helps clinicians to diagnose, treat and monitor the patients progress and to increase patients’ awareness of the exercise and their performance.

With the physioplux you can objectively assess:

Muscle Activation Order (MAO):
That’s the size principle’s order of recruitment which ensures that low-threshold motor units are predominantly recruited to perform lower-intensity, long-duration (endurance) activities, whereas the higher-threshold motor units are used only to produce higher levels of force or power.

The correct MAO is important because it helps delay fatigue during submaximal muscle actions. So, the high activation threshold for the highly fatigable (Type II) motor units is not reached unless high levels of force or power are needed instead, being mainly recruited the lower threshold, fatigue-resistible (Type I) motor units. Recruitment order assessment is also important from a practical standpoint for several reasons:

First, to recruit highly fatigable (Type II) fibers and thus achieve a training effect in these fibers, the exercise must be characterized by heavy loading or demands for high power output.

Second, the order of recruitment is fixed for many movements, including resistance exercises. When the body position changes, the order of recruitment can also change and different muscle fibers can be recruited.

Maximum Isometric Voluntary Contraction (MVIC):
MVIC is a standardized method for measurement of muscle strength. Each muscle is tested 3
times while the patient is encouraged by the clinician to exert maximal effort. The maximum force generated by the patient is recorded for each trial, and the maximum over the 3 trials is
used as the final measurement for each muscle. The raw score for each muscle, measure in
Newtons, can be standardized relative to a normal individual of the same age, gender and
height. MVIC was performed using the Quantitative Muscle Assessment system.

This measure is particularly important in the clinical context. For example, during physical
exercise, the onsets and the MVC itself drop with increasing number of repetitions, which can
indicate that the muscle is going into fatigue. It’s from MVIC values the that we establish the
targets (level of difficulty) for each exercise and thus build an exercise protocol.

Neuromuscular Control NMC:
Neuromuscular control is defined as the subconscious activation of the dynamic restraints in preparation for and in response to joint motion and loading for the purpose of maintaining joint stability. Is the ability to produce controlled movement through coordinated muscle activity.

According to the dynamic stability models, before starting a movement, there is a pre-activation of the stabilizing muscles in relation to the mobilizing muscles, and it’s what we measure in this test.

We recommend that patient should perform a simple movement, like shoulder Flexion up to 90º of arm elevation. The result of the test can be weak, moderate, or High, according with the quality of muscle pattern contraction.

The muscleBANs are made with very resistant materials, the strongest we have. It is ready for long-term use.