Alright, this was totally weird, and I do not mind telling you that I was a little scared to do it. A relatively new treatment for all sorts of muscle-related issues -- MS, in my case -- is to apply electric current directly to the muscles, causing them to contract. The result is basically involuntary exercise, and it can help your muscles in the same way, building them up to a small extent, and exercising the neural pathways.
What they do is put a couple of patches on the targeted muscles -- various leg muscles, for me -- and then start the current. The machine my physical therapist was using could go up to 100 amps, and he stopped at 87 for me. He kept saying to let him know if it was too much, but I told him it would have to be pretty bad for me to complain, and that he was probably going to have to decide if he was giving me too much. That ended up being the case. At the 87 amps, he gave me six minutes per muscle, alternating for 10 seconds each, between legs. He gave me fewer amps for one muscle group because it was behaving in a way he did not like -- severely contracting and lifting my leg off the table.
The experience was not really painful, just uncomfortable, but totally bearable. I suspect I am going to start doing it on a regular basis.
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