Patent ID: 8209030

Claim:
Muscle stimulation apparatus for applying an electrical current to the leg muscles comprising: a garment adapted to cover an upper area and a lower area of the quadriceps; a stimulation device for generating a muscle stimulating current in the form of a pulse train connectable to at least three fixed electrical contacts on said garment, the garment being shaped to correspond, in use, with a particular anatomical feature on a user to ensure accurate and repeatable positioning of the garment with respect to the upper and lower areas of the quadriceps muscles to be treated such that one fixed electrical contact covers upper fibres of the quadriceps and two fixed electrical contacts cover lower fibres of the quadriceps close to the patella; the stimulation device further comprising control means for selectively directing stimulating pulses between said three or more fixed electrical contacts, and wherein different fixed electrical contact selections can be made under software control for selecting any subset of the fixed electrical contacts in the garment to form one electrical pole, and any other subset or all of the remaining fixed electrical contacts in the garment as the opposite electrical pole so as to create pulse sequences comprising stimulating pulses capable of being directed through six different pathways between three of said fixed electrical contacts.