"We have a limited ability to control our muscles naturally,’ Mr Lewis told The Times.
‘You can control them more precisely, get more from your muscles and contract them more strongly if you stimulate them directly with electricity.’"
Mr. Lewis should share his secrets with all the folks out there trying to restore ambulation in individuals who have been paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury. I mean, if it’s that easy and effective, he should be able to have people up and walking in no time, right?
Okay, enough snark, this is pure BS. Setting aside the first bogus claim above and even accepting that a computer algorithm could adjust “on the fly” to better actuate pedaling muscles, you’re still faced with several major problems:
It requires a very high voltage to elicit powerful muscle contractions;
Stimulating your muscles this way is painful, because you also activate cutaneous pain receptors; and
Electrical stimulation reverses the usual orderly recruitment of motor units, meaning that it preferentially activates fast-twitch fibers, leading to premature fatigue.