“A dive into Lithuanian history”, De Standaard, 14-09-2024 Some comments by Koos Jaap van Zwieten
Last weekend the Belgian newspaper "De Standaard" in its category “De omweg” (“Places that are worth a detour”) published this most informative travel report “Een duik in de Litouwse geschiedenis” ("A dive into Lithuanian history") (p. 43) by author Maria Vlaar, about her visit to Lithuania starting with the town of Druskininkai in the south of the country. She describes her unexpected and often surprising experiences as an open-minded traveler in a witty and entertaining way, see https://epaper.standaard.be/data/1667/reader/reader.html?t=1726349441538#!preferred/0/package/1667/pub/4320/page/59.
Whether it is a pure coincidence or not is difficult to say, but in any case her description seemed very recognizable to us, because we had already been guests in Druskininkai in 2007 in the context of a scientific conference visit, namely the “8th Biomdlore Conference”, related to the European Neighbourhood Programme, https://southbaltic.eu/-/twenty-years-of-eu-membership-poland-and-lithuania-s-contribution-to-regional-development-and-cooperation-in-the-south-baltic-area Later that year, this active conference participation resulted in our A1 publication entitled “Electrovibrostimulation during the training of sportsmen, an experimental set-up”, https://documentserver.uhasselt.be/handle/1942/7733
On this occasion we would like to elaborate on this research paper in some detail. Most of our movements are caused by muscles, each with its own function. Muscles initiating a movement in a certain direction are agonists, while muscles with effects in the opposite direction are the antagonists. Normal fluent human motion consists of a constant delicate balance of the agonists’ and antagonists’ actions. If a certain human movement is not powerful enough, this may be so because agonists are too weak, or antagonists are too strong, or both. An original East European concept to overcome such a disorder is to stimulate agonist muscles while simultaneously relaxing their antagonists. Relaxation of muscles by means of vibration therapy had already been shown. The stimulating effect of micro-currents had also been proven.
Electro stimulation can be applied (externally, on the muscles) to enhance the strength of some selected agonist muscles, simultaneously with vibration stimulation of their antagonists, thus creating a ‘win-win situation’. In many endurance sports such as running, cycling, rowing, etc., alternations of agonist-antagonist movements play a central role, especially in the lower extremities. Such activities may also be helpful to improve muscle strength during post-operative rehabilitation in patients.
In this study the effects of electrovibrostimulation training were compared with classical powertraining, in a group of 18-24 years old healthy sportsmen, during the spring season of 2007. Former studies showed the effectiveness of electrovibrostimulation on the functional condition of muscles: increase of the strength in the active insufficiency zone and increase of the elasticity in the passive insufficiency zone, consequently improving joint strength and mobility. After four weeks of electrovibrostimulation, applied twice a week, significant increases of isometric strength and explosive strength were observed, whereas the flexibility remained the same. Some hypotheses were discussed concerning the possible working mechanisms of electrovibrostimulation.
To our opinion, this 2007 conference in "one of the most wonderful Lithuanian towns, Druskininkai, on the Memel" was a fine and positive example of successful East-West European scientific cooperation in the field of healthcare and technology.