What are your thoughts on TENS machines?

I used to own a marketing co. and one of the products we sold were TENS machines. We marketed it it mainly for pain relief. I always kept an open mind with them when it came to pain relief and had a mixed responce in regards to the feedback I got from customers who bought them.
I have a mate who is oldschool as a brontasarus he has been bodybuilding since he was 15 and is like 40 now he knows alot about bodybuilding and has a body to show for it. Some of the things he teaches me are oldschool and I have read things that aparently scientifically disprove some of his theroies but he swears by his "oldschool" version of the tens machine for recovery. I understand the claims of a tens machines effect on muscles, but maybe he just likes to watch it contracting his muscles in the mirror the guy is seriously mesmorized by it! Haha but does anyone know about the TENS machines benifits if any in bodybuilding?

WTF is a TENS machine?

Haha its Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation.
You may have seen one before, its an electronic device with crods that u plug into it with stickey pads on the other end of the cords that you put on your muscles.
It will contract your muscles with an electric pulse and then stop the pulse allowing the muscle to relax again.

Are we talking a real TENS or one of those bullshit infomercial ones?

Is this the stuff they use at physios?

The ones we marketed were TGA approved and you can claim a rebate with your health insurer. My mates one was alot older and an analog looking version but I tried his and they felt just the same.

Yeah physios use them and hospitals use them too sometimes for pain relief for women in labour.

My physio stopped using them. she using her hands are more beneficial than using the machine