Thigh coil versus no field in the second 15 minutes of cycling
Q: Did a thigh coil raise muscle activity more in the second half of a cycling test?
A: In a 2026 randomized crossover test, a 2 Hz coil on the right thigh raised muscle activity more than the same moderate ride with the field off, and the gap was larger in the second 15 minutes. Eight sedentary men rode that load while the team recorded the right thigh.
Who sat the bike
The team at the University of Bologna sat eight sedentary men on a lab bike. Their mean age was 29.4 years, and the group ran from 20 to 35. Nine men enrolled, and one withdrew before the visits were finished. None of them had done structured exercise in the previous year. They were non-smokers, and none had a neuromuscular or cardiovascular disease. Each man came three times, about a week apart, to the Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences.
What they compared
The first visit measured the men and found the point where breathing starts to climb harder. Mean power at that point was 148 watts, and 60 percent of it was 89 watts. On the next two visits each man rode 30 minutes at that moderate load, at 80 revolutions per minute, on an H-300-R Lode ergometer. The room was held at 22 degrees.
Two circular loops, 20 cm across, sat on the right vastus medialis and the right biceps femoris. The team used a Torino II system, with 2 millisecond bursts repeating at 2 Hz, for 15 minutes on the right thigh. One visit put the field on in the first 15 minutes. The other visit put it on in the second 15 minutes. The visits were seven days apart, and the order was drawn at random. The person applying the field, and the rider, did not know which bout was on, because the device looked the same either way. The people reading the recordings did know the order.
The muscle-activity rise
The clear change was in the right vastus medialis, the muscle on the inner front of the thigh. With the field on in the first 15 minutes, that muscle sat at 17.9 percent of a maximum voluntary contraction. The same half of the ride, with the field off, sat at 15.2 percent. The gap was p = 0.021.
The second 15 minutes opened a wider gap. The field-on window reached 21.8 percent, against 13.9 percent with the field off, p = 0.003. That second-half field-on window was also higher than the first-half field-on window, p = 0.008. The right biceps femoris, at the back of the thigh, rose in the second half only: 12.6 percent with the field on, against 9.4 percent with it off, p = 0.011.
They were not riding harder. The watts and the cadence stayed the same. What changed was how much of the thigh was working to hold that load.
What did not clear the line
The biceps recording in the first 15 minutes did not clear the usual statistical line, p = 0.184. The second-half versus first-half comparison for that same muscle also missed it, p = 0.067. Blood lactate did rise when the field was on in the first half, 3.8 against 2.9 mmol/L, p = 0.013. In the second half the lactate figures were 4.2 against 3.1 mmol/L, and that gap did not clear the line, p = 0.052.
This is the same small group as the team's 2025 paper, not a new crowd of riders. Eight men, all under 36, none of them in a training program. They rode a prescribed load in a lab, not a race and not a long outdoor ride. A home session is a different room, and a different coil. If you want to sit with the thigh after a ride, the library rows below match the muscle, and the 2 Hz card is the setting from this test, not a general program.
The paper
The paper is in English, in Bioengineering, October 2026. Aurelio Trofe, David Bendahan, Milena Raffi, Alessandro Piras, Monica Christova, and Stefan Golaszewski wrote it. The full text is at PMC13701498, and the journal page is Bioengineering 13, no. 10, article 1165. PMID 42939020.
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| Result | What the paper reported |
|---|---|
| Second 15 minutes, front thigh | Vastus medialis 21.8% of a maximum contraction with the field on, against 13.9% with it off. |
| First 15 minutes, front thigh | Vastus medialis 17.9% with the field on, against 15.2% with it off. |
| Second 15 minutes, back of thigh | Biceps femoris 12.6% with the field on, against 9.4% with it off. |
Related tones in the KYMA library
Open these library sets if you want a stored program for the same topic. They are here because they match the subject of the paper. A magnetic-field setting is not stored in the tone.
Pulse rate used on the right thigh during a 15-minute bout of moderate cycling. Trial setting only. · 15 minutes
Speed up muscle repair and growth. Optimize recovery between training sessions. · 25 minutes
Rife Frequencies · 3 minutes
Rife Frequencies · 3 minutes
Frequently asked questions
What pulse rate did the cycling test use?
The Bologna cycling test used a 2 Hz pulse rate for 15 minutes on the right thigh. That setting is listed here as Trofe 2026 cycling pulse rate. For the thigh and the muscle work, open Muscle Recovery Accelerator, Muscle Growth and Repair, and Muscle Healing Stimulate, because those library sets match the body site and the measured muscle activity. The field strength is not in the tone.
Who was on the bike?
Eight sedentary men, mean age 29.4 years, ranging from 20 to 35. They had not done structured exercise in the previous year. This was a lab ride at a prescribed moderate load, not a group of trained cyclists.
Did the men ride farther when the field was on?
They kept the same moderate load, about 89 watts, and the same 80 revolutions per minute. The change was in the thigh-muscle recording, not in the distance.