For my ankle...I place the electrodes around the area that hurts. There are two wires and each have two electrodes at the end which you place across from one another. These are placed so the form an X with the area that hurts in the center of them.

I have found that I have to put the machine on a constant setting as opposed to one that is variable or pulsing. I have found the variable ones tend to cause flare ups instead of helping them. I set it at the lowest setting that provides relief and then increase the power as needed during treatment. I run it for one hour at a time but leave it on me (as in attached to me but not necessarily turned on) all day, turning it on as needed throughout the day for an hour at a time. It's usually several hours between treatments depending on what I am doing but I never run it more than once in four hours.

I do the same when I have a flare in my arms or another area...as long as the area is small enough that I can surround it with the electrodes like on my ankle.