With my minimal dose training programme almost ready to go and my DEXA scan booked in for later this week, I thought it was the perfect time to try something that I may want to include into my schedule over the next couple of weeks.
So yesterday, I had my first Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) Training session. It has been part of athlete training programmes for decades now and has also been used to treat injuries during physical therapy. More recently, it has become more mainstream as a new workout trend popularised by celebrities and Victoria Secrets models. Unfortunately, when that happened, it lost it’s appeal for me as it just comes across as another quick fix/no effort required gimmick that focuses purely on body composition. But, if it’s good enough for Usain Bolt, it’s good enough for me…and re-establishes its place in a worthwhile body science experiment.
What is EMS?
Electrical muscle stimulation is exactly what it sounds like and uses a machine to deliver an electrical current to stimulate your muscles. This can be done because your muscles naturally contract in response to electrical signals sent by your brain. EMS is just an amplification of the body’s own electrical pulses, causing your muscles to contract on demand, recruiting more muscle fibres so therefore intensifying your workout in a way your body could not do on it’s own.
It claims to activate 90% of muscle fibres simultaneously as opposed to only 50% under normal conditions.
Some of the boldest advertisements for EMS will claim:
’20 minutes of EMS training suffices to replace a four hour traditional workout’
‘Maximum performance increases by up to 30% in a few weeks’
‘Muscle Mass grows by up to 14% in just a few months’
‘Reduces body weight’ (this means nothing)
‘Builds strength, speed and endurance’
The fact that some companies are able to release such vague, ambiguous and totally unfounded statements like these just makes things even more confusing in the world of health and fitness.
However, there has been a lot of positive sports scientific studies done on EMS training and that’s what I’m interested in. Although no studies have found EMS can increase muscle size due to a lack of progressive overload, there have been some that have focused on muscle efficiency and how EMS can ‘train’ the muscle to learn to work more effectively with regards to muscle fibre recruitment.
As with my post regarding the HYPOXI session I tried last week, this post is not here to tell you how effective it is, but just to describe what EMS is and what an individual session was like for me.
What does a typical session look like?
After a brief explanation about what the EMS was all about and what was going to happen during the session I was given some very thin skin hugging black stretchy shorts and t shirt to change into. Minimal clothing is to be worn underneath (that actually means nothing) so as not to interfere with the sensors.
As I emerge from the changing rooms, the trainer was spraying each of the electrode contact pads of the EMS suit with water in order to increase conductivity. It goes on a little bit like a bullet proof vest and felt quite cold which was really nice after coming in from the heat outside.
After attaching more dampened contact pads around my thighs, biceps and glutes, I was plugged into the EMS machine by wires from the contact suit and was ready to begin training.
The trainer then led me through 20 minutes of bodyweight exercises hitting my muscles with electrical impulses with about 4 second increments. During that time period I had to complete one rep of the exercise and then rest for 4 seconds until repeating or changing to a new one. I didn’t really take the rest and was in the correct position waiting for the next impulse to begin.
The exercises included squats, reverse, lateral and forward lunges, standing crunches with rotation, lunges with bicep curls and also static holds in these positions. In small increments, the trainer increased the intensity of the stimulation based on my body’s response to an exercise.
How does it feel?
It’s definitely a strange sensation but it doesn’t hurt and it actually felt quite satisfying towards the end when my legs began to shake. The last exercise was a lateral lunge static hold with an explosive push to the other side. The explosive bit didn’t happen! There were times when my abdominals felt like they were on fire and I definitely felt the stimulation in my glutes.
The day after!
I didn’t even get to the day after before things started to hurt. Even walking home I could definitely feel it. Today as I write this, is the day after….my abdominals have never hurt so much, EVER and my glutes are really not liking the hundreds of stairs I had to climb. But, I’m one of those people who gets some strange satisfaction out of pain like this. It’s the sign that I’ve done a tough training session and reminds me the way sprint pyramids on the track used to make me feel.
But this was different. This was only 20 minutes of basic bodyweight exercises and after 8 weeks of no strength training or even bodyweight training it definitely shocked my muscles into action. Clearly my glutes and abdominals being the most shocked of all!
What next?
Is EMS training going to be part of my minimal effective dose experiment? I would love to test out how effective it would be for me if I took the recommended 2/3 sessions a week and it certainly would fit the description of ‘minimal dose’. Unfortunately there are going to be so many other variables to my training over the next 4 months, it would be difficult to ascertain how effective this particular type of training would be. However, after my current lifestyle experiment is over I really would like to have some more regular sessions.
As with all modes of exercise, I would not recommend this to be your only form of training. Everyone needs a well rounded routine that covers all the different aspects of fitness and that works on weaknesses as well as strengths.
As with many training programmes, EMS is not recommended for anyone who is:
– pregnant
– has a pacemaker or other electrical implant
– has an acute illness, such as fever, viral infection or acute inflammatory disease
This list is not exhaustive and you should discuss any concerns with your personal Doctor before any training commences.