Where can you experience this apart from EMS? Well, the answer is, through muscle spasms, heart attacks, and being electrocuted. A better question to ask is where else can you experience this safely and to your benefit? The answer to that is, through an automated external defibrillator, which is a form of electrocution that can save your life. But in the context of what I am saying here, EMS is a unique piece of technology that creates involuntary muscle contractions to improve muscle function and burn more calories. This article is a simple breakdown of how EMS sessions optimize muscle activation and accelerate calorie loss.
Multiple Muscle Groups Experience Contractions No Matter What Exercise You Are Doing
Let’s use an example of doing a biceps curl. When using EMS, your leg muscles are experiencing activation and growth too. And the same goes for your abdominals, low back muscles, back muscles, and chest. The biceps are experiencing more growth compared to the rest of your muscles because you are putting far more stress on them by doing a biceps curl. But isn’t it nice to have many muscle groups activating even though you’re working only one muscle group in your body? Talk about efficiency.
Increased Contraction on the Muscle You Are Focusing on Building
Let’s use the same example of doing a biceps curl. You are trying to make this muscle bigger and stronger. The greater the force of contraction (within safe limits), the greater the activation and growth. One thing we can do when doing biceps curls is consciously flex the bicep while doing the exercise. Doing this can increase the amount of contraction experienced. EMS is essentially doing this for you. Now imagine doing both at the same time and how much contraction you’ll experience. Talking about efficiency and how EMS workout Improves muscle activation and burns calories.
Increased Contraction on the Stubborn Muscle(s) You Struggle to Activate/Grow
Have you ever wondered why certain muscles are so hard to feel or activate? Maybe your left bicep feels weaker than your right, or your glutes just don’t engage properly, leading to knee and lower back pain. These frustrations are common, and you’re not alone. I’ve faced these challenges too. One strategy I use is to consciously focus on activating stubborn muscles during my workouts, and I recommend you try it as well. However, EMS technology can take this a step further. By delivering high pulses to specific muscles, EMS can either assist or fully activate those stubborn areas even when you’re not moving. This ensures that all your muscles get the attention they need for effective activation and growth.
Increased Caloric Burn Due to Increased Muscle Activity
You can almost think of this as background activity on your computer and smartphone. The background activity is different from typing, editing, or clicking, but it uses data and memory. In the case of your muscles, the background activity is the pulsing from EMS. The typing, editing, and clicking are you performing exercises. The data and memory being used are the calories being used from the muscle activity caused by EMS. Simply put, EMS causes subconscious caloric burn called the EPOC Effect. This makes for a more efficient fat-loss process.
You Do Not Need to Work Too Hard to Get Something Out of it
This point piggybacks on all the previous points I made. You can get some decent results without doing much or at all. But to define “decent results”, I do not mean looking like a model or bodybuilder. If you want to do that, EMS can be your supplementary tool, but you must train hard consistently, eat well, sleep well, and think well. The harder you work, the more you can get out of it. That goes for everything in life. In this context, what I mean is that the nature of EMS allows for significant benefits without having you do vigorous or high amounts of exercise, which shows its efficiency.
I hope you found this article helpful in understanding the nature of EMS technology and the concepts of muscle activation and caloric burn. Our main goal at Sweat22 Studio is to ensure that your exercise routine is tailored to your specific needs. If you need further guidance on implementing EMS technology, please feel free to book a trial session with us. We are here to support you.
Sweat22 EMS Studio,
Gavin Fan, BHK, NSCA-CPT