How to Get Fit Using Electrical Muscle Stimulation

If you've ever gone to physical therapy, you could have experienced EMS or "e-stim" to help loosen your tight muscles for them to recover. When used therapeutically, these units are created to stimulate nerves which make muscles contract, ultimately relaxing and loosening any tight spots.

You can find actually plenty of the pain-alleviating devices available non-prescription and online (also called TENS — transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation units), that'll run you around $200. But, again, they're designed to focus on a particular area, not your physique, and are normally used under professional supervision. Although these devices are often "safe and user friendly," using them within a workout is not advised and, if anything, should only be brought out "for pain-relief effects after a workout," recommends Fulop.

Okay, so just how is that different than an EMS workout?
Rather than emphasizing a certain body part as you'd do in physical therapy, during an EMS workout, electrical stimulation is usually delivered to larger aspects of the body with a suit, vest, and/or shorts. As you exercise (which is already engaging your muscles), the electrical impulses force muscle tissue to contract, which might bring about more muscle recruitment, says Dircksen.

It might sound simple enough, but it's no walk in the park. Because the pulse actually acts as resistance, the movements feel much harder and leave you fatigued much faster. Just just as in other training, you could be sore: Overall, how sore you are after EMS training is dependent upon multiple factors, such as the "intensity of the job, the weight used, the quantity of time, just how much eccentric load was done, and if any of the movements were done in new ranges," says Dircksen.

So, does EMS workout training work?

When exercising normally, neurotransmitters in mental performance tell your muscles (and the fibers within them) to activate and engage in order to perform each movement. With time, consequently of factors such as injury, overtraining, and poor recovery, muscular imbalances can occur and limit your muscle fibers' activation during moves when they will normally be recruited. (See: How to Activate Underused Glutes aka Dead Butt Syndrome for an example of how this may play out IRL.)

However, when Pulse performance Studio EMS is added to the equation, you're in a position to call upon more muscle fibers (including those who have remained dormant). To be safe — so you don't overdo it and risk muscle, tendon, or ligament tears — choose "the minimal effective dose. Meaning, once you receive a muscle contraction from the stim, that's enough," says Dircksen.

"By actively participating in a EMS workout class (rather than sitting and passively letting the e-stim activate your muscles), you're obtaining a good workout in, that is chock-full of health benefits," says Dircksen. So long as you don't overload, this escalation in muscle engagement could end up in strength gains. (

The Biggest Mental and Physical Benefits of Working Out
If you are using e-stim in tandem with movement and weight, parts of your muscles should get more powerful than if you did the moves alone, according for some research. In a 2016 study, people who did a six-week squat program with EMS had greater strength improvements in comparison to people who didn't use EMS.

So yes, the thought of EMS workouts seems to make sense, and, yes, some studies do support claims of boosted strength. However, research (of which there is very little) ranges in sample size, demographics, and findings. Case in point: A 2019 overview of e-stim research actually found it absolutely was impossible to create any conclusions on EMS training's effects.