Following downtime, whether it’s from an injury, burnout, disruption or any other cause, returning to a workout routine can be incredibly difficult, especially if your muscles have weakened as a result. During this time, many people find their motivation at an all time low, while the difficulty of working around these issues can be arduous and time consuming. So that leads us to the question – can EMS be used for rehabilitation or to kickstart your fitness again?
What We Know
A time efficient 20 minute EMS fitness session can indeed be the option to get you going again. Our members hail from a variety of backgrounds, from age 16 up to 85 years, with varying fitness levels ranging from first-timers to elite athletes, and with a range of different fitness requirements and aspirations. One common theme regardless of an individuals demographic, is the need to train post-injury to get fit and strong again (or for their first time).
Studies show that EMS training removes the need for heavy weights by combining focused body weight exercises with an electrical muscle stimulus that activates ~90% of your muscle fibres, especially fast-twitch fibres that don’t usually get used much during typical exercise. For example, a person recovering from a lower limb injury will have to limit their load when starting training again, and resultantly get a lesser training stimulus. Additionally, adding load can leave individuals feeling apprehensive and risk reinjury if they’re not careful. The electro muscle stimulus can be used to enhance the forces during an isometric contraction, that can then be progressed to dynamic movements without adding extra load – the result, a low-risk, improved training stimulus in a shorter space of time.
