Maybe not: A recent German study calculated the calorie expenditure for a 20-minute EMS training session at just 82 calories (12 more than the same body-weight workout without EMS). You’re doing a real workout (albeit a light one), while your muscles are additionally engaged by the EMS.īut while websites for E-Fit and 4U-Fitness tout undefined results like muscle building and a higher fat burn, trainers for some EMS companies told me that you’ll torch hundreds of calories in a 20-minute session, or that EMS will activate 95 percent of your muscle groups at once. There is a key difference, though, between EMS training and gimmicky gadgets: actual exercise. Maybe you feel like you’ve heard this sales pitch before - during, say, those late-night infomercials for electric ab belts that supposedly jolt you a six-pack while you sit and watch TV. You’re working more muscle than you’d normally need to do a push-up, and that’s why fatigue sets in more quickly. Buzz your muscles during a push-up, and while your brain tells nerves to contract slow-twitch muscle fibers, signals from the EMS machine cue fast-twitch fibers to engage. With EMS, you engage both kinds of fibers. For a heavy bench press, it engages your quick-to-fatigue, fast-twitch muscle fibers.ĪLSO: Stressed? 9 Gadgets to Help You Relax Read article For low loads like push-ups, the brain starts by recruiting endurance-oriented muscle, or slow-twitch muscle fibers. The greater the load, the more muscle fibers you need to fire. What is going on? Normally, if you’re doing, say, a push-up, your brain will signal the nerves in your chest, shoulders, and triceps to contract a certain number of muscle fibers, explains Glenn Wright, professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. The next day, soreness deep in my glutes tells me that the EMS has targeted muscles that apparently don’t get enough work. It’s not the same kind of crushed I feel after an intense workout like CrossFit, but the fact that I’m even fatigued from a few squats and lunges is noteworthy.
![fit me program working fit me program working](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ee0cdd2699e5307b2ea265a/1629291880436-0O90G957KW01YS4PI9QH/Evolve+Postpartum+Program+-+Sept+2021+(1).jpg)
![fit me program working fit me program working](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5a823441d55b414a14aa00b5/1623331196739-KIDWP7ZRTXAQTWWE3VYH/Workout+plans+-+website.png)
But with the EMS unit sending juice to my muscles and forcing them to contract, by the end of the 20 minutes, I feel spent. companies, such as E-Fit and 4U-Fitness, offer the service for between $50 and $100.Įlzomor takes me through a body-weight workout that, on its own, looks more like a warm-up - squats, lunges, push-ups. At the boutique Core Club, members pay $145 for an EMS session. But now EMS is making its way into the fitness world, fueled by a handful of companies claiming it can help burn hundreds of calories and beef up muscles, all with basic movements, minimal time, and minimal effort. ALSO: Do Fitness Trackers Actually Help You Get Fit? What the Science Says Read articleĮMS - basically, applying a current to muscles to trigger involuntary twitches - has been used for years in rehab settings to help repair spinal cord injuries and address paralysis, and at physical therapy offices to strengthen weak muscles and correct imbalances.