Electrical muscle stimulation is increasingly growing in popularity primarily for its effectiveness in weight loss, body toning, rehabilitation, and muscle building. Yes, a full-body EMS training regime is particularly effective in muscle building and strengthening. Electrical muscle stimulation works by delivering pulses to your muscles, causing intense muscle contractions that effectively build and strengthen muscles. The electrical impulses target up to ninety percent of your muscles. EMS training particularly effective in muscle building and strengthening.
The science of muscle building (Muscle hypertrophy)
To understand how EMS training facilitates muscle building and strengthening, it is necessary to have a general understanding of how muscles grow.
Natural muscle growth encompasses the ability to incessantly put more stress on your muscles. Muscles grow when we constantly challenge them to handle higher levels of resistance and weight. The process is scientifically recognized as muscle hypertrophy. When muscles undergo extensive exercise, trauma occurs to the muscle fibers. To repair the damage, the body fuses the fibers, increasing muscle mass and size. Essentially, the muscles adapt to the intensity we place on them, implying that progressive overload continually forces them to acclimatize, resulting in bigger and stronger muscles.
How does EMS training build muscles?
Increased muscle tension
EMS training facilitates muscle building and strengthening since it forces our muscles to adapt to a higher stress load. The electrical impulses cause intensive muscle contractions, higher than our bodies are accustomed to, resulting in additional tension. The additional tension from the electrical impulses causes trauma in the muscle fibers. The body fuses muscle fibers in an effort to repair the damaged muscle fibers resulting in bigger and stronger muscles.
EMS is effective in muscle building, and strengthening since our muscles are worked longer and harder, leading to faster muscle growth. Since you are in total control of the contractions with an EMS machine and suit, including the intensity and duration of the contraction, it is very easy to manage the progressive overload. This implies it is relatively easy to build and strengthen muscles with EMS training.
Activates more muscle fibers
Another reason EMS training is particularly effective in muscle building is grounded in the fact that the technology activates more than ninety percent of the muscle fibers.
There are two types of muscle fibers: slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers.
Slow-twitch
Slow-twitch muscle fibers (Type 1) are typically used for endurance activities such as walking and cycling. These muscles take relatively longer to get tired.
Fast-twitch
Fast-twitch muscle fibers (Type 2) are used in quick and potent activities such as jumping. These muscle fibers use a lot of energy and typically get tired quickly.
In order to improve overall strength, it is vital to activate and engage both the slow-twitch and the fast-twitch muscle fibers. The electrical impulses from the EMS suit target up to ninety percent of your muscles, making it particularly effective.When training at the gym, for instance, weight lifting, many individual muscles are activated and engaged. However, not all of the muscle fibers are activated and used. In fact, some are intentionally held in reserve to take over when the ones doing the work wear out. Electrical muscle stimulation does not have such limitations. The electrical impulses target most muscle fibers, including those typically not used when you are lifting weights at the gym. The electrical impulses in the EMS suit cause most of the individual muscle fibers to contract at once, enabling us to activate 30 percent more fibers in muscles.
A study published in the Journal of “Sports Medicine” in 2005 asserted that electrical muscle stimulation “reverses the order of recruitment of motor units observed with voluntary muscular contraction since, under EMS, large motor units are recruited before small motor units.” Essentially, the study suggests that EMS training activates and engages your most prominent and muscular muscle fibers much earlier than typical training at the gym, implying that you spend less time working out with EMS suits and witness more growth.
More control over the intensity of the workout
The technology gives you more control over the intensity of the workout. As mentioned, muscles grow and become bigger to adapt to the overload stress of exercising. As such, to witness changes over time, it is necessary to increase the overload progressively. A weight lifter will need to keep lifting heavier weights to notice changes continuously. However, increased weight is associated with higher risks of injuries such as muscle tears.
EMS technology gives you better control over the intensity of the workout. Intensity is not associated with the weights lifted but rather the level of electrical stimulation. It is easier to increase the intensity of the workout safely. EMS technology allows you to manage the intensity of the workout via a remote device, making training convenient and enjoyable.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, EMS training is very effective in muscle building and strengthening. The intense muscle stimulation that activates and engages all muscles fibers causes the muscles to get stronger in a relatively short time. EMS technology is your “go-to” solution for bigger and stronger muscles within a short period.
