Electrical muscle stimulation as a whole body training – Multicenter study on the use of full body EMS in fitness centers

Aim of study

This study was initiated to learn whether there were noticeable positive changes through the use of electrical muscle stimulation as whole body training in a tryout with regard to strength, anthropometry, body awareness, mood, general health factors, back pain and incontinence.

Results

This study was applied on different age groups among both genders. The electrical muscle stimulation sessions resulted in reducing 82.3% of the participants back pain, while 29.9% were symptom-free. 40.3% of the candidates complained of chronic pain beforehand and only 9.3% after the trials. Whereas 75.8% saw improvements in incontinence, and 33.3% were totally free of symptoms upon completion. A number of medical conditions were sharply reduced by around 50%. It was recounted that applicants’ maximum strength rose 12.2%, and their muscular endurance increased 69.3%.

Women benefited to a greater degree than men did (13.6% vs. 7.3%). However, 18 subjects ended the training prematurely. There were no changes recognized in the control group as well as body weight and BMI remained virtually the same. The body fat percentage fell 1.4% in the training group; in contrast to an increase of 6.7% in the control group.

The younger age group undergoing the trials lost more weight than the older; no gender- or weight-related variations resulted. Among the women in the training, the body circumferences were reduced significantly at the chest (-0.7 cm), thigh (-0.4 cm), waist (-1.4 cm) and hips (-1.1 cm). Among men, they decreased at the waist (-1.1 cm) with simultaneous growth in the upper arm (+1.5 cm), chest (+1.2 cm) and thigh (+0.3 cm).

Meanwhile, the control group showed no improvement and expanded at the waist and hips in the same time frame. Their body feeling improved, with 83.0 % exhibiting less tension, 89.1% greater stability, and 83.8 % higher performance. 86.8 % noticed positive body contour effects. Reportedly, 90.0% of the participants perceived the training positively. Despite the fact that high intensities brought more significant improvements for the patients with complaints, the occurrence of muscle aches increased.

Conclusion

The whole body EMS training represents a persuasive method to reduce extremely common back and incontinence complaints. Moreover, the body contouring and mood aspects appeal to men and women at all age levels. Thus, whole body EMS is an absolute effective form of training appealing to a wide spectrum of target groups.