How EMS Machines Work

EMS (Electrical Muscle Stimulation) machines incorporate an advanced muscle exercise and toning technique that supplements your existing workout routine, while also strengthening weak or injured areas. Electronic muscle stimulation provides a safe, non-invasive and drug-free method of strengthening and rehabilitation predominantly for athletes and sportspeople.

With this treatment you can target and exercise specific muscle areas easily and with no impact or stress. When used together with an appropriate exercise routine an EMS Machine, can effectively increase your muscle tone and definition. You can choose the intensity and frequency of the electrical current to apply to your muscles repeatedly in a series of stimulated contraction and relaxation stages, thereby stimulating muscle movement and exercise.

It does this in two ways:
When you physically contract a muscle, only 30% of your muscle fibres at most are being used in that contraction state. The other 70% lay in a resting state until the contracting fibres tire out. Once the initial 30% of muscle fibres have tired out then the other 70% (the resting muscle fibres) will get used.

EMS treatment electrically stimulates the resting muscle fibres to increase their strength simulating them being used - even when they’re not. Because of this, EMS treatment seems to be most effective when your muscles are very weak, because the machine mimics contractions in the weak muscles to strengthen them as if you are exercising.

In addition to exercising your resting muscle fibres, it can also improve the recruitment of nerve conduction rates. This is the nerve pathway your brain uses to send messages to your muscles, as you use a muscle over time this pathway becomes stronger making it faster and easier to move that muscle an EMS machine improves this pathway by stimulating your muscle more frequently so that your brain learns to find the quickest way to continue using that muscle. On average it normally takes about 1000 repetitions for your brain to learn the quickest nerve pathway to send a message to your muscles. But an EMS machine Australia can provide you with enough repeated contractions to accelerate the learning process inside of your brain.

EMS MACHINE Vs TENS MACHINE

EMS machines and TENS machines can be used together to help with muscle rehabilitation and pain management, and we have combination TENS/EMS units available to give you the benefits of both in one portable machine. There are however differences between their uses and functionalities, and what you will get out of them.

Both can be used to treat pain and promote healing, but the main difference is that TENS machines stimulate your nerve endings while EMS machines stimulate your muscles. With TENS machines you are likely to feel relief more immediately because they target the nerves directly, while EMS machines target specific muscle groups to increase blood circulation.

TENS treatment also targets one area of your body at a time, providing a more focused and targeted therapy, while EMS treatment can target several muscle groups at a time and provide widespread therapy.

While both machines actively promote health, wellbeing and a pain free lifestyle, the muscle strengthening applications of EMS machines makes them ideal for athletes and those in physical therapy and rehabilitation, as they are focused on strengthening the muscles, tendons and tissue. TENS machines on the other hand, are more appropriate for pain relief and have been proven very effective for sufferers of chronic and acute pain.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS AN EMS MACHINE?

EMS machine Australia units have proven to be very effective for athletes and rehabilitation patients, with various medical professionals and high profile coaches backing the use of this treatment. They have a wide range of uses and applications, evidenced to help you strengthen and tone your muscles and repair injuries.

Strength athletes: An EMS machine can help strength athletes develop their maximum strength with high intensity and over a short period. When used together with a regular training routine, EMS treatment will put a greater workload on your body by encouraging intense, continuous muscle contractions.

At the XVIII (18th) Congress of the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology in 2010 it was concluded that strength training in conjunction with EMS treatment “does promote neural and muscular adaptions that are complementary to the well-known effects of voluntary resistance training”. You can find the paper here.

Train around your injuries: EMS treatment can help you if you have sore joints or minor injuries that make exercising difficult or painful.
For example, if you have sore joints or tendonitis in your upper legs, you can use your EMS machine on this part of your body while you continue to exercise the other parts. While it is not quite the same as an actual workout, it allows you to continue using the injured parts of your body and improving their strength and motor patterns until they have healed. A 2004 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that even in sedentary adults, EMS treatment is effective at improving their physical fitness and strength, and giving them greater aerobic capacity.

Improve the quality of your warm up: Using your EMS machine will warm up your muscles without you having to expend any energy, which is an excellent way to get blood flowing through your muscles at the start of your warm up routine. It also allows you to keep warmed up in your downtime without wearing yourself out with exercise. The University of California’s Muscle Physiology Laboratory published that EMS machines cause adaptation, or training, of the muscle fibres and helps them build up strength as you use it.

Speed up recovery time: EMS treatment is a valuable recovery tool, as it promotes blood flow and circulation in your muscles which will help transfer nutrients through the muscles and speed up your recovery. In an article by Olympic track coach Charlie Francis he states that using EMS machines over other isokinetic machines for healing injuries makes the recovery much quicker, and that effective EMS treatment “can have the athlete back in action within ten days”.

Rehabilitation: One of the greatest benefits of EMS treatment is its ability to help with rehabilitation.

A lot of injuries take a long time to heal because certain muscle groups are unable to be activated, and this significantly slows down the recovery process. But with an EMS machine, you can animate the inactive muscles and start to increase your muscle strength, helping the overall rehabilitation process.

A 2012 study in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport on the rehabilitation of knee injuries using electrical stimulation, found that after surgery or a serious injury where the knee cannot be used for a prolonged period of time, EMS treatment was “effective in preventing the decreases in muscle strength, muscle mass and the oxidative capacity of thigh muscles following knee immobilisation”. In addition, Francis also concludes in his article that EMS does play a significant role in the rehabilitation of a variety of injuries, but that its value is “poorly understood and underappreciated”.

To achieve the best outcome with your EMS machine it is recommended that you seek professional medical advice from your physiotherapist or sports therapist who specialists in EMS muscle training.