My Review on Electric Muscle Stimulation (EMS) - Get Fitter Faster

Some of u may be thinking if it is practically possible to build a superhuman body in short period of time when the movie Captain America 1st came out, in the movie Steve Roger got an instant transformation into a superhuman with the help of electricity stimulation and some secret super human serum, most obviously was the body shape transformation.

The superhuman serum may be experimental, it may be available some where in this world at some mad scientists' lab but may be far from available for normal beings like us, but the electric stimulation has been available since long, in beauty line, physiotherapy, surgery and sports. I would leave the discovery of how electric stimulation helps in beauty and surgery for your own googling and reading, let's focus on sports performance or muscles enhancement for my review here.

It all began with this friend of mine called Karsten who decided to set up EMS gym this year and I haven't really got time to visit him to understand how it works (yes I love my job so much...) and I have always wanted to try it out. Come 2nd half of 2016 (which is quite recently) as I stopped active running to undergo physiotherapy and rest to recover from Achilles tendonitis that has been limiting my running in the past 6 months, Karsten was introducing his new coaches to conduct training on the EMS system, I thought that might be a good time as I notice my core got significantly weaker since I stop training for months, I need all the "cheats" that I can have to help me in getting back in shape for running.

So the 1st session was started on 1st August after I came back from Bali few days ago with very bad food poisoning (affected me for 10 days++), I was feeling weak I decided it was a bad idea to change the appointment date. The whole session took about 60 mins with actual workout of 20 mins only + a 5 mins recovery, the rest of the time was spent on filling up forms and some introduction on the procedures and testing of power.

The place is at Plaza Damas area and well renovated with clean toilet, bathroom and personal locker so you can come straight from work and take shower after the session.

The EMS works by transmitting a small amount of electric pulse to the body surface through a "wet" suit, it is practically wet with some water to make better conductor. The trainer assigned to me is a gentleman called Joe (I do believe you can request for other trainer if you have a preference). I was instructed to fill up some forms (health declaration and risk acceptance etc...basically I just signed myself away anyway) then Joe helped me to suit up.

1st I put the suit by zip and then Joe will tighten the strap around my body by pulling them one by one, followed by putting on conductor strap over my both upper arm (around the biceps and triceps) and both my thigh (around the quads and hamstrings). There is also another big strap to wrap around my butt (glute). Then all the cables will be connected to the straps and we are ready to roll!

Joe watering the suit and straps

the "wet" suit

the arms are strapped and wired

Front look

Rear view, see the cable connected for upper back and lower back ?

The straps on thighs

My suit is then connected to the control module that power the suit and control the output (strength and frequency) of the electricity impulses. Before start, Joe will walk me through on what is the routine and what to expect, he then get me to feel the stimulation by slowly increasing the output zone by zone, from quads to glute, then lower back, upper back, abs, the chest and then the arms, then everything will come at the same time. As different people respond differently to the output, there is no fix stimulation for everyone, Joe will observe my response and adjust accordingly.

Every time when the stimulation kicks in, my muscles will contract for few seconds, I will need to fight back the contraction consciously, that is the basic part, if u read Dragon Ball when you were young, it is like Goku fight back the gravity in the spaceship for him to begin his routine training (basically that's how Secret training supposed to work I guess..). IF you don't fight back, you get frozen by the contractions of your muscles....

the control console, can u see all 8 different controls for different parts of stimulation?

Then comes a series of exercises to be done during the stimulation, it may vary from doing lunges (forward or sideway), pulling (or pushing) resistant bands, squats repeat, carrying weights, twisting arms to the back, raising knees, squeezing silicon balls etc. All these sets of steps help me to focus on muscles contraction voluntarily and take my focus away from EMS stimulation.

before start must pattern while still can

how hard can this be, right?

some simple steps

to fight the EMS stimulation

normal stretching of arms can become a challenge

ok, let's get serious..

U can see the different power output for different zone and the timer

There will rest in between every few seconds of EMS stimulation, basically it is like few seconds of intense workout followed by few seconds of relaxation. I have some pictures taken during the 4 sessions in the past 22 days for your view if you need to SEE how it looks like before deciding to try it out for yourself.

the silicon balls lol

the push

Joe will make sure I do it right when I am tired

Doing some routines, looks easy but not some when the EMS kicks in

How was my experience in the past 4 sessions?

The 1st session was done before SCKLM which was on 1st Aug, it was a shock to the system but for a start Joe didn't put me on high output, the second day I felt a bit tired but it was alright. The 3rd Aug was when the DOMS (Delayed onset of muscles soreness). As the EMS stimulates muscles that I don't normally work out (or rather hard to work out), my lower back felt significantly sore and I was having an outstation trip... Then I recovered on time for SCKLM on 7th Aug.

My second session was after the SCKLM, I was tired from the run but it was generally ok. This time the stimulation was stronger, Joe probably know which part of my body can take higher impulses and the DOMS didn't affect me much as I walked a lot in the next 2 days. My arms felt a bit different and abs felt stronger as I am able to voluntarily contract my muscles.

The 3rd session a week later destroyed me.

I had my worst glute soreness ever in my life (butt soreness)! I basically can't even sit tight, I find it difficult to even raise my legs to wear shoes, to climb stairs and to squat down etc. This stayed on for a week (which included an oversea trip) and I still feel sore!

As I am writing now I just did the 4th session yesterday (yes butt sore but went for it anyway), this session was much harder than before but I felt stronger than before. The butt is still sore but I can feeling great about it now. I am not ready to show physical result yet, may be after 6 session ? But I will certainly try to see the benefit of EMS in my run this Sunday (28th Aug)!

My view of the EMS training?
Even though I know the man behind Fit Orange personally, my view will be 100% neutral. I believe in the science for the technology, there are area of our body that are hard to train, it is natural for us to lift weight or do the machine work out using the dominant muscles that we always use day in day out that we can voluntarily control, it is hard to train those muscles that we hardly work out, in my case, my back and chest. 

EMS stimulation will cover this gap and help to force you to work out on these weaker muscles. Another benefit is we often do not know which is the right intensity for workout, is jumping from 10kg weight to 12kg considered ok? EMS allows the adjustment digitally, every time you grow stronger, it can be increased further to challenge you. On top of that, there are many different routine sets of work out to add on to the stimulation to demand more of you.

Will it help to burn fat and reduce weight? To some extend I believe it will help to burn fat, but as EMS enhance muscles work out and muscles are heavy, weight reduction may not be obvious, may be losing size is more appropriate. 

Will it help in other sports? I yet to find out myself, I know Karsten still run pretty fast despite he trains less on running these days. I was told world class athlete like C. Ronaldo uses this to compliments his training. Killian Jornet use TENS  for recovery from races. I think in general it does helps but do not expect it to replace your need to train for the sports for real, if you need to run, you need to run, EMS helps to strengthen muscles you need for your sports.

Is there any customized program?
I have not explored that option but I do believe there is, for example if I want to build nicer abs then the work out session will focus more on that using the tools available including TRX, there is a lot of tools in this EMS Gym. May be in my next session I shall do something that focus on my arms to see the extra benefit of it.

How much does it cost and is there any package deal?

The cost is from RM 85 per session depending on the package you sign up, for people who shy from the gym because too much of effort to learn how to work out with so many different tools in the gym and time is really limited, this could be money well spent. And for those who wish to further improve their athlete performance (even as amateur), this is one good option.

You can try mention you read this blog and you are a good friend of mine, Karsten may be in good mood for some promotions, just saying but no harm trying, yay? 

Trainer Joe

The man behind this EMS gym, he is much more friendly than his boring face...

For more details, please check out their FB page and contact directly for booking and inquiry:










Facebook page: Fit Orange
Website: http://www.fitorange.com/ 
Location: Jalan Sri Hartamas 1, 50480 Kuala Lumpur
Contact: +6016-923 0540
Available trainers: Karsten , Joe, Nicole (if you prefer a female)

that is Nicole in contraction, I mean, in action. :)