A weekly training session with whole body electronic muscle stimulation (WB-EMS) can reduce cardiovascular disease risk in healthy adults.

WB-EMS sends impulses to muscles via electrodes, simultaneously engaging more muscles than with traditional workouts. It also prompts a more complete muscle contraction, which uses more muscle fibres.

Undertaken by the Mayo Foundation and funded by Miha Bodytec, the research recruited two groups of adults to take part in a 20 minute exercise session for 16 weeks. Half of the participants did exercises with WB-EMS and half without. The average age of those participating in the study was 35.9, with 61 per cent being female. There was an even split in terms of age and gender across the two groups and all the participants were healthy.

While former studies had shown EMS can increase muscle mass, reduce fat mass and improve functional capacity in sedentary people, this study sought to establish whether or not it could also reduce cardiovascular risk and if it might be a viable way of training for physically inactive individuals.

The training sessions were performed by certified PTs and involved a fixed number of exercises and repetitions. A number of clinically important cardiovascular parameters were measured at baseline and post-intervention.

Researchers concluded that one weekly physical training session using WB-EMS in healthy adults resulted in either improved or stable biomarkers of cardiovascular risk, which remained stable, or worsened, in those undergoing conventional training alone. As a result, it could be an effective and time-efficient form of physical training to consider for those who are unable or unwilling to exercise in conventional ways.

Specific improvements included reduced waist-hip ratio; reduced cholesterol; improved anaerobic and aerobic conditioning, better blood flow through blood vessels and a 25 per cent increase in Max Force.

The study’s full name is Physical training augmented with whole body muscle stimulation favourably impacts cardiovascular biomarkers in healthy adults and is published in International Journal of Cardiology.