Training with electrostimulation enhances results for fat loss, while maximising your maintenance or increase in muscle mass.
Whether you are considering starting an exercise programme to lose weight or you are an exercise professional, it is important to be clear about what the keys are that guarantee fat loss prevent the loss of muscle as well as possible effects that you want to avoid during the process.
Keys to losing weight in a healthy way
Our work will always be aimed at maximising the loss of fat tissue and maintaining the quality and quantity of muscle tissue.
Diets with controlled calorie intake restrictions and an increase in energy consumption through movement are the foundations of fat loss.
Both the activity you carry out each day (walking, climbing stairs, household chores, shopping…) and training in a controlled way matter when it comes to increasing your energy consumption.
However, we must bear in mind that in many cases this results in a loss of muscle mass and even strength in many people. What if there was a way of preventing this? What if I could be stronger and slimmer by adding electrostimulation to my training.
Electrostimulation is your best ally to get slimmer, as a complementary therapy to your healthy diet and lifestyle.Having the support of skilled professionals will help to increase the effectiveness of the process and look after your health. If these professionals have a tool as powerful as electrostimulation (EMS), your results and fun can get to the next level.
What does electrostimulation contribute to my fat loss?
The advances in this technology, its new forms of being applied and new research have a direct consequence:
- Greater training adherence (that is to say, you don’t skip training)
- Improved personalisation of training.
- It increases the variety of possible forms of training and, therefore, also the fun and effectiveness of the exercise programmes.
- It increases your energy consumption both during exercise and after it.
- It makes it possible to easily combine cardio and strength training during any exercise.
Consequently, electrostimulation the muscular electrostimulator could be a very effective tool for people who have little time to train and little motivation or training habits .
Recent studies have confirmed that WB-EMS has an effect on hypertrophy, muscle strength and fat loss that is comparable to high intensity resistance training.
It is important to emphasise that these studies show how these reductions in fat do not entail a loss of muscle. Furthermore, if used correctly muscle mass can be increased.
Electrostimulation can be used to get slimmer
Do you want evidence of its effectiveness? We now want to explain the main keys of a study where using electrostimulation, it was possible to improve body composition during energy restriction, by increasing physical activity in daily life and protein intake.
This study is particularly interesting for women, as in their weight loss programmes it is common not to consider muscle mass, which is a highly important factor for their health and appearance.
This study involved the participation of 90 women aged between 25 and 50 who were overweight. The procedure was applied for 16 weeks.
The 90 women were divided at random into three groups:
Control Group (n=30): negative energy balance due to energy restriction with a compensatory protein intake.
PA group (n=30): in this group the subjects had a negative energy balance due to energy restriction with a greater intake of protein. They also increased their regular physical activity in day-to-day life. They increased their daily activity by 250 kcal/day by doing more daily steps and their normal walking rate.
EMS Group (n=30): the group with electrostimulation, in addition to the same energy consumption and increase in daily physical activity as the PA group, carried out 1.5 training sessions a week, each lasting 20 minutes. That is to say, they trained every Tuesday and Friday one week and then didn’t the next.
All the groups had a calorie deficit of -500 kcal/day with a protein intake of 1.2 g/kg in the control group and 1.7 g/kg in the PA group and WB-EMS group.
The training with electrostimulation in this study was simple and suitable for beginners
Exercises with a low-impact on joints were carried out such as: squats, torso bends and chest flies.
The duration of the first session was 12 mins and the total time was gradually increased by 2 mins every session until the fifth session where the maximum time of 20 mins was reached, which was maintained for the rest of the programme.
In order to adjust the intensity of the electrostimulation, the Borg scale out of 10 was applied, with 5 (strong) and 7 (very strong). Every 2-3 mins the trainers asked to adjust the intensity, in order not to enter the accommodation phase.
This form of training allows the user and the trainer to control the training intensity very easily and with effectiveness that is backed by science.
Results and conclusion
The only group that increased its muscle mass was the group that trained with electrostimulation
At the end of the process it was seen that lean mass reduced in the control group and in the PA group but increased in the WB-EMS group. As for fat mass, it significantly reduced among all the groups.
The combination of WB-EMS and a high intake of protein with a moderate energy deficit is an effective method for significantly improving body composition in premenopausal women who are overweight after a moderate energy deficit.
Information note: In this study it is not specified if the participants in the study underwent prior adaptation to WB-EMS. Therefore, at Wiemspro we advise that before applying a WB-EMS training protocol, it is necessary to undergo an adaptation period with a frequency of less than 50 Hz without reaching electrostimulation intensities that can cause severe exhaustion during at least 6-8 sessions.
