EMS Workouts are Joint-Friendly and Low-Impact
We all face obstacles when transitioning into healthier habits.
When it comes to exercise, the main obstacles are typically time and motivation. We’ve tackled how EMS workouts only take 20 minutes and get you stronger faster in our Stronger Faster Part 1 and Part 2. We will talk about motivation in a future post.
Today we’re going to look into another common obstacle: pains and aches.
I spent a big chunk of my career as an exercise consultant for the Friedman Diabetes Institute where I saw diabetes patients on a regular basis to give them fitness programs they could do on their own.
A few common objections I would hear:
- My knees hurt so I can’t run
- My knees hurt when I walk up the stairs or after sitting on a chair
- My lower back hurts when I walk a lot
- My wrists hurt so I can’t do push-ups
There are other common issues, but the pattern is the same in every case:
- [body part] hurts when [activity], so I avoid it.
Electro muscle stimulation is a great solution for these types of objections.
EMS fitness is considered a “low-impact” activity. Examples of other low-impact activities are swimming, cycling, elliptical, handmill ergs, rowing ergs, shadow boxing (where you are just punching in the air), Pilates, Yoga asana, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, to name a few.
High-impact activities are activities where additional pressure is applied to the joints such as running, anything involving jumping, anything involving hitting something (tennis, boxing), jump rope, most sports, and so on.
Note: with the exception of swimming, you could potentially do all of the activities above, both high and low impact, while wearing an EMS SuperSuit, but I wouldn’t recommend it in every case, especially when the goal is to relax or stretch the muscle.
Let’s take the specific examples above:
- My knees hurt so I can’t run
There’s a saying in fitness that most people run to get in shape, when in fact, you should be in shape in order to run. I don’t agree with this binary thinking, but the point is running is a high-impact activity that I wouldn’t recommend to most people who are just starting their fitness journey especially if it causes any joint pain.
Electro muscle stimulation can help strengthen your legs in order to absorb the high impact of running. The stronger the muscles around your knees, the better the protection. There are many options aside from running that may be more appropriate for your fitness level and more in line with your goals.
- My knees hurt when I walk up the stairs or after sitting on a chair
This is a very common issue. Most people rely too much on their quadriceps (front thigh muscles) to walk up the stairs, stand up from a chair, squatting to use the bathroom, and so on. This happens because the glutes (butt muscles) are not firing, or not firing enough.
EMS workouts can target your glutes making them stronger over time and engaging the hips instead of relying primarily on the knees.
- My lower back hurts when I walk a lot
Similar to the point above, when your glutes aren’t working correctly, your hamstrings and lower back muscles will kick in to compensate. Over time, your hamstrings and lower back muscles get tighter and start causing issues. Imagine an office with three people, if one employee goes on strike, the other two are going to have to work overtime to compensate for the third employee. In this case that third employee, the glutes, also happen to be the strongest of the three, so there’s even more work for the other two to do.
Electro muscle stimulation can reset this muscle imbalance by allowing lower, more relaxing stimulation for the lower back and hamstrings, and a higher, strengthening stimulation for the glutes. Short term, the relaxation will alleviate some of the lower back pain, and long term this strategy will reverse the imbalance, so it doesn’t occur again.
- My wrists hurt so I can’t do push-ups
Working at a desk, or certain manual labor, like massage, will wreak havoc on your wrists. This makes it hard to fully flex the wrists and support your body weight, let alone do push-ups. There are certain ways to circumvent wrist issues in conventional training by doing incline push-ups against a surface like a kitchen counter or park bench or using handles to keep your wrists neutral. However, doing push-ups on an incline also makes them considerably less challenging, so you must increase the number of repetitions. Using handles to keep wrists neutral may make them less stable for your shoulders, increasing the challenge.
EMS fitness is, you guessed it, a superior option to these workarounds and has no limit on how challenging or not it can be. The SuperSuit provides the stimulation needed, so you don’t need to get down on the floor to push against gravity. You can stay up and push against the air, and you will still get stronger. Of course, you can also do push-ups off the floor, and have the stimulation as high or as low as is appropriate for your fitness level.
As you can see, electro muscle stimulation allows for a lot of customization and makes it very accessible for many people to exercise at their individual fitness level regardless of their current limitations.
Please share what exercises or activities you have stopped or needed to change because of pains or aches.
Book a 30-minute call with me to see if EMS would be right for you here: https://calendly.com/conradfitness/30min
Conrad
Director of Education and Technology
conrad@bodybuzzfit.com
Bodybuzz
Bodybuzz combines Certified Personal Training with Electrical Muscle Stimulation, giving your body a deeper, safer, and more effective workout. 20 minutes twice a week is all it takes!
Our personal trainers will guide you through a custom EMS workout designed specifically for you. Whether you’re looking to build strength, lose weight, get toned, or recover from an injury or illness, we offer a safe, low-impact solution to help get you there.
EMS has now been FDA-cleared for use in the US and we are proud to be one of the first companies to introduce this technology. It is a full-body workout that uses a special muscle stimulating suit that sends low-level impulses to your major muscle groups to trigger muscle contractions. It’s a unique sensation that is painless and invigorating. EMS workouts are designed to achieve optimal conditioning, burn fat, develop strength, build muscle, tighten skin, combat cellulite, jump-start your metabolism and restore your body’s natural balance.