Electrical Muscle Stimulation Decoded

As seen in Yahoo! and Women’s Health, exercise physiologist and Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Alexander Rothstein, Ed.D., comments on electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), or sending electrical impulses to the body’s muscles. According to Rothstein, the practice—which requires wearing a specialized suit containing electrode pads—triggers bodily muscles to artificially contract, independent of the brain, and “actually could have some benefit in teaching the brain that it’s OK to allow a muscle to contract harder.”

Rothstein explains that while EMS should not be one’s primary form of exercise, it is acceptable for occasional use.

“We can use muscle contraction with this technique to potentially gain strength and activate more muscle,” he says. “It does seem to actually cause some level of adaptation where we grow some muscle.”