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I have heard of a well respected coach using EMS for the development of power characteristics in sprinters. Can anyone explain what the proposed mechanism for its use is and how or why it could possibly work. Also, if anyone has a sample protocol that might be helpful in helping me understand.
ELITETRACK Founder
Check dis out:
https://www.t-mag.com/nation_articles/159ems.html
EMS bypasses the CNS and creates a contraction larger that you can create on your own. EMS should be used in the 3rd and 4th weeks of a max strength cycle. You set the unit on the highest contraction you can withstand for 10 seconds followed by 50 second rest. You do this 10 times for each muscle group. Groups to be worked could be hamstrings,quads,feet,glutes,lower back and abs.
I acutally just purchased my own EMS unit. So far i have only used it for recovery in place of massage.
jj,
For recovery you set it on constant (pulse) mode or set it like a pumping action… It feel like massage and acts the same as it promotes blood flow and can loosen muscles.
I fully understand the use of EMS for recovery and rehab and have used it on myself and athletes but am still very skeptical about its use for strength enhancement. I will post my problems with it tonight but in the meantime, does anyone have any experience using EMS with the intent of directly enhancing strength, and if so, what were your results like.
ELITETRACK Founder
Most of you probably realized that the well-respected sprint coach I mentioned in my first post was the same one (Charlie Francis) who wrote the article posted by Pete. I had read a less in-depth explanation of its use by the same author many years ago and thought that perhaps my skepticism was due to my lack of understanding on the matter. This more thorough article though only makes me more doubtful of any potential strength benefits from EMS. In fact, I've since done a quick google search for some support of the use of EMS for strength development and everything has fallen into one of two categories:
This has made me more skeptical for the following reasons:
If anyone has anything to add to the contrary I'm very open-minded about this but I will at the very least need some anecdotal evidence to support any of the claims made in the above article, in Charlie's books, or by any of the manufacturers of these products. Also, I just wanted to point out that the preface to T-mag article is used word for word by several companies attempting to sell EMS units (for example see here[/url]). I'm not sure who copied what from whom but all of the supporting evidence on both sites is unreferenced (???nonexistant???) and anecdotal in nature.
Finally, here are some more open-ended questions to spark some debate on this interesting topic:
I'm heading to the library tomorrow and will see if I can find any literature pointing one way or the other.
ELITETRACK Founder
Mike, I think it is safe to say that Charlie was way ahead of the conventional training methods that most have used because science says so. I cant say that EMS provides strength gains because I havent used it for a long enough period of time. I went to Charlies Vancouver seminar and Charlie hooked up my quads. He went 10sec. on and 10sec. off. During each contraction he also had me voluntarily flex my quads. I was a little sore 2-3 days later, which doesnt mean much but maybe if used for the 3 weeks I would have noticed some strength:(
The use of EMS in speed power is not an effective tool save elite athletes (Olympic A standard).
I would look at Alon et al 1987,
Stefanoska and Vodavnik 1985,
It only works for male athletes (see or female athletes that have similar "aspects". It is more effective on impaired muscle. I will share my opinions later….what is it worth? Two or three hundreths at most for production.
[i]Originally posted by mike[/i]
Finally, here are some more open-ended questions to spark some debate on this interesting topic:[list]
[*]Previous literature has indicated that the one form of strength (for example eccentric) is not a reliable predictor or indicator of other forms of strength (for example concentric). If we do assume that EMS can develop strength in athletes, is there any reason to think that the strength gains would be anything more than gains in isometric strength?
[*]Can strength developed in such a non-functional manner (no movement, isolated muscles, etc.) have any impact on performance in the real world?
[*]Even if the exact same protocol is used for every muscle group, is it likely that the strength gains will be uniform across all muscle groups?
[*]Is it possible that development of particular muscle groups (only superficial muscles can be stimulated) without the concurrent development of other muscles in that same limb may result in strength imbalances (not left:right; but one muscle to another) that could negatively affect performance?
[/list]
Those are some well thought of, world class questions.
To be honest, I have not gone beyond using EMS for recovery and rehab, because of the issues you have addressed.
With all due respect to Charlie, his greatest athlete (Ben) has achieved world class times with the assistance of AS, while using heavy weights and some plyo/drills -including sprinting. For me, those things had more of effect on his power. Take away the EMS, and I still think Ben would have run just as fast.
Don't believe me, lets look at Maurice Greene 9.79, Tim Montgomery 9.78. As far as I know they use, weights plyo/drills and sprinting, MINUS EMS for power development.
Does EMS work for power development? Maybe -although I doubt it. Personally, I would rather spend my energy and time using the more PROVEN methods of power development.
Mo and Tim? Who here has watched those guys train for more then one week?
I live out here and have converse with Graham about training. And its safe to say that he does not use EMS for power development.
……
Fair enough!
The question is:
Are you saying that Tim and Mo did in fact use EMS to develop power?
If you can validate that Graham was incorrect and indeed they did use EMS as a power development tool. Then, I am willing to retract my statements and change my mind about EMS as a power development tool.
After all, I am open-minded.
I would also be interested to know if Tim used EMS prior to his WR and if so, how can we tell that EMS is the reason (or one of the reasons) for his improvement and not the many other factors (technical, etc.) that his new coach brought to the table.
Also, I did some research and only found support for using EMS in rehab, recovery, postural realignment in the cases of severe scoliosis, and the prevention of muscle wasting. The only reports I found of its value in strength development were actually for inactive or debilitated individuals. There are several however that had results opposing those of Kots.
To be fair though, there were a couple studies indicating the potential for strength gains in isometric strength (including those references given by Phoenix). Also, Mel Siff's well-respected Super Training suggests that it may be of value for strength development but the references he cites are Russian and perhaps unpublished. Mel tended to often use references to unpublished (non-peer reviewed) studies or Russian studies that can't be found in the U.S. (as is the case with the Kots study). I would assume that these too were gains in isometric strength which then comes back to one of my original questions about the value of EMS because isometric strength gains have been shown to have little relationship with dynamic (eccentric or concentric)strength. In fact, isometric strength gains have been shown to be specific to the particular angles (+/- 15 degrees) that was trained.
ELITETRACK Founder
Everyone should keep EMS in the back of their mind until they know everything else in their program is nearly perfect. Many things can be done before the use of EMS is necessary. Im sure that BJ was a pretty highly trained athlete before Charlie thaought the use of EMS was necessay to make gains.
Everyone….
I will add this to rlab….mike feel free to syndicate my xml feed.
Mike-
Just looking through book I picked up at library last week:
Strength and Power in Sport edited by Komi, Vol. III of Encyclopaedia of Sports Medicine, IOC Medical Commission Publication, 1991.
Chp. 14 is "Use of electrical stimulation in strength and power training" by Dudley and Harris. Have just glanced through that chapter but does basically a review of various articles and is littered with citations at end of the chapter which may provide you with more info.
they do have several it looks like that support ems strength gains, Delitto is one.
email if you like and if tiger land does not have, i can break the law and snail mail chapter to you.
Thanks Todd,
I'll check it out. I'm sure we probably have it but if not I'll give you a call. The question however is if any of those strength gains are anything more than increased isometric torque or torque on a dynamometer.
ELITETRACK Founder
what they summarize, Delitto study, showed increases during EMS application, for 1RM Squat max(20kg). clean and jerk also increase.
study was with weightlifter who competed in 84 Oly. one caveat was that normal training took place during this time. EMS was of isometric actions.
I haven't read it yet as LSU doesn't seem to have it, but that sounds like about the worst methodology one could possibly come up with to study the effects of EMS on strength gains. It would be ridiculous to make any kinds of conclusions on that due to the limited sample size, lack of control subjects, and compounding factors (training, etc.).
ELITETRACK Founder
[i]Originally posted by Phoenix[/i]
I would look at Alon et al 1987,
Stefanoska and Vodavnik 1985,
Carl-
I've only found one thing by Alon in 1987 and it's a letter rather than an article and I can't find anything by Stefanoska and Vodavnik. If you have the full references can you please provide them.
ELITETRACK Founder
Todd is always trying to break the law 🙂
But more seriously, can anyone provide more info about the suitability of EMS for rehab and recovery? As it seems the machines are somewhat affordable is it akin to massage? Is it better than massage? Is it something that you'd use along wiith other soft tissue techniques (e.g., Strain-Counterstrain, ART, Myofascial Release) .
Are there situations when it works great and vice-versa?
I have found that EMS has done more to support strength then to build it. It takes hundreds of hours of ems work to get the results.
"Todd is always trying to break the law"
honestly officer i didn't know that was in the trunk.
Mike-
Several I see in references of Komi book that could give you some answers–
Kramer & Mendryk (1982). Electrical stimulation as a strength improvement technique: a review. Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. 4, 91-98.
Delitto & Snyde-Mackler (1990). Two theories of muscle strength augmentation using percutaneous electrical stimulation. Physical Therapy, 70, 158-64.
Laughman, Youdas, Garrett & Chao. (1983) Strength changes in the normal quadriceps femoris muscle as a result of electrical stimulation. Physical Therapy 63, 494-499.
and good luck on this one…
Kots & Chwilon (1971). Muscle training with the electrical stimulation method. Teoriya i Prakitka Fizicheskoi Kultury USSA 3/4.
[i]Originally posted by Phoenix[/i]
I have found that EMS has done more to support strength then to build it. It takes hundreds of hours of ems work to get the results.
Are you talking about when using it as recovery? From your experience its not anywhere close to massage for those that can't afford it?
An article on EMS has been added to the site. It can be found by clicking here. I will post the findings of my research on to this topic when I get a chance.
ELITETRACK Founder
A quick rundown of what I've found regarding EMS and strength gains:
ELITETRACK Founder
I have a compex sport 400 unit which is a high tech EMS device. The information I get from the Australia distributor who is a medical doctor who has researched it carefully is that the devices
Charlie must have used were the older technology models.
The new devices like the Sport 400 I have use a great range of pulse frequencies and protocols to produce a great range of effects.
I had a sprints female now with a PB of 11.3h use the device during the strength and power phases and it certainly did not have detrimental effects.
One of the claimed benefits is that is can stimulate development of hard to activate fast twitch fibres and enhance synchronisation of fibres. This is done without CNS involvement and the athlete does not have to worry abt neural fatigue. The frequency of impulse on some settings is too fast to switch on slow fibres so in some cases only fast twitch fibres are activated.
I have to admit i supply them via my website so people may also consider me to be biased . However I am convinced for certain that it is useful in recovery. It is isolating muscles in unspecific ways but I suppose to a lesser degree so is any form of weight training.
One of the question marks about the compex ems units is that they claim to be able to enhance capillarisation on certain settings which may make them useful for endurance events.
regards
Steve Bennett
http://www.oztrack.com
I agree with Steve that EMS can be used for recovery and enhancement of general capacities. I've actually discussed this several times on the forum. I think one benefit for EMS could be as a form of general strength substitute. What I'm weary of is enhancement of strength and speed in well-trained athletes.
ELITETRACK Founder
