Effects of whole-body ELECTROMYOSTIMULATION on health and performance: a systematic review

Abstract

Background Whole-body electrical myostimulation (WB-EMS) is a relatively recent training methodology that has been extraordinarily used in recent years. However, there is a lack of consensus on the effectiveness of WB-EMS in the situations in which its use has been largely popularized. The objective of this systematic review was to determine the effects produced by WB-EMS. Methods A search of PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and Cochrane was performed to identify all the studies that have applied electrical stimulation in lower and upper limbs simultaneously and that have clearly presented their protocols for the training and application of the stimulation. The last search was performed on September 9, 2018. Studies written in English or German were included. Results A total of 21 articles met the inclusion criteria and were analyzed following the guidelines of the Cochrane Guide for Systematic Reviews. Nineteen studies analyzed the chronic effects of WB-EMS, and 2 analyzed acute effects with a total of 505 subjects (310 men and 195 women). In total, 35% were moderately trained, and 65% were sedentary subjects. Different dependent variables were studied, such as anthropometric parameters, strength parameters, energy expenditure, psychophysiological parameters and blood parameters. There is a lack of randomized controlled studies, and the studies included exhibit a moderate to high level of risk of bias. Conclusions Given the limited number of available studies on WB-EMS, the scarce amount of scientific evidence found does not allow definitive conclusions about its effects; therefore, future studies about WB-EMS are necessary. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12906-019-2485-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Impact of Active Recovery and Whole-Body Electromyostimulation on Blood-Flow and Blood Lactate Removal in Healthy People

“…Further, the absence of positive effect in some outcomes could partly be attributed to methodological concerns such as the arbitrary choice of stimulation intensity and chosen duty cycle. While in previous studies investigating WB-EMS protocols no information about the level of impulse intensity (mA) was given (Pano-Rodriguez et al, 2019), it should be recognized that the level of intensity needed to induce muscle contractions varied significantly in each participant. Moreover, the response to these types of stimulations used to show a high degree of interindividual variability which lead to time-courses of recovery and a high degree of variability between subjects in the levels of fatigue.…”

Effects of Whole-Body Electromyostimulation on Physical Fitness in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…This prolonged treatment had the disadvantage that the control group had long periods of inactivity, which could make the treatments not comparable, but the results of these authors show a similar trend to those obtained in the present study. However, we consider that any analysis of the isolated effect of the WB-EMS should guarantee the comparability of the treatments of both groups, as indicated by Pano-Rodriguez et al [57] and so we did.…”

Effects of Whole Body Electromyostimulation on Physical Fitness and Health in Postmenopausal Women: A Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Unfortunately, the high risk of bias of some of the previous studies leads to little evidence regarding the effectiveness of training with WB-EMS (68). So, there is a need for new studies which ensure the use of protocols compatible with a rigorous scientific methodology.…”