Is Electrical Muscle Stimulation Training Good for Dancers?
When you think of strength training for dancers, you likely conjure images of a Pilates reformer, or some exercises with light weights. But for Tracy Shibata, a commercial dancer currently on tour with P!NK, strength training looks a bit different. You’ll often find Shibata wearing a full-body Katalyst suit, performing simple exercises as the suit sends low-frequency electrical currents to her muscles to stimulate them.
The workout is called electrical muscle stimulation training, and though it’s new as a fitness trend in the U.S., it uses a technique dancers may already be familiar with in physical therapy and rehabilitation settings, says Krista Austin, PhD, CSCS, a sports scientist and exercise physiologist, as it is often used to support the musculature around an injury so that it does not atrophy.
EMS caught on as a full-body workout in Europe in the early 2000s, and now it’s taking hold in the U.S., with boutique EMS studios popping up all over the country and companies like Katalyst offering at-home EMS options. As a quick and low-to-no-impact workout, it makes sense that EMS already has devoted dancer followers like Shibata. Here are the potential benefits—and drawbacks—dancers should know about before trying EMS.
What EMS Is Like
An EMS session involves putting on undergear and a suit (which can include shorts, a vest, and armbands) that’s slightly wet. Yes, wet: Water conducts electricity, and once electrodes are connected to the suit corresponding to the major muscle groups (biceps, triceps, quads, glutes, pectorals, abdominals, etc.), an external control system can be used to send impulses to those muscles, stimulating the nerves that make them contract.
A coach or trainer will help walk you through just how much current you need—a low dose feels like a light buzzing, whereas a high one feels more intense. Throughout an EMS session, you perform simple bodyweight exercises (like squats, bicep curls, and lunges) that correspond to the electric impulses. (So you might move through a squat for four seconds as you receive the impulse and your muscles contract, then have four seconds of rest.)
Sessions typically only last 20 minutes and can end with a few minutes of recovery: You might stand, lie down, or lightly stretch as the electric current pulses your muscles like a gentle massage.
The Potential Benefits for Dancers
Muscle recruitment: “Usually, our strongest muscle fibers take over the task,” says Chris John, an internationally certified EMS trainer and the owner of Volts & Amps EMS studio in Sloatsburg, New York. “So let’s say with our bicep, we keep training the same 60 percent of that muscle fiber over and over again. EMS helps recruit weaker muscle fibers and strengthen them.”
Low to no impact: If the reason you strength-train is to prevent injuries when you’re dancing, you don’t want that strength-training routine to pose a high injury risk. EMS eliminates many of those injury concerns: There are no heavy weights (or any weights at all, usually), no jumping, and little to no impact on the joints, which is ideal for dancers, says Arianna Lionetti, a New York–area dance teacher who uses EMS weekly. “As a dancer, you’re constantly doing high-impact work that’s so strenuous on your joints,” she says. “EMS is a less stressful way for your body to improve.”
Mind–body connection: Most dancers have had the experience of being told to engage a certain muscle but feeling unsure about where, exactly, that muscle is, or what it feels like to use it. EMS can help build a mind–body connection that can give dancers more control over and knowledge of their muscles, says Lionetti, which she says helps her both in the gym (when she’s working out sans EMS) and in the dance studio. “Instead of someone pointing at your muscle and telling you to contract it, the EMS does it for you,” she says. “It allowed me to be like, ‘Oh, that’s what that feels like.’ It gives you a target of how your body is supposed to feel during an exercise.” Shibata agrees: “In dance, there are a lot of movements you can do by using the inappropriate muscles, and over time that’s more wear and tear on your body,” she says. “Knowing how to move in an efficient and correct way is really important, and you don’t always understand that by just watching someone do it.”
Recovery and mobility: Though both Shibata and Lionetti admit they were quite sore after their first few EMS sessions, both anecdotally share that now the workout leaves their bodies feeling more loose and mobile than a traditional strength-training session, which may come with more tightness. “When you’re working out, it’s like a deep-tissue massage at the same time,” says John. “You come out and you feel energized, your lymphatic system is open. It’s not like traditional weight training, where you feel like you need to stretch afterwards.”
The Possible Risks
Though using EMS technology that has been cleared by the FDA should generally be safe, there are risks of overdoing it. Rare cases of rhabdomyolysis (or severe muscle damage) have been linked to EMS (though other high-intensity forms of exercise can also lead to this condition). Austin says there’s also a risk of EMS overtraining small muscles and ligaments not built for so much stimulus, which can cause inflammation and wear and tear.
The Bottom Line
EMS is still relatively new technology, and there’s not yet sufficient research to back up claims some brands make about its effectiveness. And, says John, it’s only meant to support, not entirely replace, training you’re already doing.
If you want to try EMS, ensure the technology you’re using has been cleared by the FDA, and that you’re working with a certified and competent trainer who can educate you about the contraindications (which include pregnancy) and ensure that you’re not getting more intensity than your body can handle. Start slow, suggests Shibata—even if it feels like you’re not doing much at first. “You have to recognize that you’re still doing hard work,” she says. “Just a different kind of hard work than a dancer is used to.”
