When Prime Personal Training studio owner Terra Jeffery got her hands on technology that stimulates muscles with electrical pulses, she knew it could help her clients in a unique way.
Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), also known as neuromuscular electrical stimulation, uses electrical pulses to facilitate muscle contractions. Jeffery’s clients put a suit on, covering their chest, abdomen, back, thighs and biceps. The suit, created by the company i-Motion, is wirelessly connected to an application that allows users to target certain muscle groups, undergo specific workouts and even see approximately how many calories have been burned.
“There are many different reasons why one would use EMS training,” Jeffery said. “One would be the most common, which is muscle strength and endurance. The second would be rehabilitation. The third would be to improve blood circulation. The fourth would be muscle relaxation and pain relief. And the fifth reason would be time-efficient workouts because these workouts are only 25 minutes.”
This past weekend, Jeffery visited her daughter in New York and brought one of her EMS suits along for the ride. During the days Jeffery was away, she said she burned nearly 2,000 calories, using a yoga mat and a pair of three-pound dumbbells. EMS turns the dial up on how the body is able to burn calories, Jeffery noted.
Her current goal is to create a clientele list in three different locations: New York, Atlanta and South Florida.
“Eventually my goal is to have one of my other trainers kind of run the gym here [Gainesville], and I would like to open up EMS-only training studios in different locations,” Jeffery said.
An i-Motion setup costs $10,000 and comes with three different suit sizes, a battery box that gets attached to the suit for power, a belt and the ability to connect to a tablet or other handheld device to manage the electrical pulses.
While EMS is not a new technology in and of itself, the full-body suit-style equipment is beginning to catch on in the United States. To Jeffery, a major selling point for the i-Motion suit is that it boasts the ability to track calories burned. She uses this as a factor in gathering new clients, and in some cases, even selling additional suits.
“I'm also a distributor for the entire southeast, so anybody within the southeast that wants to purchase a suit, that lead will be given to me,” Jeffery said.
Jeffery’s clients are a mixed bag: some are younger individuals looking to gain strength and muscle tone while burning away excess fat, and some are older adults using EMS as a form of rehabilitation therapy and pain treatment.
One older gentleman she works with was in a debilitating car accident years ago and has suffered from lower back and neck pain since the incident. He has now been using EMS for over three months, and reports little to no pain, according to Jeffery.
“That makes me so happy when I hear these success stories,” Jeffery said. “So he trains with me one day a week. And he reports that he has no pain at all. And he says he never wants to stop training with me, as a matter of fact, he wants to buy one for himself. Because he never wants to stop using it.”
Another woman Jeffery works with several times a week suffers from neuropathy, stenosis and vein disease, making it incredibly difficult for the client to walk. After using EMS for roughly three months now, Jefferey says the woman is seeing huge improvements in her blood circulation, with the coloring coming back into the client's feet.
For that client, Jeffery has her wear the i-Motion suit and go on a 25-minute walk outside twice a week, paired with some minor arm pumps to engage her biceps, triceps and shoulders.
Jeffery uses the suit herself three times a week and reports seeing major benefits, including better sleep.
“I was hooked as soon as I did it, and I came back to Georgia, and I ordered my EMS suit a couple of days later,” Jeffery said. “I started training myself in EMS, in March … so in five months, I've lost an inch and a half in my waist, and I'm much leaner.”
According to information provided by i-Motion, EMS activates approximately 90% of a person’s muscle fibers during a workout session. This number is drawn in comparison to a reported 50% muscle activation rate for conventional training.
Jeffery opened Prime Personal Training in Gainesville in 2018 after becoming certified as a personal trainer five years prior. She holds multiple certifications, including one in neuromuscular stretching from the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2023/7/1194906/a-shocking-way-to-work-electrical-muscle-stimulation-available-at-local-fitness-studio