Issue #13: Visionbody EMS for free movement & no empty promises
BLOG: The best booster for muscle activation to perform your best!
Hi everybody,
this time our Visionbody Head of Development, Christina Schmidt, wrote an incredible article about EMS and the power of the Visionbody EMS Technology. I talked to her for quite a long time and this piece of writing is a great summary of the 3-hour talk we had.
I am very happy to share this with you!
Enjoy.
EMS (electric muscle stimulator) devices have been popular for years, promising up to 2-3 hours of training efficiency in 90-95% of the body muscles in just 20 minutes, yet they have not broken into elite sports and more serious sports facilities, although they would particularly have a place there. The cause is very simple, and can now be “cured”.
Although the beneficial effects of electrical impulses on muscles have been known since Emperor Claudius (recognizing the positive impacts of electric shocks on paralyzed muscles), and it is no coincidence that even the first astronauts used it in the state of weightlessness to keep their bodies alive, EMS technology somehow yet didn’t really spread in professional sports and gyms. The reason is very simple. Sport is a most active, dynamic movement, not a still or some static movement.
it can be tempting for an average person to sit in an armchair or stand in front of a machine for 20 minutes and wait for a “miracle to happen”, but for an athlete, this is not the purpose at all. For them, the result and the performance' improvement is the only important goal.
Unfortunately, “thanks” to cable machines, EMS technology became more and more the "lazies' sport", and it was clear that it can not be taken seriously in elite sports. The rehabilitation effect already known from medicine (thanks to TENS devices) remained the best use in the field.
Recognizing this market lapse, the Visionbody Power Driven Training EMS was created, where the focus is still on the sport, the athletes, and it serves only as a catalyst, a booster (a gal doping) making training more effective, reducing joint strain, and shortening training time. The movement is completely free, there are no distracting cables and no empty promises.
Henri Schmidt, the visionary and creator of the Visionbody brand, was himself an athlete who trained together with e.g. Arnold Schwarzenegger for „some” years.
How does It work?
It is not to doubt that EMS has only beneficial effects. The only question is how and in what form we use it.
Most of our body is driven by electrical impulses.
Instructions from the brain can be delivered directly through the skin to the muscle, adipose tissue, and cells.
If we use only low frequency, like today’s trendy EMS machines and medical TENS devices do, we are talking only about stimulation. The nerve endings under the skin surface simply respond to the stimulus. This is done locally, under a given connecting head, depending on the manufacture, on 8-12 major muscle groups in the body.
What is low-frequency EMS good for and how does it work?
I would briefly summarize the operation of electrical muscle stimulation as follows: an external (through the skin), small-strength, electrical impulse causes the muscles to contract and then relax. The pulses are created by a device that is delivered to the body through an electrode that contacts the skin. These impulses mimic the action potential from the central nervous system, so the muscles contract as if the information had been delivered to them by the brain. The difference is that this method bypasses the body’s energy-saving system, so it does not limit the percentage of fibers that are activated. Therefore, EMS can activate muscle fibers in much larger amounts. BUT! Only through the subcutaneous upper nerve endings.
for muscle regeneration, to relieve muscle pain: muscle stimulation produces heat, which speeds up blood circulation in the area, thus helping to remove waste products. EMS can help athletes minimize muscle stiffness, cramping, and general peripheral fatigue.
to heal muscle injuries: increased circulation helps to transport nutrients to the injured part, thus speeding up the recovery of muscle fibers.
to strengthen weak muscles (during rehabilitation, in case of muscle atrophy): muscle contraction has the same effect as performing reinforcement on a given muscle group. EMS can be an ideal alternative when it is not possible to perform natural movements. For example, in an injury where the limb needs to be rested. In this case, electrical muscle stimulation can be used safely. It doesn’t strain the joint, yet it can train the muscles around it so they don’t lose weight. This speeds up rehabilitation, as you don’t have to spend extra time rebuilding muscle mass.
to increase performance: electrical muscle stimulation can result in a stronger and clearer contraction than one can voluntarily. It is especially important to mention that with the help of the device we can train fast or slow muscle fibers in a targeted way, as they are activated at different frequencies. However, it should not be overlooked that this creates an uncoordinated contraction and therefore does not in itself increase athletic performance. Muscle stimulation only achieves the desired effect if it is properly integrated into the training program and if the middle frequency is also used.
And that's the point! The middle frequency! Low frequency alone is not enough to achieve sports and full-body muscle recovery goals as it cannot be deep-acting and training/treatment specific. But if we take advantage of the beneficial effect of the mid-frequency (in the range around 2000-7000 Hz) it becomes really deep and effective. And don't be scared to hear about 2000Hz !!! In medicine, this type of frequency is used between 2,000 and 10,000 Hz to have a beneficial effect on even bone tissues or just to cure incontinence.
Let's be honest!
Didn't you happen to believe in the professional sports world that 1 program at 85Hz can't work wonders for everyone?! Grandma, overweight mom, exhausted manager, professional boxer, ballerina can’t get the same program for different purposes. There is a different path to each goal. You don’t need a doctor to know that a football player needs a different workout than a swimmer, a handball player, or a mom with 3 kids. This is what the Visionbody training system keeps in mind, where thanks to the different training forms and frequency combinations, we can produce different types of stimulations, taking into account the need for different loads for each personal body part. In team sports, we can train or rehabilitate the team at the end of a match, yet on an individual, body-specific level.
Visionbody has created a free system that helps its users to achieve the desired goal with 32 different training programs (their number is constantly expanding), muscle, endurance building, fat burning, rehabilitation, massage, etc.
The body-fitting dress activates our muscle, adipose tissue, and cells in the main areas (not just below 1-1 connected point !!!) with the help of a special silver fiber pad. That is, it has not only a muscle-building and fat-burning effect but also a cell-activating, i.e. rejuvenating impact. With the help of Bluetooth technology, we can train freely anywhere. We only need the internet to log in. Afterward, we can train anyplace, be it the football field, the beach, or the high mountain air.
Seeing the training results and progress, the coach can quickly and efficiently analyze and change the training program.
What are the main advantages of professional sports?
Without straining the joints, we can effectively increase endurance, throwing force, explosiveness by an average of 20-25%. Shock, but true! It is no coincidence that the technology was already before the doping committee. But there is no argument against it. It would be like putting the human brain on a doping list since the electrical impulses originally come from the brain. Visionbody simply shortened this path through the skin. But it’s just useful and healthy, nothing artificial, nothing chemical.
For soccer players: increases endurance, explosiveness
For handball: the throwing force
For golfers: compensates for imbalances, increases hitting power.
And one more reason why everyone should use it as adjunctive therapy because it helps to improve the brain’s learning process. The brain needs approximately 10,000 repetitions to learn how to perform a particular movement the fastest and most efficiently. This can also be accelerated by the device.
If you have any training related questions please post them in the comment section. I would love to answer them!
Stay healthy. We talk soon.
Johannes.
Thanks Christina and Johannes!
Very instructive document!