Impact of Whole Body Electromyostimulation on Velocity, Power and Body Composition in Postmenopausal Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

<jats:p>Menopause is associated with losses in strength and power along with weight and fat mass gains, which may result from menopause-related hormonal changes, aging-associated diseases, and decreased physical activity time. The objective of this study is to analyze if whole-body electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) is suitable for the prevention and treatment of postmenopausal physical deterioration. Thirty-four healthy sedentary women between 55 and 69 years followed an experimental design pre-post test. Both groups conducted 10 weeks of aerobic and strength training program. The experimental group conducted the training with superimposed WB-EMS during exercise. At the end of the intervention, the experimental group obtained better power (Squat: mean difference (MD) = 38.69 W [1.75,75.62], d = 0.81; Bench press: MD = 25.64 W [17.48, 33.82], d = 2.39) and velocity (Squat: MD = 0.04 m·s−1 [0.01, 0.08], d = 0.98; Bench press: MD = 0.10 m·s−1 [0.06, 0.14], d = 1.90) score improvements than the other group (pBonferroni &lt; 0.05). Furthermore, trivial to small effects were found in the body composition of the participants of both groups (p &gt; 0.050). WB-EMS showed a favorable isolated effect on the development of power and velocity, but it induced negligible effects on the body composition of postmenopausal women.</jats:p>

Efficacy of Whole-Body Electromyostimulation (WB-EMS) on Body Composition and Muscle Strength in Non-athletic Adults. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…However, independently of this aspect, WB-EMS can be classified predominately as a resistance type exercise. Correspondingly, most studies determined the effect of WB-EMS on lean body mass (LBM), muscle strength, and function (e.g., Kemmler et al, 2014Kemmler et al, , 2016bAmaro-Gahete et al, 2019a;Jee, 2019;Pano-Rodriguez et al, 2020a), but also on body fat (e.g., Vatter, 2010;Kemmler et al, 2018a;Schink et al, 2018;Jee, 2019;Bellia et al, 2020;Ricci et al, 2020) and less frequently, albeit largely successfully, to address cardiometabolic parameters (e.g., Kemmler et al, 2016c,d;Jee, 2018;Bellia et al, 2020) and metabolism (e.g., Kemmler et al, 2010bKemmler et al, , 2012. In parallel, although several studies focus on athletic performance in younger adults (e.g., Filipovic et al, 2016Filipovic et al, , 2019Amaro-Gahete et al, 2018b;D'Ottavio et al, 2019;Wirtz et al, 2019;Ludwig et al, 2020), the vast majority of WB-EMS trials address the health and fitness domain in predominately untrained, middleaged to older adults (Kemmler et al, 2020b).…”

Bibliometric Analysis of Studies on Whole Body Electromyostimulation

“…In some randomized clinical trials, the experimental group significantly improved their strength and muscle mass [ 16 , 17 ]. Loss of fat mass and changes in body composition are also other effects demonstrated in some studies [ 18 , 19 , 20 ]. On the other hand, there are also studies that report improvement in chronic low back pain [ 21 , 22 , 23 ] and improving sports performance by increasing jumping, sprinting and muscle power [ 24 , 25 , 26 ].…”

“…Most studios use the same type of current: bipolar, squared, with 85 Hertz, 350 milliseconds of pulse width and a 4 s contraction time [ 2 , 9 , 16 , 20 , 27 ]. The intensity of the current is, in most cases, controlled by the Borg subjective perception scale (RPE) [ 18 , 28 , 29 ]. Recently, some authors have used the maximum stimulus tolerance to define the intensity of the current [ 30 , 31 ].…”

Effect of a Training Program on Hepatic Fat Content and Cardiometabolic Risk in Postmenopausal Women: The Randomized Controlled Trial

“…A full description of it is available at ISRCTNresistry (ISRCTN15558857); last edited: 02 December 2019, and is also accessible elsewhere [46]. Data related to physical fitness after 10 weeks of WB-EMS training (i.e., balance, strength, velocity, power, flexibility, agility, speed and resistance) have been published elsewhere [11,47]. In the present manuscript, we included the comparisons between pre to post 10 weeks focused on hepatic fat content and cardiometabolic risk.…”