Can this electric suit help you burn a day’s calories in 40 minutes?
PERFORMING exercises on a roof terrace is not for the shy and retiring, especially when you are wearing what looks like a black flak jacket hooked up to a futuristic machine.
I get more than my fair share of strange looks from onlookers in neighbouring buildings as I execute a series of deep lunges and bicep curls while being barked at by a personal trainer.
Normally, I would be a little self-conscious. But not today, for I am trying out a revolutionary fitness regime that has taken the world by storm and looks to be the next big thing in getting slimmer.
It’s called Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) and involves wearing a suit that passes an electrical current through your muscles as you exercise, giving them a workout 150 times stronger than you could normally dream of.
What’s more, if you try hard enough, it is claimed, you can burn more t han 2,500 calories (500 more than the average woman needs in a day) in just two sessions of roughly 20 minutes a week — the equivalent of four to six hours in a normal gym.
I am the one of first people to test the latest EMS suit, which has just been launched by a company called XBody. As I love the idea of a quick fix, I immediately sign up for a session, which would normally cost €35 — or €150 for five sessions or €280 for 10 sessions at Quick-fitness in Clontarf, north Dublin. Even so, I’m still a little anxious about what to expect when I arrive for my session at a private members club in London with Mark Chesters, of the UK EMS Trainer Institute. Will it feel like I am being electrocuted?
‘Don’t worry, it sounds gimmicky, but the science has been around for years for sports rehabilitation, endurance, muscle-building and strength training,’ Mark reassures me.
The XBody Newave suit is all straps and padding and made f rom neoprene, polyester and nylon.
It has 20 small pads which are attached to your body to carry the electric current to each of the major muscle groups (shoulder blades, mid-back, lower back, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, abdominals, pectorals, biceps, triceps and calves or shoulders). Underneath I wear the soft cotton T-shirt and short leggings provided.
NEXT, the pads are dampened in order to conduct the electricity. It is cold and I shiver as I am firmly strapped in. I look like a superhero, but a very chilly one. Mark then connects me, via a wire on the right of my hip, to the machine that is going to provide the electricity during my workout.
This is like a slender, S-shaped lectern with a screen at the top from which Mark selects the strength of current for each part of my body.
When turned on, it simultaneously stimulates all the major muscle groups for the whole 20- minute exercise session, meaning there are 150 times more muscle contractions than in an equivalent normal workout.
Usually, you exercise only about 40 per cent of your muscle fibres, but with EMS, that becomes more like 90 per cent. And the more you use your muscles, the more energy you burn and the better the results.
I am slightly apprehensive it will hurt, so it is a relief to discover that Mark turns the power on for each limb gradually, using the screen as a touch keypad. As he does so, a strange tingling suddenly starts to spread across my buttocks, which begin to gently clench and then release.
It is the most extraordinary sensation but, so far, painless.
The tingling is intense but it doesn’t hurt. It is like being tickled very firmly. I am unimpressed. How can this be providing t he ultimate workout? ‘ Can you feel that?’ asks Mark.
‘ It’s rubbish,’ I say, ‘there is no way I am burning 2,000 calories.’
Mark gives me a look, which I initially interpret as disappointment. It’s not. It is pure evil, for without saying a word, he touches the screen and the next thing I feel is not a tingle — more like a kick in the stomach. I jump back, stifling a scream. ‘You don’t have very strong abdominals,’ Mark says innocently, hiding a smirk as I beg him to turn it down. He has a litany of stories about professional athletes, including footballers and a top cage f i ghter, who have tried XBody. Terrifyingly, all of his tales end with variations on the sentence: ‘After 20 minutes he was a weeping wreck, quivering on the floor and begging for it to stop.’ To avoid having him say this about me, we agree to keep the machine on a mid-range setting, although Mark keeps turning it up and down throughout the workout to achieve maximum results. We start the programme’s five stages.
These vary from person to person but could be typically two minutes of warm-up as the machine is turned on, seven of resistance training, four of cardiovascular training and another four of resistance training.
Finally, there’s a warm- down lasting three minutes.
The resistance training involves straightforward moves ( deep squats and bicep curls). It sounds easy, but it’s not when you are wearing a suit that makes you feel like you are walking through quicksand while being tickled by an affectionate bear.
During the bicep and tricep curls I can hardly lift my hand to my shoulder, so forceful is the resistance.
At the same time, I can feel the rest of my body being worked out by the rhythmic pulsating of the pads.
The electricity is contracting muscle groups I didn’t realise I had, making everything incredibly hard work.
Next, we move on to cardiovascular training. I find myself gasping for breath as I move my arms backwards and forwards as fast as I can in a static sprint. Normally this would be a breeze.
When we do overhead throwing (not actually chucking balls but miming the action), it feels as though I am lifting a vast stone over my head.
I am panting with exertion, but anyone watching us would think that I was just doing an ordinary workout. All the while, Mark is fiddling with the controls. At one point he turns up the abdominal force a bit too high again and I wince and cry out. I am suddenly reminded of childbirth. ‘Women do use EMS on men to show them how labour feels,’ says Mark. After another resistance session, by which point I can hardly lift my legs, we move on to the warm-down.
Through the pads, the machine performs a simulated lymphatic massage to boost my circulation while I lie on the floor, twitching involuntarily and enjoying a faint tingling throughout my body.
It is a relaxing way to bring the body back down to i ts normal state.
After the session, I am utterly shattered but also overjoyed because the back pain I have been enduring for ten days (caused by picking up a heavy bag) has not bothered me once.
I am able to move freely, rather than wincing and whining as I have been doing for days.
THIS is because as well as toning you up and helping you to l ose weight, the XBody can also help with injuries.
‘ Stabilising and t argeting muscles around the spine gives support, and back pain can be alleviated,’ says Carlos Pacheco, of XBody.
‘It can also help the obese; being the only person i n the room apart from the trainer means that very l arge people are l ess self- conscious.’
The only downside I can see, is that there is no way of measuring absolutely how many calories you have burned.
However, clinical trials are under way and I can easily imagine (especially given how hungry I am for the next two days) that I have burned at least 500 calories during my workout.
What’s more, as resistance training of any kind increases the metabolism long after your workout is over, I will continue to burn more calories than normal for a couple of days (that could be another 500 to 750 calories) without even trying.
As I get dressed, I find that al t hough I am weak wit h exhaustion, I can bend over properly for the first time since I hurt my back. The next morning I am a little stiff, but can walk without twitching with pain every few minutes.
This improvement continues for two days and the pain does not return. I also feel fantastic and my stomach is tauter.
I must admit, I am convinced by EMS. Now I am just hoping it comes to a gym near me soon.
FOR more information, go to quickfitness.ie or call 085 165 4296