EMS - Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask

Electrical muscle stimulation is a complex topic.  We recently caught up with Giovanni Ciriani, U.S. Managing Partner for Globus, a major manufacturer and asked him some basic questions on the history of the science.

Paul: When did people first start using electrical stimulation on muscles?

Giovanni:  Electricity applications for health go back several thousand years. Electric eels were used by the Romans to send current through the human body to cure ailments. 

Paul: So when did people actually start running controlled electric current through their muscles?

Giovanni:  In 1791 Luigi Galvani documented that electric current caused muscle contraction in the legs of a dead frog.  Although the mechanism why electricity caused muscle contraction was misunderstood, it sparked great scientific interest. 

Paul:   When did the medical establishment begin seriously studying the phenomenon?

Giovanni:  During the 1800’s seminal research established scientifically the principles of muscle contraction that are still used nowadays.  At the beginning of the 1900’s Weiss and the Lapicques introduced the principles of rehobase and chronaxe.  

Paul:  What is rehobase and chronaxe?

Giovanni: These important concepts -- intensity and duration of current -- are important and used to determine effective protocols to stimulate muscles and obtain strong training contractions. 

Paul: How about sports?  When did people start to see performance benefits from using EMS tools?

Giovanni:  In 1971 Kots in the USSR reported increases of more than 20% in muscle strength, speed and power produced by several weeks of electrotraining.  Russian athletes that had used electrostimulation, obtained excellent results at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, like Borzov, gold medal in the 100m and 200m). Unable to produce comparable results, the Canadians invited Kots to lecture at Concordia University in 1977.  Despite the success reported by Canadian coach Charlie Francis in integrating conventional electrostimulation into a carefully periodized training program, researchers continued to disagree...

Paul:  When did EMS devices reach the consumer market?

Giovanni:  About the same time, electrostimulation became a mainstream therapy method. In the 1990’s the miniaturization and affordability of electronics allowed the wide experimentation of new protocols.  A flurry of research and sport application validation at the highest level in Europe drove sales. Protocols based on square waves improved in quality and superseded the protocols invented by Kots (aka Russian currents).

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