DOES EMS TRAINING REDUCE FLUID BUILD-UP?

EMS Training has so many benefits, from both an aesthetic and medical perspective. However, in recent years people have been harnessing the power of EMS workouts to help them regulate their bodies as well as lose weight. Recent studies have shown that not only does EMS training help you shift fat and gain muscle, it can also help reduce fluid build up in the body.

This is probably a lesser known use of EMS training, but a very effective one nonetheless. Once clients find out that EMS training can help reduce swelling and fluid build up, they are always keen to start utilising EMS as fluid build up prevention training.

We’re looking at how EMS training helps reduce body fluid in this article.

Fluid build-up prevention training: why does fluid build up?

Picture the scene: you wake up. Move downstairs to make your morning coffee, move into the shower, move around getting dressed. Then, you sit in the car for half an hour getting to work, where you proceed to sit for 8 hours, before sitting on the drive home. Then when you get home you’re so tired that you just sit on the couch. Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, for many people this is very normal. And with the position of the legs being downward all day without much movement, it’s no wonder that fluid can build up in the legs. Studies have noted that this fluid build up can be particularly bad in the calves, and is common in those who are sedentary for long periods of time.

Ultimately, this fluid build up can cause all kinds of problems for people. Ranging from painful swelling and bruising at a minor end, to thromboembolic events (blood clots making their way to vital organs) at the more drastic end of the spectrum. In short, fluid build up in the body is not healthy and should be minimised where possible.

MEDICAL BENEFIT OF EMS TRAINING: FLUID BUILD UP REDUCTION

Electrical muscle stimulation reduces fluid build up in the body. This has been proven by studies done on the calves of people who have sedentary lifestyles. In these studies, fluid accumulation in the leg was reduced by more than 40% using active Electrical Muscle Stimulation. That’s an incredible reduction and one that can minimise swelling, reduce the likelihood of edema and reduce patient pain.

EMS Training can offer the medical benefit of reduced leg swelling and fluid build up, and provide people with a wellness opportunity that they may otherwise not have been aware of.

How does EMS training minimise fluid build up in the legs?

Here’s where it gets sciencey.

In order to reduce fluid build up in the legs, activation of the skeletal pump has to happen. The skeletal pump reduces capillary pressure in the leg and increases tissue pressure. This allows the fluid to be reabsorbed into the vasculature and drained away. This means reduced swelling and pain from fluid build up, and a healthier more mobile leg.

If that explanation has gone over your head, you might think of the process as a way to pump more blood to the muscle, which in turn enables the body to drain away fluid. For those who are able-bodied, fit and active walking and exercising can increase the skeletal pump and increase blood flow in the leg. Dynamic exercise is generally considered the best way to boost the muscle pump and enable the leg to drain away fluid.

That’s great for those who are able to move rapidly and create dynamic movement that gets the blood pumping. However, if you’re elderly, have injuries, or don’t like dynamic exercise, you might struggle to get the fluid in the legs to reduce.

That’s where EMS Training comes in

With EMS training, there is no need for any hardcore exercise to increase the skeletal muscle pump. EMS is able to activate the muscles and increase that blood flow without movement from the participant, which is a great alternative for those who are elderly, disabled or injured.

But even if you are fully active and strong, having an extra method of reducing fluid can be so helpful. For many people, when the legs get heavy and swollen from fluid build up they don’t want to exercise and move their body. It can become an evolving problem, whereby you sit so your legs get swollen, then your legs are swollen so you can’t move like you want to. EMS helps to reduce swelling and break the cycle, so that people can move freely and get back to their best selves ASAP!

Learn more about the amazing benefits of EMS training now.