EMS - Electro Muscle Stimulation

The EMS Electro Muscle Stimulation bodytoning is a totally natural and holistic way to lose inches and reshape your whole body.
Our professional strength bodytoning machines offer an alternative and affordable method of body sculpting utilising the latest evolution of a proven and most successful technology

The ‘Bel Viso Body Bar’ Bodytoning machine is the most advanced computerized body shaper on the market, State-of-the-Art proven technology that does the thinking for you!

The EMS electro-pads has individual intensity controls and a master output dial, which allows a uniform increase or decrease of intensity to all areas. A simple touch of a button selects one of the 9 professionally designed pre-set programmes, which eliminates operator’s guesswork or mistake into adjusting the correct frequencies.

The first passive slimming machine using the Faradic current was invented by Dr. Michael Faraday in the 1920’s. The current was initially used for Physio Therapy, tightening and toning the muscles. The use of the Faradic current stimulates exercise by contracting and relaxing the motor points of the muscle, without being physically active.

Take for example the stomach muscles the ‘Bel Viso Body Bar’ Bodytoning machine can perform 1200 different movements per hour, whereas the average person could only do about 50 sit-ups per session.

Experts believe that a 30-45 minute session using electro muscle stimulation is equal to a 6-8 hour gym workout.

The ‘Bel Viso Body Bar’ Bodytoning machine is also very useful for sports’ training thus improves the general aerobic & anaerobic fitness. Olympic athletes & body builders have been utilising EMS to enhance their training for over 20 years increasing muscle tone, strength, endurance also relieving spasms and fluid retention.

For many years the medical profession has been aware of the therapeutic value of EMS in helping to restore and re-educate muscles which have been damaged and in the toning of flabby tissue therefore greatly improving body shape.

The ‘Bel Viso Body Bar’ Bodytoning machine, which is fitted with 9 different pre-programmed computerized EMS treatments simulating circuit training without straining the heart, is an exceptional aid for the elderly people (every Retirement Home should have one!) increasing their core strength thus improving mobility, bladder control, sleep patterns, total well-being and self-confidence.

Tips

As with any exercise long term benefits are achieved by regular use, therefore with the ‘Bel Viso Body Bar’ EMS Bodytoning machines a program of 2-3 sessions per week for a minimum of 4 weeks is suggested as a perfect regime with maintenance of 1 session per week once the goal loss & tone has been achieved.

Benefits

•   No downtime, results in just weeks
•   Enhances your personal appearance
•   Relax and reshape your whole body
•   Centimetre/inch loss
•   Reduces waist size
•   Tightens sagging muscles and skin tone of the face and body (especially while losing weight)
•   Assists in weight loss by improving the health of the cells
•   Promotes the oxygen flow throughout your body
•   Targets lymphatic drainage
•   Helps strengthen the pelvic floor muscle
•   Post natal toning quickly increases the return of muscle control and strength
•   Soothes tension and pain
•   Reduces pressure on joints
•   Re-educates damaged muscles
•   Perfect training tool for athletes and body builders
•   Lift and strengthen pectoral muscles
•   Extremely beneficial for the elderly
•   Encourages and motivates a healthier lifestyle
•   Wonderful full body sculpting for both sexes

Electro Muscle Stimulation

The history of EMS – Electro Muscle Stimulation is quite interesting because it goes all the way back to 2500 B.C. which was the time of the Egyptian Fifth Dynasty. Although electricity as we know it was thousands of years from existence, the Egyptians discovered an electric fish that could be used in the treatment of pain. 
Records also show that in 46 A.D. the Mesopotamian physician Scribonious Largus prescribed the “Seashore Treatment” for patients who suffered from acute pain. For the treatment, the patient placed a foot on a species of fish which used mild electricity as defence (the electric eel) and the other foot on wet sand thus completing the electric circuit.

The first scientific evidence that current can activate muscle was provided by Luigi Galvani (1791). During the 19th and 20th century researchers studied and documented the exact electrical properties that generate muscle movement. It was discovered that the body functions induced by electrical stimulation caused long-term changes in the muscles.

The first passive slimming machine using the Faradic current was invented by Michael Faraday in the 1920’s. The current was initially used for Physio Therapy, tightening and toning the muscles.
It wasn’t until 1965 when “Pain Mechanism: A New Theory,” a paper by Melzack & Wall that was written after a tremendous amount of research, revealed the benefits of electricity used as therapy to the people of today.

For many years the medical profession has been aware of the therapeutic value of EMS in helping to restore and re-educate muscles which have been damaged and in the toning of flabby tissue therefore greatly improving body shape.
The use of the Faradic current stimulates exercise by contracting and relaxing the motor points of the muscle, without being physically active.
Olympic athletes and body builders have been utilising EMS to enhance their training for over 20 years increasing muscle tone, strength, endurance also relieving spasms and fluid retention.

Why · How · When  ~  apply EMS

Normal Exercise
Normal physical exercise is controlled by the brain, which acts similar to a computer. It monitors sensory input and recall from memory to compute and send motor nerve messages to the muscles.
Fast traveling, high frequency, action potential impulse rate motor messages activate skeletal muscles. Skeletal muscles are attached to bones across joints, causing joints to move the body.
Slow traveling, low frequency, action potential impulse rate motor messages activate visceral muscles located within viscera and blood vessels in order to make body organs work and increase the carrying capacity of blood vessels.

Natural Exercise and EMS
Work performed by muscles is measured by the strength of the pull of muscles (contraction power), the length of pull of the muscle and the time in which the work is performed:
• Contraction power is gained by anaerobic exercise.
• Length of muscular pull is gained by aerobic exercise and by stretching the muscles and increasing the flexibility of joints.

Progressive increases of application time of EMS enables
• Aerobic and anaerobic conditioning of the muscles.
• The conditioning of heart & lungs functions due to aerobic exercise. This enables individuals to  work longer without tiring.
To increase the capacity to work, muscle-stretching exercises are used to increase length or pull. To increase the strength of the pull, repetitive training exercise is required. Stretching also helps to prevent internal muscle tension from rupturing muscle and tendon tissue.


Exercise and Bone Density
Increasing the strength of muscles is directly proportional to the increase in bone thickness.
Increase in general bone density and joint strengthening is also proportional to the workload performed.

Exercise & Circulatory Flow
Muscular exercise substantially increases the general and micro circulatory flow to, from and within the muscles. Exercise provides a supply of nutrients and oxygen to the body, as well as the removal of lactic acid and carbon dioxide.

Exercise and Cellular Activity
All exercise increases the bio-electrical activity across muscle cells. This causes increased ionisation across the cell walls, which supply and removes the products that maintain muscular exercise. The increase in vascular flow that occurs is also beneficial in hastening the healing processes.

How the Body Uses Electricity
The body uses minuscule amounts of electricity in two ways:
• To pass currents across cell walls by way of ionisation particles, which causes nutrients and waste products to pass to and from the cells.
• To generate changing electrical potentials. These potentials travel in nerve fibres to initiate and maintain body functions. For EMS to clone the actions of the body’s natural neural impulses, they are introduced in pulse trains, at the body’s natural functional frequencies (rate).

Electrical Muscle Exercise
EMS is the application of electricity in the form of trains of minuscule pulse charges, which activate exercise in both skeletal and visceral muscle. EMS causes skeletal and visceral muscles to work and may also be used to pass nutrients, waste products and gases across cell walls.

The Muscle Types of The Body
There are three types of muscles within the body:
1. Skeletal Muscle – This is the most commonly known type of muscle. They are the muscles attached to our bones that move the body in accordance with our brain’s control. These muscles are very easy to exercise using EMS. The results of EMS in building muscle strength and stamina are often compared to the physical activities of weight lifting and running.
2. Visceral Muscle – These are the hidden muscles of the body located in the gut, bowel, body organs and the blood vessels. Visceral muscles are controlled by the demand requirements of the body. Visceral muscles are operated at low frequency and therefore low frequency has been included as an operational setting of EMS.
EMS now allows control over healing, pain management and relaxation, which was not previously possible.
3. Cardiac Muscle – Cardiac muscle is a special high demand muscle that never stops working. Such muscles include the heart, liver and kidneys. It is not possible to will these muscles to work quicker, but they will readily work harder when required.

Rehabilitation
EMS can be used to overcome the effects of a severe injury or illness.

Bodytoning and Shaping

EMS may be used to improve body strength and body shape.

Injury Prevention

EMS is used for strengthening and toning muscles to prevent injury. For instance, it can strengthen the legs muscle groups to give stability and help prevent injury or recurring injuries to the knees and ankles.

Prevention of Fitness Loss

The application of EMS to specific muscle groups can maintain the muscle tone during inactive time periods.


Strengthening Weak Muscles
EMS, whilst improving the strength and stamina of the muscles, automatically pumps the blood and mobilizes muscles and joints.

EMS Following Injury

Injured muscles rapidly deteriorate if unused. An important aspect of rehabilitation is the strengthening of these weakened muscles. The strengthening process comes from slowly increasing the workload on the muscles throughout the rehabilitation period.

Precise control of muscle contractions is possible using most EMS devices. Over a period of weeks, as the injury recovers, the workload is increased. However, instead of lifting more weights or doing more repetitions, EMS can be applied to increase the intensity and induce stronger contractions.  It is important to induce a level of muscular exercise that is within the range of comfort. This range will increase as the strength of the muscle increases.
Keep in mind the analgesic effect of EMS as well!

Rehabilitation of Incontinence
Stress and urge incontinence may be effectively rehabilitated using a course of EMS to strengthen both the visceral and skeletal muscle of the pelvic floor and the organs of the pelvis.

Sports Training

EMS may be used as an adjunct to sports strength development if it is used in the same way as weight training.  As a supplement to a routine of normal training EMS can develop strength in joints and muscles. EMS may also be used to strengthen a weakness that is present as a result of a residual problem, or to improve the general aerobic and anaerobic fitness of an athlete.

EMS and the Elderly
As people age, they settle into a more sedative life style, which leads to the progressive onset of fragility and a loss of tone and strength in muscle power. This loss of strength may exceed 50% of the strength present during adolescence and early adult life and this loss affects a person’s mobility and balance. The loss of strength may curtail their social and other home activities.  Loss of balance can also lead to falls and other injuries, which could be as serious as a broken hip. EMS applied to the large hip, buttock and thigh muscles can reverse the onset of fragility, by enabling the elderly to regain the tone and strength of these anti-gravity teams of muscles.