How to Build Muscle Fast and Without Crippling Exercises

No, this is not a sales pitch for some revolutionary new protein supplement. Furthermore, the principle which this method, now widely employed to build muscle quicker and with only a fraction of the effort needed for conventional exercise is based upon, is actually far from new. As far back as the late 1700s, a series of experiments showed that the dissected leg muscle of a frog could be made to contract simply by prodding it with a needle.

Later, studies showed that an identical effect could also be induced in response to the application of a small electric current. More than two centuries later, the latter observation was destined to form the basis of a modern exercise technology that emerged during the ‘90s. Known as electro-muscular stimulation, it is more often referred to using the acronym “EMS”.

Until the advent of this technology, the conventional manner in which to build muscle was through the process of resistance training. Still offered as the sole option in most gyms today, it requires a person to embark on a programme of exercises that employs weights and a variety of machines in which a steadily increasing load prompts him or her to apply a correspondingly increased effort. For the few who possess the determination and stamina to persist with the programme, the cumulative effect of this somewhat gruelling regimen can be a marked increase of musculature in those areas targeted by the various exercises.

For those who managed to achieve their perfect physique in this more conventional manner, the idea that it may have been possible to arrive at a similar result with little of the accompanying blood, sweat and tears will probably be hard to accept. In practice, however, the many refinements applied to the development of today’s EMS training have been proving consistently able to provide those who are disinclined to pump iron with a faster, safer and much less strenuous way in which to build muscle. Not just a means to increase bulk, this technology has been found to increase strength in many subjects by as much as 40%. Its uses now include the rehabilitation of astronauts suffering muscular atrophy following prolonged exposure to weightlessness, training professional athletes and providing an effective form of physiotherapy.

Today, a growing number of gyms are beginning to incorporate EMS training into their fitness programmes and, in South Africa, Body20 studios in the Cape provinces, Gauteng and the Free State are spearheading this revolutionary approach to developing a more attractive and stronger body. Using the latest equipment developed by the leading German manufacturer Miha Bodytec, we offer clients a tailored fitness programme that could produce their desired result in just two or three 20-minute sessions per week.

A major feature of this technology is its flexible nature. In practice, a course of EMS training is just as applicable to those who may simply wish to develop a leaner and more toned appearance or to those who may need to lose some weight, as it is to those whose aim is to build muscle.

When you enrol at a Body20 studio, you can rely on a form of training that is easy on the joints while offering many additional benefits, like improved posture and balance.