I Tried EMS — The Buzzy Workout Kylie Jenner & Cindy Crawford Swear By

Once a certain number of toned celebrities start praising something, it’s only a matter of time before the plebeians catch on — at least, that’s how I heard about EMS workouts. Tom Holland credited the technology to getting him in shape to play Spiderman; Cindy Crawford recently invested in an at-home version of EMS technology called Katalyst; Kendall and Kylie Jenner tried an EMS workout on The Kardashians; and Chrissy Teigen told Kelly Clarkson how bad her “butt hurts” after her EMS training session. But it wasn’t until it made its way to my coolest, fittest friends’ mirror selfies that I decided it was my next workout class conquest.

Few things bring me more joy than trying a new workout class, so when I heard about a 20-minute electrical muscle stimulation workout, I needed to know more. I sought out the guidance of The Studio EMS, a mobile workout studio that sends a personal trainer to your home with all of the equipment you need. Here’s how it went.

What Is EMS?

Before I get into some personal experience, let’s first cover some basics. EMS, or Electro Muscular Stimulation, is a technology that “activates muscles through electrical currents, resulting in involuntary muscle contractions,” according to the National Institute of Health. These electric impulses recruit a larger percentage of muscle fibers all at once, allowing for a more intense, efficient workout. While a typical workout activates around 30-40% of muscle fibers, EMS can engage up to 90%, say Anna Herrin and Nicole Pelletier, founders of The Studio EMS.

The other major benefit of EMS is that it bypasses the sometimes challenging conversation between your brain and your muscles. Ever held a lunge in Pilates but failed to feel it in your glutes? EMS does the work for you, igniting an instant mind-body connection by activating muscles your brain might struggle to target.

The Difference Between EMS & E-Stim

Because electrical muscular stimulation is so powerful in connecting mind-to-muscle, it’s also gaining more popularity in the physical therapy space. Chelsea DeLay, a Pilates instructor and personal trainer, explains that EMS — known as E-Stim in PT settings — has been a game-changer in her own physical therapy practice.

“I hit a point in my training where I was feeling super disconnected from my body,” DeLay says. “My physical therapist started incorporating E-Stim into functional movement patterns to teach my brain essentially what it feels like to have correct and efficient muscle activations.” Once the muscles were activated, they’d continue to move through basic exercises, and the results were massive. “These E-Stim nodes create a simple, gentle connection to easing back into movement patterns in a pain-free way,” she says, which makes it especially helpful for people recovering from serious injuries.

Unlike E-Stim, which targets small muscle groups with localized nodes, EMS workouts use vests and pads to cover larger areas, working multiple muscles at once. For this reason, EMS workouts are typically no longer than 30 minutes, at which point your muscles should be sufficiently fatigued.

My Experience With EMS Workout

On an icy January morning, my trainer Sydney arrived at my apartment with a bag of equipment: a vest, arm and leg pads, an iPad, and a water spritzer. Spraying down my gear, she explained that water would be necessary to conduct the electrical currents, sparking flashbacks to middle school science class.

After she strapped me into what felt like a sopping wet superhero uniform, Sydney dialed up the electricity on each muscle group, sending tingly, pins-and-needle type sensations across my body. Once we reached a self-proclaimed 7 out of 10 intensity level, it was finally time to exercise.

The 20-minute workout flew by, and my cold, wet vest heated up quickly. Similar to a typical “sculpt” style class, Sydney led me through a series of squats, donkey kicks, tricep kickbacks, and planks. While the moves themselves were relatively basic, the sensation that came with them was next-level. The tingly sensation creates an additional resistance, making it all the more challenging.

The biggest revelation? My core stayed engaged the entire time. Even a basic lunge turned into an ab exercise — a Pilates cue that had never fully clicked for me until now.

Final Thoughts

It wasn’t until two days after our session that I felt the soreness that Chrissy Teigen warned about. While I enjoyed the workout itself (and Sydney’s company), the real benefit of EMS revealed itself later. For the rest of the week — whether I was doing yoga, Pilates, or walking around the block. —I was hyper-aware of the muscles making my movement happen.

It’s recommended to do no more than two or three EMS workouts per week to give your muscles optimal recovery time. Personally, I see it more as an occasional addition to a balanced fitness routine. “The end goal would be to try to find that deep type of EMS activation on your own,” says DeLay. “For now, it’s as if you’re a little bird in this EMS vest nest.” Either way, feeling the burn hits differently now.