Sweat-Free Workouts?
Why break a sweat when you can pump up while taking it easy? If you believe the ads, Electronic Muscle Stimulation, or EMS, is the way to get a workout without working out. CBS News Consumer Correspondent Herb Weisbaum reports.
These EMS machines are all over the Internet and in magazine ads. The company promises to build up your muscles, firm up your butt and give you rock solid abs by using tiny electrical shocks to force your muscles to contract. You get a workout, while you relax, the company claims. Sounds great. But is it worth shelling out hundreds of dollars for one of these EMS machines?
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Lacrosse recruited student volunteers who were willing to get wired.
For this test, the researchers purchased several $500 EMS machines from a company called Bodyshapers. The students agreed to use the machines three times a week for eight weeks, taking as much of a jolt as they could handle.
For most, like Jared Kron, the process was just mildly uncomfortable. "It's like you're getting poked with a bunch of needles," Kron said.
But for one volunteer named Katie, when the power kicked on, she couldn't put her arms down. "It's an intense tingling feeling...like your muscles are just, like, I don't know, going crazy," said Katie.
For some, the discomfort might be worth it if the machine delivered the promised results. But when the volunteers were retested after two months of regular EMS treatments, their muscles didn't measure up.
Said Karen Palmer McLean, co-author of the study, "After they spent 45 minutes, three times a week for eight weeks, they were the same as when they started."
Those results do not surprise the American Council on Exercise, sponsors of the Wisconsin study. "The bottom line: This is pure deception," said council official Richard Cotton. "You're not going to lose any fat, and you're not going to gain any significant increases in strength or tone."
Bodyshapers would not talk with CBS News.
The American Council on Exercise further points out: Even if these machines did what the company promised, and they don't, it still wouldn't be real exercise. You would not burn the calories or get the aerobic benefits that come from exercising the old-fashioned way.
There are some legitimate uses for EMS, for instance, for physical therapy of those injured or paralyzed. And athletes in training do sometimes use it - but in addition to exercise, not instead of it.