Electric Muscle Stimulation (EMS) Does Not Improve Anaerobic Performance Measures During a Repeated Wingate Test

ABSTRACT

Introduction: The aim of this study was to examine differences between a control warm-up and an Electric Muscle Stimulation (EMS)-induced warm-up in off-road cyclists when examining anaerobic performance measures from a repeated Wingate test (WAnT). Methods: Twelve trained off-road cyclists completed a randomized crossover study (age: 31 ± 10 years, height: 176.79 ± 6.09 cm, body mass: 74.57 ± 4.77 kg). Participants completed two randomized, separate testing sessions involving a control warm-up and an EMS warm-up before undergoing the repeated WAnT, which was used to collect anaerobic performance and physiolo- gical measures during both sessions. High-frequency EMS was applied to the knee extensor muscles for 4 min after a standardized warm-up during the EMS session. Results: Analysis revealed that there were no significant differences between mean power output, peak power output, and percentage decrement between the two sessions. The EMS session resulted in significantly lower average HR values and significantly lower differences in pre-to-post-test blood lactate values when compared to the control session. Discussion: According to the results of this study, an acute application of EMS is not a useful tool for off-road cyclists to improve power output or maintain anaerobic capacity. Hence, its use before competition is questionable.

KEYWORDS:

• Anaerobic performance measures
• electric muscle stimulation
• off-road cycling
• repeated Wingate test

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical approval

Ethical approval has been granted by the TU Dublin - Tallaght Campus Ethics Board. Reference Number – REC-UG11-201,920

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.