When Lucie asked if I wanted to attend an Exerceo EMS training session and blog about it, I couldn’t get the image of the Green Mile electric chair out of my head – if you’ve seen the film you’ll understand my apprehension - but I was too intrigued by it to pass up the opportunity.

EMS training stands for Electrical Muscle Stimulation training. The idea is that you wear the electrode suit which targets 4 key areas: arms, abs, booty and upper legs and are then hooked up to a machine which sends electrical impulses and causes your muscles to contract. Apparently this is something that your body does naturally when exercising, but the machine activates over 90% of the muscles fibres at the same time during each contraction!

When I turned up at Good Vibes Fitness, a short 20 second walk from Goodge Street tube station, Chrissy my instructor talked me through what to expect. She provided me with some cotton leggings and top, and then got to work spraying the electrode suit wet in order to conduct the electrical impulses. With her help, I then put on the suit, which consisted of a life jacket style vest, shorts and armbands. Once I was suited and booted I was plugged in!

I’d been so fascinated by the electrical currents; I had almost forgotten I was required to do a work out! The work out was your traditional HIIT session, involving 30 seconds on and 10 seconds rest. This included squat jumps, press-ups, weights and more. It was only a 20 minute session, which to me is an ideal time because by the time you start regretting it, it’s pretty much over! I’m a regular ‘Meta-fitter’ and so I was quietly confident that this wouldn’t be anything I couldn’t handle, but I was wrong. The additional weight of the suit – never mind the electrical bit – made easy things hard. I felt like I had done a much harder HIIT work out that normal. It did feel very strange, not painful but I can’t say it was the nicest feeling in the world. It actually felt better when I was working out than stood still, which in itself was enough to ensure I worked hard every second. There are different levels of currents which could be turned up or down depending on how hard you wanted to work and this could target different areas. Since this was my first time, I kept it fairly low but asked for a higher voltage on my abs – just in case it performed miracles.

They recommend two sessions a week, which sounds like nothing if you’re like me and like to train every day, but after each training session it usually takes 36-48 hours for the body to recover and I can definitely vouch for that! All weekend I had a satisfying ache, which made walking up the stairs a lot harder than normal.

This would be my dream work out, it’s 20 minutes long, you don’t have to lug your gym kit about all day, and you’re only supposed to go twice a week! Prices start at £50 for a session, but the more sessions you buy the cheaper it is and it is also discounted if you bring a friend. Exerceo offer a trial session, which is very clever because after my first time I’m already contemplating going again – after I’ve recovered from this one that is!

Find out more at: http://www.exerceotraining.co.uk

Words/photos ~ Karis