Can EMS Really Improve Your Golf Game?
A miha trainer helps a golfer via EMS.
A slew of products have emerged the past two years that promise to help your golf game. Several are smartphone apps that vow to increase your flexibility, mobility and range of motion. I’ve tried some and they’re pretty good. And then this week I tried something even more tangible and immediate – a miha bodytec EMS (electrical muscle stimulation) workout .
This type of training is billed as a highly effective, efficient and safe method to improve physical performance, and miha officials claim to be the leading premium manufacturer of EMS training equipment, perfecting and spreading the whole-body training method for improved fitness and health. It's supposed to take a light workout and make it 10 times more effective. So my 12-minute workout would be the equivalent of a 120-minute exercise session. For golfers, I’m told this is supposed to increase core strength and flexibility. And I’m all for that.
How it worked for me: I put on its skin-tight and Lycra-like tee shirt and shorts. The trainer then water-sprayed roughly 10 velcro straps that each contain electrodes on them. She attached them to various parts of my body, and then connected them to a device that reminded me of a karaoke machine but with video exercises on the screen, as well as sensor monitors for each of the ports that quantified the electric intensity each strap was emitting to my body.
She told me I would feel tingling wherever the straps were attached to me. And she buzzed each one, carefully asking me when the vibration was too strong. Then she dialed it back a touch. After all was set, she got me exercising – doing standing crunches, lunges and squats. Essentially, I would hold a pose for four seconds while the machine zapped me. Then I’d relax for 10 seconds and do it all over and over again. Each exercise lasted roughly 90 seconds. She assured me it wasn't emitting any radiation, and that the program was cleared by the FDA (which I later confirmed online).
I asked if I would feel sore. "You’re going to be cursing my name in two days," was the response. Actually, I felt a little bit sore the following day but felt almost nothing two days afterwards. Maybe I’m just in better shape than I thought. The miha website claims that for full effect, you should undergo one 20-minute training session each week, to get "a highly effective and time-efficient training method for increasing muscle strength and performance." And the company has a complete network of qualified trainers around the country who do this.
I’ve read up online and this type of training seems to be a little controversial. That's because some people claim it helps sculpt your body only temporarily, while others swear by it. Even Jimmy Kimmel recently and hilariously tested it out on national TV . After trying it just once, all I can say is I know it definitely did something for me – feeling that soreness made me a believer. But I’d have to continue using it for a while, to see if it actually helps my golf game.
miha bodytec EMS (electrical muscle stimulation) workout . Jimmy Kimmel recently and hilariously tested it out on national TV .