If building strength and muscle mass is part of your New Year's Resolution, you may want to add a new routine to your workout.
Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), or electrical muscle stimulation for short, uses electrical currents to contract muscles. The stimulation devices are easy to use and widely available on the market, according to Sudip Bajpeyi, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Kinesiology at The University of Texas at El Paso, but he has often wondered, "Can these stimulators offer any benefits when used during resistance training? What does the research say?"
Well, the results are in -- and they are promising. In a new meta-analysis study published this month in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, Bajpeyi found that using NMES while doing resistance training leads to greater muscle mass and strength compared to resistance training alone.
