April 7, 2025 • 32 mins
Conrad shares his unique journey into fitness from working as an executive assistant to a Venezuelan billionaire to becoming an EMS training specialist focused on helping special populations achieve results.
• Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) uses a suit with electrodes to stimulate all muscle fibers simultaneously
• A 20-minute EMS session can deliver results equivalent to 1.5-2 hours of traditional weightlifting
• EMS activates both slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers regardless of the weight being used
• The technology particularly appeals to women over 40 who feel uncomfortable in traditional gym environments
• Proper intensity management is crucial - aim for challenging but not painful stimulation levels
• EMS shows potential for rehabilitation applications, possibly helping with nerve damage and activation issues
• The suit allows for targeting specific muscle groups while still engaging the entire body during single exercises
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello and welcome to Health and Fitness Redefined.
I'm your host, anthony Amen,and today we have another great
episode for all of you.
Today For those listening thatare current members we are
getting ready to open up the newMount Sinai location.
We're shooting for April 21st.
So that's what I've been doingall day is getting that ready.
Easter weekend we're going toclose the old ones, say goodbye,
(00:28):
cry a little bit and then wakeup Easter Monday and be super
ecstatic and excited and nevercare that we'd left in the first
place.
So looking forward to all that.
But more importantly, ontoday's show we got Conrad.
Conrad, thank you for coming on.
Before we hop into literallythe topic of this because it is
kind of unique which is EMS,just tell me a little bit about
(00:51):
how you got into it, because Imean, getting into fitness is
unique and then getting into EMSis even more unique.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me and
congratulations on opening a gym.
That's a big endeavor, and socongrats, hats off to you there.
Yeah, so how?
So?
First, the first question ofhow I got into the fitness
industry real quick.
I was in New York and New Yorkcity.
I was 23.
It was the beginning of theeconomic crisis in 2008.
(01:20):
I was in sales for a financialcompany.
I hated it in 2008.
I was in sales for a financialcompany.
I hated it, and so I thoughtI'm young, let me do something
that's a little more extravagant.
And so I became the executiveassistant to a Venezuelan
billionaire and I was travelingwith him around the world.
But I worked from 6am to 11pm,didn't have a life, didn't see
(01:42):
more than the walls of my hotelroom, and he traveled with a
personal trainer, and thepersonal trainer worked about an
hour in the morning and thenwent for a walk with him in the
evening, and I thought I need tobe that guy.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So I spoke to him.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
He was like yeah, I just got a certification and so
that I always wanted a job whereI could help people and also
didn't have a ceiling to howmuch I could learn.
Uh, and so I went to personaltraining, and that was now 16
years ago, and throughout mycareer I mostly worked with
people with diabetes, injuries,chronic conditions and um, so
(02:20):
these special populations thatoften the fitness industry has
not put at the center of theirmarketing or service, and so I
was always looking for ways tohelp my clients and I stumbled
upon EMS, and it changed mycareer again.
(02:43):
So EMS stands for electricalmuscle stimulation.
It is short for WBEMS, which iswhole body electrical muscle
stimulation, and it's a suitwith electrodes.
It's a 20 minute workout andit's very intense and very
effective.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, I mean you don't hear that intro story to
fitness.
Often Worked for a billionaire,saw a trainer and got ahead of
easy yeah, I know usually it'ssomething way different.
I've never heard that before inthe five years of doing this
show.
So, yeah, mind-blowing you.
You think see, this personaltrainer has life easy.
(03:21):
I will tell you, most trainers,as you know, now work from 5 am
to 8 pm, have no life and youjust kind of go off the fact
that you love helping people.
Yeah, it makes you smile yes butbut that guy, wow, that's uh,
that's a awesome story, man,yeah thank you and hopping into
(03:43):
uh ems.
I was telling you a littlebackstage.
It's a company by me which is agiant franchise that does
something very similar.
They're all about 20 minutes.
Hook up to this whole bodysuitready set go.
This is my biggest question andI know for non-fitness people
this is not their biggestquestion.
(04:06):
Not even like fitness, likenon-fitness people this is not
their biggest question, so, butfrom something not even like
fitness, I'm like just strictbusiness owner question about
how this works right, the timeand setup it takes to put on a
whole body suit and then takeyourself seriously.
We're looking at america andthinking to myself wow, I look
like an alien.
Um, to then go get shockedintentionally to go work out and
(04:30):
feel more uncomfortable, likehow, how do you convince people?
Yeah, you can try, right,because if you're not the
benefits, right, even if it'sthe best thing in the entire
world, how do you get some?
I struggle getting people justto walk.
Let's go for a walk today orlet's do a 20-minute workout.
(04:50):
I'm not telling them to go puta giant suit on and we're not
only going to sweat, but you'regoing to feel more uncomfortable
because we're going toelectrocute the shit out of you.
So several things there.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
First of all, putting on the suit you do have to wear
it depends on the suit andthere are different
manufacturers, but you do haveto wear usually a cotton layer,
base layer, and then the trainerand this is the uncomfortable
part has to wet the pro suit,the suit, with the electrodes.
There are ways to make thatcomfortable.
(05:24):
You can use hot water and thatway when you put it on it
doesn't feel like.
My mind just goes in the gutterwhen you say that Exactly, then
usually, if the trainer iswell-trained, they can suit you
up pretty quickly.
It should take about a minuteor a minute and a half to put on
the suit and then take it off.
So we're still within, you know, inside the 25 minute range.
(05:50):
And then, yeah, you do get, I'mgoing to say, stimulated, not
electrocuted.
So the stimulation is anelectrical signal, but how you
contract muscles is through anelectrical signal of your
nervous system.
So your nervous system doesdeliver an electric shock to
your muscles which engage yourmuscle fibers, and so this is
(06:14):
mimicking that signal andenhancing it.
So you are still contractingyour muscles.
It's not a passive treatment.
You are exercising, you aredoing movements, lunges, squats,
whatever exercise you want.
You are contracting your ownmuscles and then you're allowing
the suit to enhance your owncontractions akin to lifting
heavy.
So EMS shines as a strengthtraining tool and in about 20
(06:41):
minutes you do get theequivalent of about a two hour
session of weightlifting.
And this is based on researchstudies comparing people doing
EMS for 16 weeks, once or twicea week, to a group doing 32
hours of traditional training toeight hours of EMS time, and
(07:10):
the strength results werecomparable the strength results,
and that's why that comparisonis a one to four Right.
So one session of EMS is fourhours of traditional training.
I don't make that comparisonbecause when you're training
four hours you have otherelements, you have metabolic
conditioning, you're stretchinglike there's other things.
(07:32):
So I'm reducing it to closer toan hour and a half, to two
hours of weightlifting.
Okay, but how do you?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
convince someone to do it.
So how do you get clients to?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
do it.
So it's a good question now.
Uh, I personally offer a 50 offon the first session.
Uh, I travel to people's housesso I can't offer it for free.
In a studio, you could offer afree session or or a discounted,
you know, three pack orwhatever and and.
But you have to have a goodexperience.
And mostly it's word of mouth.
(08:04):
It's someone that says like youknow what, fine, I'll try it
and, and they refer out and andthat's how it goes, and it's.
The population is mostly womenages 40 and up that don't like
the gym environment, don't likethe gym environment, like the
(08:24):
toxic culture of some gyms,don't like to lift weights,
don't want to look bulky, likeall these fears around lifting
weights, may not have access toweights, may rather have someone
come to their house, and theydon't want to have a full gym in
their house, right?
So there's all these conditionsthat, like EMS, allows to
circumvent.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
This is a tough one for me.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I'm sorry, no, please , please.
I mean these are validquestions because I have had
people like, wait, you have toput on a suit and, wait, someone
else has used that suit and I'mlike, yes, okay, but the suit
gets disinfected and you'rewearing a base layer, so it's
not direct skin contact, youknow what.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
That doesn't even bother me, cause I get it.
Cause, like gym equipment, whatdo you think we do?
We're not like placing theleather off the machines every
time, right?
So that I totally understand.
It's like it's just so funnythat the episode that came up
right before this listeners andfor you to understand, it's not
a BFR training.
So right before this forlisteners and for you to
(09:26):
understand.
We're not at bfr training, sowe're like two super unique
niche style workouts.
It's just the mental side oflike personally for myself, like
I can get behind a lot of stuff, so like just from a sales
point not from a health point ofconvincing people to do
something, and these two arejust like that tough.
It's a tough sell.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
It's a tough sell, but if you can promise about two
hours of results in 20 minutes,that's that's where where, like
, the marketing would go intoright.
Like that's where, like you'regetting results, you're getting
more for a bang for a buck.
Like when, when you put on thesuit, it's and you're getting
(10:10):
more for a bang for a buck.
Like when, when you put on thesuit, it's and you're doing
bicep curls, your legs, yourglutes, your quads, your abs
everything is still firing.
So it is like, even if you'refocusing on one exercise with
one small muscle group, likeeverything is getting stimulated
and challenged yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
So let's, let's break down the science behind it.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Tell us to me from a basic level about why it works.
So the basic level ofunderstanding is we contract
muscles through an electricsignal of the nervous system.
This mimics that signal andenhances it.
Now, when you're going to thegym, typically you would do if
you were doing like atraditional body split routine
10, 15 minutes of legs, 10, 15minutes of arms, 10, 15 minutes
(10:51):
of abs, right, and by the timeyou get the full body, you would
run at around an hour, an hourand a half, depending on how
fast or short or if you superset, right, but I mean sort of.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I mean, I've been doing traditional training, you
know, you know, 11 years.
I'm all about just the deadliftday, man, 60 to 70 of the
muscles in my body.
It's one movement, 20 minutes.
I'm done yeah so.
So imagine doing deadlifts, butlike, deadlifts are not going to
challenge your chest, they'renot necessarily going to
challenge your triceps, rightlike of course, but at least I
get like most of the body out ofthe way in one day, like one
(11:28):
lift, and I do three sets ofthat.
Then I can move on to like,even like powerlifting splits.
Right, that's most of the bodyit's most of the body.
Yeah, yeah so you're gettingclose to that, or just, uh,
squat presses like then you'rewhat else that pushups for, for
movements you're done.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, great.
So the imagine doing all thatwith EMS.
But but no, so the, the idea isthat, or the idea, the science
behind it is that by the, theother thing that this thing is,
the stimulation will, will fireall the muscle fibers.
So type one, type two, anythingthat's underneath the electrode
(12:09):
will get stimulated.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
What muscle fibers are prioritizing?
Is it prioritizing one or two?
Because, like you, there's two.
Let me just give a commonmisconception about muscle
fibers, because I'm a generalpublic, not a press, but other
people.
So muscle fibers are apercentage of the muscle.
This type one is type two andthere's subsets inside of both
of them.
The most common one we keeptabs up as a subset, it's like
(12:32):
uh, 2a and 2b.
Yeah, right, you can only havea certain percentage of a muscle
.
It's the same thing.
Uh, it always uses example frommultitasking.
Right, people think that youcan, your body, your brain can
multitask.
Multitasking physicallyimpossible.
Right, you can't focus ahundred percent of two things
because you only have a hundredpercent of your attention.
Yeah, anything goes for muscletissue.
(12:54):
You can't full focus a hundredpercent on type one and type two
.
You can only split, like 50here, 50 there, or 60, 40 or
whatever it may be, which is whyyou'll never see a
long-distance runner be able tolift a lot of weight and then
vice versa.
So which is a prioritizing?
(13:15):
The movements you're using, theweight you're using, like, how
does your brain know, or yourbody know, to like hit different
types of the fast, central,slow, twitch muscles With the
suit or without it, you mean?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
With With the suit.
So the suit.
There's two theories Eitherit's the inverted size principle
, the Heneman's size principle,either it's inverted, so it's
targeting type two first, or theshotgun theory, which is just
firing everything that'sunderneath it.
And I tend to believe it'scloser to the shotgun theory
(13:50):
that it's just firing whatevermuscle fibers are underneath the
electrode.
And the electrode I'm sayingthe electrode, but it doesn't
have to be like the electrode isusually on the belly of the
muscle and it will, depending onthe parameters that you use,
like you have frequency, youhave pulse width, so depending
on those parameters, it will goeither deeper into the muscle or
more superficial, or it willengage more or less muscle
(14:10):
fibers.
So the, the stimulation willengage the muscle fibers which,
um, by engaging type two musclefibers with zero to no weight,
like even if you're holding likethree to five pounds, like
we're doing squats or deadliftswith that much weight, and it's
still engaging those type twomuscle fibers.
(14:33):
So it means that from day oneyou can get people stronger
quicker, not just because it's20 minutes, but because when you
have a total beginner, 85 yearold, it's never lifted weights.
You're not going to put themlike, okay, five by five
deadlifts.
Right, like you're not going todo that.
It's going to take time to gothrough.
You know, 15 reps, 12 reps, 10reps and like.
(14:55):
Over like a period of 8 to 12weeks, you'll start getting into
strength training here from dayone.
You can already target themwith actual strength training.
That's one benefit that ishidden and usually not very
marketed by EMS trainers.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Interesting.
It's just a straight out fireof electrodes, right?
So I'm doing the electrodesorry for electro stimulation
inside of all the muscle fibersand the body's, kind of just
activating how it goes, so likeI was telling you backstage, and
you can break down thedifference of it, like I've done
a new fit, yeah, which you saidis different than this.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
So why don't you explain the difference and I'll
share my experience of the newfit I'd rather you share your
experience with your new fitfirst, because I've never tried
new fit and I I just I've seenit on instagram.
I've seen what it is.
It's like electrodes on usuallyone or two joints, so it's
never the full body.
But but you tell me what, howit was your experience?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
yeah, it was like 10 electrodes on my legs and we did
basic squats, like just bodyweight squats, and then I pushed
myself a little bit.
Uh, some lunges and then someglute bridges like all body
weight, yeah, and playing withthe intensity of it.
Just first reaction way toolong of a setup like that was my
(16:20):
biggest turn off with it.
Yeah, like sitting thereputting all them on I have a lot
of hair as a male, my legs notcomfortable.
I can say yeah.
So that was the first thing.
The second thing is it feltweird not being able to like
(16:42):
actually contract the muscle theway I wanted to contract it.
So what I mean by that is whenI'm doing a lunge for my right
leg, let's say an example and Iwant to extend my quadricep
muscle by standing, I felt likeI couldn't do it and sometimes I
felt like it was putting me inthe reverse and it was trying to
(17:03):
tighten the muscle up.
It's like very similar togetting a charlie horse.
Where you're at that borderline, you're like you're not sure is
my leg gonna cramp up?
is it not gonna cramp up?
Am I gonna hate my lifetomorrow like you don't know and
you just constantly felt likeyou were in that stage, like I
feel like my muscles just gonnalock.
It never did, but I felt justuncomfortable in that situation.
(17:27):
It was hard to do whatever itdid it for 20 minutes, put it
away.
The interesting part was Iliterally couldn't bend my leg
for three days afterwards.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You were sore.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
No, not even sore.
I've never I've been sore.
I've worked, I've done ToughMudders, I've done 13 mile
Spartan races.
I know sore I could not bend myknee.
It was such bad DOMS that justthe range of motion was yeah,
three fucking days.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It was so painful it was, like I would say, a little
too effective.
I would say that's overdoing ita little bit For our first
session.
I would say maybe they wantedto impress you a little bit.
They knew you were a trainer.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
No, no, it was one of my trainers that does this.
That's what makes it bit.
They knew you were a trainer.
No, no, it was one of mytrainers that does this.
That's what makes it worse.
It was an employee of mine.
Maybe it was just paybackagainst me, I really don't know.
I was trying to show off to youoh, this is so easy, I can go
all day.
She's like you should probablystop.
I was like, yeah, do it.
It, it's your fault.
(18:39):
Yeah, apparently like.
My point is like if I did thattraditional weightlifting style
right, and I would stop becausementally like I wouldn't be able
to do anything right, I wouldnever be able to get to be that
sore because my brain would justbe like I'm done, but inside
the electrodes you don't realizehow much you're exerting, so
it's a lot easier just to kindof slip past that point.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, that makes sense yeah, so there's a few key
differences.
One one, I would say so thisdoesn't.
This uses electrodes, butthey're they're.
They're on a suit, and so thesuit is just like a jacket and
the electrodes are placed wherethe major muscles are um, for
the legs, it's one electrode,for the quads, one electrode for
(19:19):
the hamstring and glutes.
Typically you can move aroundthe electrodes depending on what
suit you have, and so you cantarget adductors or whatever you
want.
But the idea is that you'restill doing exercises like
squats, lunges, whatever youwant, and it's to push to.
Like I typically cue clientslike I want you to be challenged
(19:41):
, but you should be able to move, like you shouldn't be locked,
and so it's training peopleunderneath that like lock
sensation or or even underneathpain.
But uh, so typically I equatelike, okay, 10 is pain, 9 is you
can't really move, and so wewant to train at an 8, so an 8
out of ten.
Like we want to make sure thatyou're constantly challenged and
(20:02):
you want to kind of like fightthrough the stimulation to like
get up, get down, whatever.
Um, the the setup is muchquicker because it's just like
clips that you put on, like Isaid, like it takes about a
minute and a half to control theamount of electricity through
it so the, the suit I use is iscalled the weim's pro and it has
(20:26):
an ipad and I have all themuscles and I.
It has different channels andand so I I can control, like the
entire body.
I can lift the entire body upor I can raise or lower every
muscle, for example, deadlifts.
Uh, typically I would lower thequads because I want them to be
able to to, to flex forward,and so I would increase the
(20:48):
glutes and hamstrings a littlebit, maybe, maybe a little bit
of the back, but I would reducethe arms, the, the quads, to
allow for the movement to happenwith, you know, natural
activation of the muscles thatyou would use in that, in that
exercise.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
It's so interesting man.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I mean it's, I mean in the, in the.
What's interesting, especiallyin, in, in, in, within the
fitness professionals, is thatthere hasn't been that much like
there are.
There is research and there'sresearch comparing EMS to
traditional training and EMS forlower back pain and all these
things that's.
Another aspect is that theelectricity does help, they do
(21:28):
STEM units right forchiropractic and physical
therapy.
That's where it all came from.
It's from the TENS units andthen from the TENS units.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I'm a TENS, sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, same thing but it's different.
Same thing but like it'sdifferent settings and different
parameters to elicit differentoutcomes.
But it does stem from that eraof like physical therapy and so
on, and so it does have somepain alleviating properties of
and you can set it like I canuse my suit as like a giant TENS
(22:00):
unit for lower back andalleviate pains and so on.
But the idea is to stillstimulate all of the muscles
that you're using in eachexercise and just maybe lower
some of the other ones.
But what I was saying is thatthe research like there hasn't
been a lot of research of likedoing this with, uh, heavy
(22:22):
weights, for example, and likehow someone that can't activate
their glutes right, like you'retrying to get people to deadlift
and they've been sitting allday and they have dead butt
syndrome and, like you, theirglutes need to activate.
You would have to go throughlike, okay, let's do clams and
glute bridges and let's activatethe glutes and blah, blah, and
like you would spend a goodamount of the session doing that
(22:43):
.
Here there's no escaping thestimulation.
The stimulation is on.
The glutes are going to firethat's interesting and so
someone that doesn't have goodglute activation.
You fire them like you startgetting them to deadlift and
they're going to feel it.
What if you?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
take it to, like such an example, someone that's
frozen shoulder, right, you'reactivating the opposite muscle
or the antagonist muscles to thetrapezius, because that's
usually what locks out frozenshoulder, because it's too tight
, right?
Is that the idea to help get aperson to raise through their
arm?
You're forcing the body to firemuscles that don't want to be
(23:22):
fired.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, you can.
I mean you can.
This is an application that youcan.
I don't right now.
I do have a couple of clientsthat with.
They don't have complete frozenshoulder but they have like
shoulder mobility issues, and soyou can have the stim super low
on the traps just to have somestimulation and then increase it
on the lats and whateverexercise you want to do, the
external rotations etc.
(23:44):
Like you can.
You can apply physical therapyand corrective exercise uh, you
know parameters into an emsworkout.
They will still get and this isthe benefit of it is that they
will still get their abs, theirglutes, their quads, like
everything, stimulated andchallenged even though they're
doing external rotations.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Yeah, I'm thinking like just people should like
when they picture the human body, like you, just like see it as
an electrical panel.
Like everything that relates tothe human body relates to
construction of a house.
So you look at electrical panel, right panel.
Like, everything that relatesto the human body relates to
construction of a house.
So, yeah, you look at anelectrical panel, right every.
That's where everything getsfed from, from one main source
(24:28):
out to the rest of the house.
If, like, your body ever stillworks slightly different because
everything overlays each otherbut you take, like, an electric
signal and your fascia like getstoo clubbed up, you get a giant
knot that can help prevent.
Like, let's say, if it's inyour trap, your trap does get
locked out, but if the signal istraveling down, it gets stuck
(24:49):
because the trapezius is totallylocked out and the fascia is
all wonky.
And then you're not firing yourtrap muscle correctly and
you're going to get mobilityissues.
Or you're trying to liftsomething, your trap traps
locked out.
Same exact also going toovercompensate with other
muscles and ultimately createoveruse with other muscles and
injury, because your body'sgoing to be a lot of
(25:10):
disproportion.
So if you're able to go aroundthat right and say, hey, we're
going to skip that and we'reholy shit, what about people
that don't have nerves?
Take patients that had nervesevered and let's say, I can't
feel my quad whatsoever it's.
Can you work the quad?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
so it depends, it depends.
I've worked with people withneuropathy and like they don't
feel their, their toes and so onand I use the, the um,
basically I've used the armbandson their calves and then for an
afternoon they're like, wow, Icould feel my feet again, I
could right.
Like it stimulates the, thenervous system and so then it's
a little more activated andthey're able to move a little
(25:55):
better.
Uh, is it permanent?
Maybe if we had trained moreregularly and more often and so
on, maybe, but at least I knowthat on a temporary basis it was
helpful.
There is research going on, Iknow, with these suits and
Parkinson's disease.
But the FDA, for now, like on acommercial level, is saying
(26:20):
like anybody with severeneurological disease, they
cannot do EMS, they don't knowwhat it's going to do to it and
blah, blah, blah.
But under doctor supervisionand research settings, like they
are doing research and it iskind of promising so far.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So I had a client of mine years ago that couldn't
walk, 42-year-old male.
They severed a bunch of nervesin his back from lepidectomy and
he lost feeling to his rightoblique, his right quad, his
right hip flexor Couldn't evensit upright.
And this isn't like apracticing theory.
(26:59):
This is Anthony theory, Fulldisclosure here.
But it worked for one patient.
And this isn't like apracticing theory.
This is Anthony theory, fulldisclosure here.
But it worked for one patient.
So maybe it worked.
For the other patient Was, eventhough those nerves were
severing Don, the idea I had wasto activate the muscles.
Lower than that.
So if it's a spot activate thegas, the gastrocnemius, you
(27:21):
could say or the aterotubialis,and get the body used to firing
down below it, and then forcethe body, through the range of
motion, to work that particularmuscle that isn't activated did
it work yeah, the body finds away right, like, like.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
it's very interesting , I've not had that circumstance
.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
It took three years, don't get me wrong.
Oh my God, all of a sudden likehe's moving.
But like you would see it, itwas crazy, like after over it,
like we would do some things totry to activate the muscle and
it would be all me moving thelegs in of the range of motion.
Right, he's not helping at allfor about four months and then
(28:09):
all of a sudden, like onesession, the body sends an
electric signal and the quadspat the out and moves.
It's like it misfired, but itmoved.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
I mean I'd be incredibly interested in trying
EMS with someone that has thatissue and see if it can
accelerate the process, if itcan because you could.
You're doing basically havingthem move passively.
You're moving it for him,moving his passively right like
you're.
You're moving it for him,moving his limb for him, and but
(28:44):
I had to move it.
The key was he had to thinkabout moving the muscle yeah,
exactly like he had to connectthere and be like you're moving
my leg.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Great, but no, yeah, I want to like, I want you to
pull, or imagine you're pullingas hard as you can from that
muscle, yeah, right, and thenyou could tell when you hit,
when you pay attention.
It never worked, yeah, but whenhe concentrated like you would
get a signal shot through themuscle and it was the craziest
thing I've ever seen in my lifethe whole training.
It's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
It's fascinating and uh, listen, if, if there's a
listener that has a conditionand can can do it with me.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I'd be glad to to try it yeah, I'm really curious to
see like how because that's waymore of a convincing argument
like no offense, like that,that's where this research
should be.
It's with people like that thatreally truly like I'm gonna try
anything, like I want to belike for him.
He didn't want his wife to wipehis ass anymore, he wanted to
go to the bathroom on his own,which we got him to do.
(29:40):
But like that's someone who'slike I'll try anything at this
point Instead of.
Our issue like this is you andme both, and even the guy I
talked to last week and the weekbefore that it's so much easier
to convince my doctor that Ineed a shot of Ozempic because
that takes about three seconds.
(30:01):
Right, I don't have to get into.
Okay, now you're gonna loseweight, and that's the only
outcome of persons thinkingabout not thinking about all the
crazy side effects that comewith it, but just weight loss.
I have three seconds, I don'thave to sweat yeah, but you lose
.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
you lose muscle, and so I have clients on a Zempik,
and this helps maintain andbuild muscle when they've maybe
had a lifestyle that doesn'tinclude going to the gym,
doesn't include lifting weights,doesn't include right, and so
where do these people go?
This is just one more idealoption.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, I love it, man.
I appreciate you coming on andtalking about.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Thank you for having me Fun, very interesting topic.
Got two final questions for you.
If you were to summarize thisepisode in one or two sentences,
what would be your take onmessage?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I would say fun.
I mean you're, you make thingsfun and you have stories too.
They're awesome.
So I would say fun and takehome, Be open-minded to trying
new things.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
I love it.
And an easy question how canpeople find you, get a hold of
you and learn more about EMStraining?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So you can find me on ConradEMSFitnesscom and on
Instagram is at Conrad Fitness.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I love it.
Conrad, thank you so much forcoming on.
I really appreciate you dealingwith me today.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Thank you for the listeners.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
And please don't forget share, subscribe to the
show.
It's the only way that thisshow grows.
And don't forget fitness ismedicine.
Until next time, thank you.
Hello and welcome to Health and Fitness Redefined.
I'm your host, anthony Amen,and today we have another great
episode for all of you.
Today For those listening thatare current members we are
getting ready to open up the newMount Sinai location.
We're shooting for April 21st.
So that's what I've been doingall day is getting that ready.
Easter weekend we're going toclose the old ones, say goodbye,
(00:28):
cry a little bit and then wakeup Easter Monday and be super
ecstatic and excited and nevercare that we'd left in the first
place.
So looking forward to all that.
But more importantly, ontoday's show we got Conrad.
Conrad, thank you for coming on.
Before we hop into literallythe topic of this because it is
kind of unique which is EMS,just tell me a little bit about
(00:51):
how you got into it, because Imean, getting into fitness is
unique and then getting into EMSis even more unique.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me and
congratulations on opening a gym.
That's a big endeavor, and socongrats, hats off to you there.
Yeah, so how?
So?
First, the first question ofhow I got into the fitness
industry real quick.
I was in New York and New Yorkcity.
I was 23.
It was the beginning of theeconomic crisis in 2008.
(01:20):
I was in sales for a financialcompany.
I hated it in 2008.
I was in sales for a financialcompany.
I hated it, and so I thoughtI'm young, let me do something
that's a little more extravagant.
And so I became the executiveassistant to a Venezuelan
billionaire and I was travelingwith him around the world.
But I worked from 6am to 11pm,didn't have a life, didn't see
(01:42):
more than the walls of my hotelroom, and he traveled with a
personal trainer, and thepersonal trainer worked about an
hour in the morning and thenwent for a walk with him in the
evening, and I thought I need tobe that guy.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So I spoke to him.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
He was like yeah, I just got a certification and so
that I always wanted a job whereI could help people and also
didn't have a ceiling to howmuch I could learn.
Uh, and so I went to personaltraining, and that was now 16
years ago, and throughout mycareer I mostly worked with
people with diabetes, injuries,chronic conditions and um, so
(02:20):
these special populations thatoften the fitness industry has
not put at the center of theirmarketing or service, and so I
was always looking for ways tohelp my clients and I stumbled
upon EMS, and it changed mycareer again.
(02:43):
So EMS stands for electricalmuscle stimulation.
It is short for WBEMS, which iswhole body electrical muscle
stimulation, and it's a suitwith electrodes.
It's a 20 minute workout andit's very intense and very
effective.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Yeah, I mean you don't hear that intro story to
fitness.
Often Worked for a billionaire,saw a trainer and got ahead of
easy yeah, I know usually it'ssomething way different.
I've never heard that before inthe five years of doing this
show.
So, yeah, mind-blowing you.
You think see, this personaltrainer has life easy.
(03:21):
I will tell you, most trainers,as you know, now work from 5 am
to 8 pm, have no life and youjust kind of go off the fact
that you love helping people.
Yeah, it makes you smile yes butbut that guy, wow, that's uh,
that's a awesome story, man,yeah thank you and hopping into
(03:43):
uh ems.
I was telling you a littlebackstage.
It's a company by me which is agiant franchise that does
something very similar.
They're all about 20 minutes.
Hook up to this whole bodysuitready set go.
This is my biggest question andI know for non-fitness people
this is not their biggestquestion.
(04:06):
Not even like fitness, likenon-fitness people this is not
their biggest question, so, butfrom something not even like
fitness, I'm like just strictbusiness owner question about
how this works right, the timeand setup it takes to put on a
whole body suit and then takeyourself seriously.
We're looking at america andthinking to myself wow, I look
like an alien.
Um, to then go get shockedintentionally to go work out and
(04:30):
feel more uncomfortable, likehow, how do you convince people?
Yeah, you can try, right,because if you're not the
benefits, right, even if it'sthe best thing in the entire
world, how do you get some?
I struggle getting people justto walk.
Let's go for a walk today orlet's do a 20-minute workout.
(04:50):
I'm not telling them to go puta giant suit on and we're not
only going to sweat, but you'regoing to feel more uncomfortable
because we're going toelectrocute the shit out of you.
So several things there.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
First of all, putting on the suit you do have to wear
it depends on the suit andthere are different
manufacturers, but you do haveto wear usually a cotton layer,
base layer, and then the trainerand this is the uncomfortable
part has to wet the pro suit,the suit, with the electrodes.
There are ways to make thatcomfortable.
(05:24):
You can use hot water and thatway when you put it on it
doesn't feel like.
My mind just goes in the gutterwhen you say that Exactly, then
usually, if the trainer iswell-trained, they can suit you
up pretty quickly.
It should take about a minuteor a minute and a half to put on
the suit and then take it off.
So we're still within, you know, inside the 25 minute range.
(05:50):
And then, yeah, you do get, I'mgoing to say, stimulated, not
electrocuted.
So the stimulation is anelectrical signal, but how you
contract muscles is through anelectrical signal of your
nervous system.
So your nervous system doesdeliver an electric shock to
your muscles which engage yourmuscle fibers, and so this is
(06:14):
mimicking that signal andenhancing it.
So you are still contractingyour muscles.
It's not a passive treatment.
You are exercising, you aredoing movements, lunges, squats,
whatever exercise you want.
You are contracting your ownmuscles and then you're allowing
the suit to enhance your owncontractions akin to lifting
heavy.
So EMS shines as a strengthtraining tool and in about 20
(06:41):
minutes you do get theequivalent of about a two hour
session of weightlifting.
And this is based on researchstudies comparing people doing
EMS for 16 weeks, once or twicea week, to a group doing 32
hours of traditional training toeight hours of EMS time, and
(07:10):
the strength results werecomparable the strength results,
and that's why that comparisonis a one to four Right.
So one session of EMS is fourhours of traditional training.
I don't make that comparisonbecause when you're training
four hours you have otherelements, you have metabolic
conditioning, you're stretchinglike there's other things.
(07:32):
So I'm reducing it to closer toan hour and a half, to two
hours of weightlifting.
Okay, but how do you?
Speaker 1 (07:39):
convince someone to do it.
So how do you get clients to?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
do it.
So it's a good question now.
Uh, I personally offer a 50 offon the first session.
Uh, I travel to people's housesso I can't offer it for free.
In a studio, you could offer afree session or or a discounted,
you know, three pack orwhatever and and.
But you have to have a goodexperience.
And mostly it's word of mouth.
(08:04):
It's someone that says like youknow what, fine, I'll try it
and, and they refer out and andthat's how it goes, and it's.
The population is mostly womenages 40 and up that don't like
the gym environment, don't likethe gym environment, like the
(08:24):
toxic culture of some gyms,don't like to lift weights,
don't want to look bulky, likeall these fears around lifting
weights, may not have access toweights, may rather have someone
come to their house, and theydon't want to have a full gym in
their house, right?
So there's all these conditionsthat, like EMS, allows to
circumvent.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
This is a tough one for me.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I'm sorry, no, please , please.
I mean these are validquestions because I have had
people like, wait, you have toput on a suit and, wait, someone
else has used that suit and I'mlike, yes, okay, but the suit
gets disinfected and you'rewearing a base layer, so it's
not direct skin contact, youknow what.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
That doesn't even bother me, cause I get it.
Cause, like gym equipment, whatdo you think we do?
We're not like placing theleather off the machines every
time, right?
So that I totally understand.
It's like it's just so funnythat the episode that came up
right before this listeners andfor you to understand, it's not
a BFR training.
So right before this forlisteners and for you to
(09:26):
understand.
We're not at bfr training, sowe're like two super unique
niche style workouts.
It's just the mental side oflike personally for myself, like
I can get behind a lot of stuff, so like just from a sales
point not from a health point ofconvincing people to do
something, and these two arejust like that tough.
It's a tough sell.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
It's a tough sell, but if you can promise about two
hours of results in 20 minutes,that's that's where where, like
, the marketing would go intoright.
Like that's where, like you'regetting results, you're getting
more for a bang for a buck.
Like when, when you put on thesuit, it's and you're getting
(10:10):
more for a bang for a buck.
Like when, when you put on thesuit, it's and you're doing
bicep curls, your legs, yourglutes, your quads, your abs
everything is still firing.
So it is like, even if you'refocusing on one exercise with
one small muscle group, likeeverything is getting stimulated
and challenged yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
So let's, let's break down the science behind it.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Tell us to me from a basic level about why it works.
So the basic level ofunderstanding is we contract
muscles through an electricsignal of the nervous system.
This mimics that signal andenhances it.
Now, when you're going to thegym, typically you would do if
you were doing like atraditional body split routine
10, 15 minutes of legs, 10, 15minutes of arms, 10, 15 minutes
(10:51):
of abs, right, and by the timeyou get the full body, you would
run at around an hour, an hourand a half, depending on how
fast or short or if you superset, right, but I mean sort of.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I mean, I've been doing traditional training, you
know, you know, 11 years.
I'm all about just the deadliftday, man, 60 to 70 of the
muscles in my body.
It's one movement, 20 minutes.
I'm done yeah so.
So imagine doing deadlifts, butlike, deadlifts are not going to
challenge your chest, they'renot necessarily going to
challenge your triceps, rightlike of course, but at least I
get like most of the body out ofthe way in one day, like one
(11:28):
lift, and I do three sets ofthat.
Then I can move on to like,even like powerlifting splits.
Right, that's most of the bodyit's most of the body.
Yeah, yeah so you're gettingclose to that, or just, uh,
squat presses like then you'rewhat else that pushups for, for
movements you're done.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, great.
So the imagine doing all thatwith EMS.
But but no, so the, the idea isthat, or the idea, the science
behind it is that by the, theother thing that this thing is,
the stimulation will, will fireall the muscle fibers.
So type one, type two, anythingthat's underneath the electrode
(12:09):
will get stimulated.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
What muscle fibers are prioritizing?
Is it prioritizing one or two?
Because, like you, there's two.
Let me just give a commonmisconception about muscle
fibers, because I'm a generalpublic, not a press, but other
people.
So muscle fibers are apercentage of the muscle.
This type one is type two andthere's subsets inside of both
of them.
The most common one we keeptabs up as a subset, it's like
(12:32):
uh, 2a and 2b.
Yeah, right, you can only havea certain percentage of a muscle
.
It's the same thing.
Uh, it always uses example frommultitasking.
Right, people think that youcan, your body, your brain can
multitask.
Multitasking physicallyimpossible.
Right, you can't focus ahundred percent of two things
because you only have a hundredpercent of your attention.
Yeah, anything goes for muscletissue.
(12:54):
You can't full focus a hundredpercent on type one and type two
.
You can only split, like 50here, 50 there, or 60, 40 or
whatever it may be, which is whyyou'll never see a
long-distance runner be able tolift a lot of weight and then
vice versa.
So which is a prioritizing?
(13:15):
The movements you're using, theweight you're using, like, how
does your brain know, or yourbody know, to like hit different
types of the fast, central,slow, twitch muscles With the
suit or without it, you mean?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
With With the suit.
So the suit.
There's two theories Eitherit's the inverted size principle
, the Heneman's size principle,either it's inverted, so it's
targeting type two first, or theshotgun theory, which is just
firing everything that'sunderneath it.
And I tend to believe it'scloser to the shotgun theory
(13:50):
that it's just firing whatevermuscle fibers are underneath the
electrode.
And the electrode I'm sayingthe electrode, but it doesn't
have to be like the electrode isusually on the belly of the
muscle and it will, depending onthe parameters that you use,
like you have frequency, youhave pulse width, so depending
on those parameters, it will goeither deeper into the muscle or
more superficial, or it willengage more or less muscle
(14:10):
fibers.
So the, the stimulation willengage the muscle fibers which,
um, by engaging type two musclefibers with zero to no weight,
like even if you're holding likethree to five pounds, like
we're doing squats or deadliftswith that much weight, and it's
still engaging those type twomuscle fibers.
(14:33):
So it means that from day oneyou can get people stronger
quicker, not just because it's20 minutes, but because when you
have a total beginner, 85 yearold, it's never lifted weights.
You're not going to put themlike, okay, five by five
deadlifts.
Right, like you're not going todo that.
It's going to take time to gothrough.
You know, 15 reps, 12 reps, 10reps and like.
(14:55):
Over like a period of 8 to 12weeks, you'll start getting into
strength training here from dayone.
You can already target themwith actual strength training.
That's one benefit that ishidden and usually not very
marketed by EMS trainers.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Interesting.
It's just a straight out fireof electrodes, right?
So I'm doing the electrodesorry for electro stimulation
inside of all the muscle fibersand the body's, kind of just
activating how it goes, so likeI was telling you backstage, and
you can break down thedifference of it, like I've done
a new fit, yeah, which you saidis different than this.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
So why don't you explain the difference and I'll
share my experience of the newfit I'd rather you share your
experience with your new fitfirst, because I've never tried
new fit and I I just I've seenit on instagram.
I've seen what it is.
It's like electrodes on usuallyone or two joints, so it's
never the full body.
But but you tell me what, howit was your experience?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
yeah, it was like 10 electrodes on my legs and we did
basic squats, like just bodyweight squats, and then I pushed
myself a little bit.
Uh, some lunges and then someglute bridges like all body
weight, yeah, and playing withthe intensity of it.
Just first reaction way toolong of a setup like that was my
(16:20):
biggest turn off with it.
Yeah, like sitting thereputting all them on I have a lot
of hair as a male, my legs notcomfortable.
I can say yeah.
So that was the first thing.
The second thing is it feltweird not being able to like
(16:42):
actually contract the muscle theway I wanted to contract it.
So what I mean by that is whenI'm doing a lunge for my right
leg, let's say an example and Iwant to extend my quadricep
muscle by standing, I felt likeI couldn't do it and sometimes I
felt like it was putting me inthe reverse and it was trying to
(17:03):
tighten the muscle up.
It's like very similar togetting a charlie horse.
Where you're at that borderline, you're like you're not sure is
my leg gonna cramp up?
is it not gonna cramp up?
Am I gonna hate my lifetomorrow like you don't know and
you just constantly felt likeyou were in that stage, like I
feel like my muscles just gonnalock.
It never did, but I felt justuncomfortable in that situation.
(17:27):
It was hard to do whatever itdid it for 20 minutes, put it
away.
The interesting part was Iliterally couldn't bend my leg
for three days afterwards.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
You were sore.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
No, not even sore.
I've never I've been sore.
I've worked, I've done ToughMudders, I've done 13 mile
Spartan races.
I know sore I could not bend myknee.
It was such bad DOMS that justthe range of motion was yeah,
three fucking days.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
It was so painful it was, like I would say, a little
too effective.
I would say that's overdoing ita little bit For our first
session.
I would say maybe they wantedto impress you a little bit.
They knew you were a trainer.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
No, no, it was one of my trainers that does this.
That's what makes it bit.
They knew you were a trainer.
No, no, it was one of mytrainers that does this.
That's what makes it worse.
It was an employee of mine.
Maybe it was just paybackagainst me, I really don't know.
I was trying to show off to youoh, this is so easy, I can go
all day.
She's like you should probablystop.
I was like, yeah, do it.
It, it's your fault.
(18:39):
Yeah, apparently like.
My point is like if I did thattraditional weightlifting style
right, and I would stop becausementally like I wouldn't be able
to do anything right, I wouldnever be able to get to be that
sore because my brain would justbe like I'm done, but inside
the electrodes you don't realizehow much you're exerting, so
it's a lot easier just to kindof slip past that point.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah, that makes sense yeah, so there's a few key
differences.
One one, I would say so thisdoesn't.
This uses electrodes, butthey're they're.
They're on a suit, and so thesuit is just like a jacket and
the electrodes are placed wherethe major muscles are um, for
the legs, it's one electrode,for the quads, one electrode for
(19:19):
the hamstring and glutes.
Typically you can move aroundthe electrodes depending on what
suit you have, and so you cantarget adductors or whatever you
want.
But the idea is that you'restill doing exercises like
squats, lunges, whatever youwant, and it's to push to.
Like I typically cue clientslike I want you to be challenged
(19:41):
, but you should be able to move, like you shouldn't be locked,
and so it's training peopleunderneath that like lock
sensation or or even underneathpain.
But uh, so typically I equatelike, okay, 10 is pain, 9 is you
can't really move, and so wewant to train at an 8, so an 8
out of ten.
Like we want to make sure thatyou're constantly challenged and
(20:02):
you want to kind of like fightthrough the stimulation to like
get up, get down, whatever.
Um, the the setup is muchquicker because it's just like
clips that you put on, like Isaid, like it takes about a
minute and a half to control theamount of electricity through
it so the, the suit I use is iscalled the weim's pro and it has
(20:26):
an ipad and I have all themuscles and I.
It has different channels andand so I I can control, like the
entire body.
I can lift the entire body upor I can raise or lower every
muscle, for example, deadlifts.
Uh, typically I would lower thequads because I want them to be
able to to, to flex forward,and so I would increase the
(20:48):
glutes and hamstrings a littlebit, maybe, maybe a little bit
of the back, but I would reducethe arms, the, the quads, to
allow for the movement to happenwith, you know, natural
activation of the muscles thatyou would use in that, in that
exercise.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
It's so interesting man.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I mean it's, I mean in the, in the.
What's interesting, especiallyin, in, in, in, within the
fitness professionals, is thatthere hasn't been that much like
there are.
There is research and there'sresearch comparing EMS to
traditional training and EMS forlower back pain and all these
things that's.
Another aspect is that theelectricity does help, they do
(21:28):
STEM units right forchiropractic and physical
therapy.
That's where it all came from.
It's from the TENS units andthen from the TENS units.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
I'm a TENS, sorry.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, same thing but it's different.
Same thing but like it'sdifferent settings and different
parameters to elicit differentoutcomes.
But it does stem from that eraof like physical therapy and so
on, and so it does have somepain alleviating properties of
and you can set it like I canuse my suit as like a giant TENS
(22:00):
unit for lower back andalleviate pains and so on.
But the idea is to stillstimulate all of the muscles
that you're using in eachexercise and just maybe lower
some of the other ones.
But what I was saying is thatthe research like there hasn't
been a lot of research of likedoing this with, uh, heavy
(22:22):
weights, for example, and likehow someone that can't activate
their glutes right, like you'retrying to get people to deadlift
and they've been sitting allday and they have dead butt
syndrome and, like you, theirglutes need to activate.
You would have to go throughlike, okay, let's do clams and
glute bridges and let's activatethe glutes and blah, blah, and
like you would spend a goodamount of the session doing that
(22:43):
.
Here there's no escaping thestimulation.
The stimulation is on.
The glutes are going to firethat's interesting and so
someone that doesn't have goodglute activation.
You fire them like you startgetting them to deadlift and
they're going to feel it.
What if you?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
take it to, like such an example, someone that's
frozen shoulder, right, you'reactivating the opposite muscle
or the antagonist muscles to thetrapezius, because that's
usually what locks out frozenshoulder, because it's too tight
, right?
Is that the idea to help get aperson to raise through their
arm?
You're forcing the body to firemuscles that don't want to be
(23:22):
fired.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Yeah, you can.
I mean you can.
This is an application that youcan.
I don't right now.
I do have a couple of clientsthat with.
They don't have complete frozenshoulder but they have like
shoulder mobility issues, and soyou can have the stim super low
on the traps just to have somestimulation and then increase it
on the lats and whateverexercise you want to do, the
external rotations etc.
(23:44):
Like you can.
You can apply physical therapyand corrective exercise uh, you
know parameters into an emsworkout.
They will still get and this isthe benefit of it is that they
will still get their abs, theirglutes, their quads, like
everything, stimulated andchallenged even though they're
doing external rotations.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
Yeah, I'm thinking like just people should like
when they picture the human body, like you, just like see it as
an electrical panel.
Like everything that relates tothe human body relates to
construction of a house.
So you look at electrical panel, right panel.
Like, everything that relatesto the human body relates to
construction of a house.
So, yeah, you look at anelectrical panel, right every.
That's where everything getsfed from, from one main source
(24:28):
out to the rest of the house.
If, like, your body ever stillworks slightly different because
everything overlays each otherbut you take, like, an electric
signal and your fascia like getstoo clubbed up, you get a giant
knot that can help prevent.
Like, let's say, if it's inyour trap, your trap does get
locked out, but if the signal istraveling down, it gets stuck
(24:49):
because the trapezius is totallylocked out and the fascia is
all wonky.
And then you're not firing yourtrap muscle correctly and
you're going to get mobilityissues.
Or you're trying to liftsomething, your trap traps
locked out.
Same exact also going toovercompensate with other
muscles and ultimately createoveruse with other muscles and
injury, because your body'sgoing to be a lot of
(25:10):
disproportion.
So if you're able to go aroundthat right and say, hey, we're
going to skip that and we'reholy shit, what about people
that don't have nerves?
Take patients that had nervesevered and let's say, I can't
feel my quad whatsoever it's.
Can you work the quad?
Speaker 2 (25:33):
so it depends, it depends.
I've worked with people withneuropathy and like they don't
feel their, their toes and so onand I use the, the um,
basically I've used the armbandson their calves and then for an
afternoon they're like, wow, Icould feel my feet again, I
could right.
Like it stimulates the, thenervous system and so then it's
a little more activated andthey're able to move a little
(25:55):
better.
Uh, is it permanent?
Maybe if we had trained moreregularly and more often and so
on, maybe, but at least I knowthat on a temporary basis it was
helpful.
There is research going on, Iknow, with these suits and
Parkinson's disease.
But the FDA, for now, like on acommercial level, is saying
(26:20):
like anybody with severeneurological disease, they
cannot do EMS, they don't knowwhat it's going to do to it and
blah, blah, blah.
But under doctor supervisionand research settings, like they
are doing research and it iskind of promising so far.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So I had a client of mine years ago that couldn't
walk, 42-year-old male.
They severed a bunch of nervesin his back from lepidectomy and
he lost feeling to his rightoblique, his right quad, his
right hip flexor Couldn't evensit upright.
And this isn't like apracticing theory.
(26:59):
This is Anthony theory, Fulldisclosure here.
But it worked for one patient.
And this isn't like apracticing theory.
This is Anthony theory, fulldisclosure here.
But it worked for one patient.
So maybe it worked.
For the other patient Was, eventhough those nerves were
severing Don, the idea I had wasto activate the muscles.
Lower than that.
So if it's a spot activate thegas, the gastrocnemius, you
(27:21):
could say or the aterotubialis,and get the body used to firing
down below it, and then forcethe body, through the range of
motion, to work that particularmuscle that isn't activated did
it work yeah, the body finds away right, like, like.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
it's very interesting , I've not had that circumstance
.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
It took three years, don't get me wrong.
Oh my God, all of a sudden likehe's moving.
But like you would see it, itwas crazy, like after over it,
like we would do some things totry to activate the muscle and
it would be all me moving thelegs in of the range of motion.
Right, he's not helping at allfor about four months and then
(28:09):
all of a sudden, like onesession, the body sends an
electric signal and the quadspat the out and moves.
It's like it misfired, but itmoved.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
I mean I'd be incredibly interested in trying
EMS with someone that has thatissue and see if it can
accelerate the process, if itcan because you could.
You're doing basically havingthem move passively.
You're moving it for him,moving his passively right like
you're.
You're moving it for him,moving his limb for him, and but
(28:44):
I had to move it.
The key was he had to thinkabout moving the muscle yeah,
exactly like he had to connectthere and be like you're moving
my leg.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Great, but no, yeah, I want to like, I want you to
pull, or imagine you're pullingas hard as you can from that
muscle, yeah, right, and thenyou could tell when you hit,
when you pay attention.
It never worked, yeah, but whenhe concentrated like you would
get a signal shot through themuscle and it was the craziest
thing I've ever seen in my lifethe whole training.
It's fascinating.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
It's fascinating and uh, listen, if, if there's a
listener that has a conditionand can can do it with me.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
I'd be glad to to try it yeah, I'm really curious to
see like how because that's waymore of a convincing argument
like no offense, like that,that's where this research
should be.
It's with people like that thatreally truly like I'm gonna try
anything, like I want to belike for him.
He didn't want his wife to wipehis ass anymore, he wanted to
go to the bathroom on his own,which we got him to do.
(29:40):
But like that's someone who'slike I'll try anything at this
point Instead of.
Our issue like this is you andme both, and even the guy I
talked to last week and the weekbefore that it's so much easier
to convince my doctor that Ineed a shot of Ozempic because
that takes about three seconds.
(30:01):
Right, I don't have to get into.
Okay, now you're gonna loseweight, and that's the only
outcome of persons thinkingabout not thinking about all the
crazy side effects that comewith it, but just weight loss.
I have three seconds, I don'thave to sweat yeah, but you lose
.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
you lose muscle, and so I have clients on a Zempik,
and this helps maintain andbuild muscle when they've maybe
had a lifestyle that doesn'tinclude going to the gym,
doesn't include lifting weights,doesn't include right, and so
where do these people go?
This is just one more idealoption.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, I love it, man.
I appreciate you coming on andtalking about.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:42):
Thank you for having me Fun, very interesting topic.
Got two final questions for you.
If you were to summarize thisepisode in one or two sentences,
what would be your take onmessage?
Speaker 2 (30:55):
I would say fun.
I mean you're, you make thingsfun and you have stories too.
They're awesome.
So I would say fun and takehome, Be open-minded to trying
new things.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
I love it.
And an easy question how canpeople find you, get a hold of
you and learn more about EMStraining?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
So you can find me on ConradEMSFitnesscom and on
Instagram is at Conrad Fitness.
Speaker 1 (31:19):
I love it.
Conrad, thank you so much forcoming on.
I really appreciate you dealingwith me today.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Thank you for the listeners.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
And please don't forget share, subscribe to the
show.
It's the only way that thisshow grows.
And don't forget fitness ismedicine.
Until next time, thank you.
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