EMS (Electro Muscular Stimulation) and in particular WB (whole body) EMS derives its methodology
from physiotherapy and its here we should begin before we discuss how its now progressed to a
whole body training concept accessible in many gyms and fitness studios worldwide.

For centuries, believe it or nor some form of electro stimulation has been in use . Around 200 BC
during the Roman Empire physician, writer and philosopher Claudius Galenus, born of Greek descent
was one of the first to use EMS…using electric eels to treat mainly headaches in patients. Galanus’s
word was gospel during this era so the use of electric fish to treat many things continued for
centuries.

Fast forward a few hundred years to the mid 18 th century and we have German born doctor,
physicist and engineer Christian Kratzenstein who discovered that electricity and electric current
could heal certain neurological disorders. This work was later to be advanced by Italian physician
Luigi Galvani who became famous for stimulating muscle contractions in dead frogs legs via an
electric spark. This instigated the theory of ‘galvanism’…to ‘shock or excite into action’.

Kratzenstein and Galvani, two of the pioneers of electrotherapy were so popular in their time that
the author Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein was rumoured to be based on them. Similarities in the
title name to Kratzenstein and the popular theory of ‘galvanism’ during Mary Shelley’s time are
surely not co -incidences as we all know the story of Frankenstein.

Electricity and its possible uses in ‘galvanising’ the human body continued to be of great intrigue and
fascination to many scientist and physicians in the coming years, eventually becoming more
conventional and more akin to modern day electrotherapy through the work of English physicist
Michael Faraday and French neurologist Guillaume-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne at the beginning of
the 19 th Century. It’s fair to say that the work of these two men forms the basis of modern electro
stimulation today.

In the 1960s, electricity was now being used to treat patients with paralysis resulting from head
injuries, strokes, and other neurological disorders and spinal chord injuries (SCI) via FES( Functional
Electrical Stimulation). By applying a small electrical charge to weak or paralysed muscle in these
patients stimulation and movement in the muscles could now be seen helping them restore
normality into their lives. Along with FES we also saw the introduction of TENS (Transcutaneous
Electrical Nerve Stimulation) which today are in many hospitals and medical centres worldwide and
used for many treatments ranging from pain relief during labour to chronic shoulder pain.

So we can now see electricity has been used for pain relief, rehabilitation, treatment of diseases,
neurological disorders and numerous other ailments throughout the centuries, but its uses in fitness

and the search for aesthetic perfection…how did this come about? During the 1970’s the first
documented cases of what we would now class as modern day EMS were devised by Dr. Yahov Kots,
a Russian doctor of the Central Institute of Physical Culture. He invented ‘an external stimulator’ that
he claimed ‘can increase the strength of a muscle by 40% after 20 treatments’. These were bold
claims but his methods were popular with many Russian athletes at the time including tennis
players, athletic stars and ice hockey players. Currently , localized EMS (EMS device is specifically
concentrated and attached to one muscle group) is well used by many sports teams and athletes for
recovery from specific muscle tears, imbalances and injuries.

Coming full circle, we now find our selves in an era where people are increasingly knowledgeable on
wellness, nutrition and various factors that effect both our aesthetics and mind and body hence in
the early 21 st century (2003 to be exact) saw the creation of the first whole body EMS training
system called the ‘ Body Transformer’. Since then it has been progressed, tweaked and adapted
representing the modern era’s whole body EMS device.