The effect of 6 weeks electrical muscle stimulation training and aerobic exercise on body composition of overweight women: a randomized controlled study

Background and aims Aerobic exercise has proven positive effects on weight reduction and body composition improvement. During recent years, whole-body electrical muscle stimulation (WB-EMS) training has received attention as a method for time-efficient exercise. So, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of superimposed whole-body EMS compared to aerobic exercise alone on body composition. Methods Forty sedentary overweight women aged 20-45 years old were randomly allocated to either moderate intensity aerobic exercise (3 days/week) or aerobic exercise (3 days/week) plus WB-EMS (2 days/week) for 6 weeks. WB-EMS was conducted with intermittent stimulation (6 s WB-EMS, 4 s rest; 85 Hz, 350 ms) over 20 min. The main outcome parameters were weight, body fat mass, percent body fat (PBF), lean body mass (LBM), waist and hip circumferences and abdominal and suprailiac skinfold. Results After 6 weeks, both groups showed improvement in weight and body composition parameters based on bioimpedance (BIA) without statistical differences between groups (p > 0.05). Skinfold decreased in abdominal and suprailiac points in both groups (p = 0.000), with significant between-group difference for abdominal skinfold (p = 0.04). Waist and hip circumferences decreased in both groups (p < 0.05), without differences between groups (p = 0.69 and p = 0.43, respectively). Conclusion According to the results of the present study, aerobic exercise improved body composition and WB-EMS added no significant benefits, except for some added improvement in abdominal skinfold.