Training for a Marathon? How Mobile EMS Workouts Can Help
Running a marathon is no easy task. Many individuals will start training six months before implementing a rigorous training schedule. Experts recommend running between twelve and fifteen miles per week when preparing for a marathon. And many in training also alter their diet to promote muscle growth and ensure they have enough fuel. Because running a marathon is a huge milestone for most people, they can make dramatic changes to prepare.
Incorporating mobile EMS workouts into your regimen is one way to boost your preparation activities and ensure your body is ready for the marathon. EMS workouts can give you better muscle growth and endurance results than traditional workouts – and they can be accomplished in less time.
With EMS workouts, an individual will wear a suit with built-in electrodes that work out specific muscle groups. While completing any workout activity, the suit will deliver a small electrical current that creates an involuntary contraction of the muscles, although it mirrors the body’s natural muscle contractions.
The electric current going to the muscles copies the natural signals generated by the central nervous system, resulting in voluntary contractions when we move. While the signal is the same, the type of physiological contraction is different. Voluntary contractions activate Type I muscle fibers. Type I fibers, also called slow twitch fibers, support long-distance and endurance activities, like running a marathon.
Type II fibers are impossible to activate with voluntary contractions. With mobile EMS workouts, once all Type I fibers are activated, the current activates Type II fibers. Therefore, integrating mobile EMS workouts into your standard routine ensures that you get a complete workout that impacts all muscle fibers and doesn’t allow you to hold anything back. No other workout can evoke this type of physiological response, which is why mobile EMS has become so popular recently.
Incorporating mobile EMS workouts in your routine can lead to better strength and endurance, both of which are required when running a marathon. For example, one study showed that EMS workouts resulted in a speed increase of nearly 20% and strength increases of over 30%.
Running a marathon requires a lot of endurance, which is impacted by oxygen consumption, capillary density, maximum heart rate, and hemoglobin content. EMS training can often help individuals improve their maximum oxygen consumption, aerobic and gas exchange threshold values, and running economy. EMS training has helped some post their best-ever marathon times without making other changes to their workout routine leading up to the race.
Mobile EMS workouts don’t impact endurance alone but provide many other benefits, such as:
- Faster healing and recovery: All sports have the risk of injury. And with running, it’s easy to feel sore even after a regular run. Inflammation is common with overused muscles, such as those experienced by many individuals training for a marathon. EMS can increase circulation to inflamed areas. The increased blood flow helps soothe aching joints and heals tissue faster, meaning you can get back to training quickly.
- Increased strength:While endurance is commonly referenced as the key component in running marathons, there can be no doubt that strong muscles and ligaments support one’s endurance. The strength gained with mobile EMS can also help when running a marathon.
- Better cardiovascular performance: The physiological impact of EMS often results in better maximum oxygen consumption and running economy. The electric current from EMS increases circulation and optimizes the performance of the heart and lungs. Ultimately, this benefit means that your body is better able to deliver oxygen and nutrients to muscle fibers when they need it most, thus preventing fatigue.
- Greater flexibility: Flexibility and balance are vital for runners. When runners have great flexibility, there is less resistance from muscles and joints. Additionally, flexibility and stability may reduce the risk of an accidental injury while running.
Mobile EMS workouts can vary in speed and intensity to meet the needs of anyone’s fitness level, including those training for their first marathon. Additionally, as one progresses in their training, the settings can be adjusted to ensure that participants stay challenged and continue to build more muscle mass and endurance. And EMS can be applied to all muscles in the body or focus on targeted muscle groups to achieve precise athletic goals.
Whether it’s your first marathon or you have decades of experience, EMS workouts can improve your performance and give you an advantage throughout the marathon. To learn more about mobile EMS workouts, contact WB20 today.