Quick Overview
Scientists tested EMS on 14 healthy young men.
They did a loaded squat jump with 40 percent extra body weight. A T-Force sensor tracked peak power and mean propulsive power. After 20 minutes of thigh NMES, both scores rose (p = 0.021 and 0.016; moderate effects).
That suggests EMS can aid sports training for jumping, sprinting, basketball, soccer, and martial arts in young male athletes. The same fast leg drive may help other sports and other users too.
This 2025 peer-reviewed paper came from universities in Türkiye and Greece.
Read the full post for the method, limits, and takeaways.
We always provide direct links to the original research at the end of every article so you can review the evidence yourself.
20 Minutes on the Pads. Then a Stronger Jump.
A new sports-science study put EMS to a simple test. Healthy young men jumped with a loaded bar. Then they sat through one NMES session. Then they jumped again.
The second jump looked better.
That is the heart of the paper. It is not a miracle story. It is a measured lab result. And it is why this post exists. We are walking through a published study, line by line, so you can see what was actually tested.
Purpose of this post
This article explains one peer-reviewed paper in plain English.
The researchers wanted to know if a single NMES session could lift explosive power in healthy people. They used a loaded squat jump. They tracked two numbers: peak power and mean propulsive power.
If those numbers rose, EMS might help sports training. Not as a replacement for lifting. As an extra tool.
Why this write-up is grounded in real research
The paper is original research. It is not a sales brochure.
It appeared in the Journal of Men’s Health in 2025. That journal is peer-reviewed and open access. It is the official journal of the International Society of Men’s Health. It is indexed in Web of Science and Scopus.
The work came from sport-science teams in Türkiye. Iğdır University led the project. Gümüşhane University and Atatürk University joined. The corresponding author is Pantelis T. Nikolaidis at the University of West Attica in Athens. He is a widely published exercise physiologist.
An ethics committee at Iğdır University approved the protocol. The team followed the Declaration of Helsinki. Volunteers signed consent forms. The authors reported no external funding.
That is the paper we are using. You can check the names, the dates, and the stats yourself.
The story in the lab
Fourteen male sport-science students walked in. Average age was 23.71 years. Average height was 173.71 cm. Average weight was 69.59 kg.
They were healthy. No recent lower-body muscle injury. No drugs that could skew the test. They skipped alcohol and hard training for 24 hours. They slept more than seven hours.
First came a standard warm-up. Ten minutes of easy treadmill running. Then five minutes of stretching.
Then the jump.
They used a Smith machine. The bar stayed on vertical rails. The load was 40 percent of body weight. From a still start they sat until thighs were parallel. Then they drove up as fast as they could.
A T-Force linear velocity transducer logged the lift. That system is common in strength labs. It captures the speed of the bar. From that, the team calculated peak power and mean propulsive power.
That was the first test. No pads. No current.
Two days later, same time window. Same warm-up. Same jump. But first, 20 minutes of NMES.
What the EMS session looked like
Pads went on both legs. Quadriceps and hamstrings. Both sides.
The device was a Cefar Compex Rehab unit. Current rose until the team saw a strong tetanic contraction. If the squeeze faded, they turned it up. The goal was a clean, repeatable contraction.
The cycle was simple. Ten seconds on. Fifty seconds off. Ten reps. Two sets. Twenty contractions in 20 minutes.
Settings were 120 Hz. Pulse width was 400 microseconds. Intensity was the highest each man could tolerate.
Then they jumped again.
What the numbers showed
Both power scores rose after the pads came off.
Mean propulsive power improved. The paired test was t(13) = −2.756. The p-value was 0.016. Cohen’s d was −0.73. That is a moderate effect. The 95 percent confidence interval ran from −1.32 to −0.13.
Peak power improved too. The paired test was t(13) = −2.612. The p-value was 0.021. Cohen’s d was −0.69. Also a moderate effect. The 95 percent confidence interval ran from −1.27 to −0.10.
In plain language: the change was not random noise. After one EMS session, the same men produced more explosive power on the same jump.
The team used Shapiro–Wilk checks first. The data were normal enough for paired t-tests. They set significance at p < 0.05. They also plotted each person’s before-and-after line. Most lines climbed.
That is the evidence this study measured. Not vibes. Two power metrics. One movement. One session. A clear lift.
Why the researchers think this matters for sport
Power is force done fast. Jumps need it. Sprints need it. Throws need it.
The paper points to sports that live on that quality. Basketball. Soccer. Martial arts. Racket sports. Gymnastics. Swimming. Diving. Any sport that asks an athlete to leave the ground or drive an object in a blink.
The test itself was a loaded squat jump. That pattern sits under many field actions. A jump shot. A tackle. A first step. A block.
So the finding is specific and wider at the same time. Specific, because they measured that jump. Wider, because explosive power in the legs feeds many sports, not just one.
The authors call NMES a possible supplementary training tool. Easy to set up. Time-efficient. Useful when you want extra motor-unit drive without another heavy barbell set.
They also explain the bright mechanism in simple terms. Electrical current can recruit large, fast motor units first. That is the opposite of the usual voluntary order. For a short, sharp task, that pattern can help force rise quickly.
They list four acute ideas. Many motor units fire together. The motor pool may sit more ready. The muscle-tendon unit may feel stiffer for a moment. Fast fibres get first call. Together, those ideas match the jump numbers they recorded.
The bright side, without the fairy tale
This study supports adding EMS as extra work, not magic.
One 20-minute bout was enough to move peak power and mean propulsive power. That is a useful signal for coaches who want more output in little time.
Used beside normal training, EMS can give the legs another stimulus. More quality contractions. More chance to practise high recruitment. That is the “more is better” case the data actually allow: extra targeted activation on top of sport work, not endless hours on a machine.
Athletes who jump, sprint, or strike may care most. Team-sport players may care next. Anyone who needs a sharp concentric burst can see the logic.
The device is portable. The session is short. The test used muscles that almost every field sport uses.
What the paper does not claim
Read this part. It keeps the story honest.
The sample was 14 young men. All were university sport-science students. None were elite players in a named league. No women. No older adults.
The effect was acute. They tested right after one session. They did not track a full season. They did not prove long-term hypertrophy.
They used one movement. A Smith-machine squat jump is clean for measurement. It is not a match sprint. It is not a serve. It is not a takedown.
There was no sham-pad control. Placebo and belief can still matter in performance tests.
The authors say so themselves. They ask for bigger groups. Mixed sexes. Older athletes. Chronic programmes. Sprints. Agility. Upper-body power. Sport-specific skills.
So the honest line is this. In healthy young men, one NMES session was followed by a moderate, statistically significant rise in two jump-power scores. That is encouraging. It is not a promise for every body and every sport.
How a coach or athlete can read it
Think of EMS as a short extra block.
The protocol in this paper was bilateral. Quads and hamstrings. Twenty minutes. High but tolerable current. Long rest between pulses. Then a power test.
That is a training-lab recipe, not a medical prescription.
If you already lift, jump, and sprint, this study suggests a possible add-on before a power session. The men jumped better after the pads, not instead of training.
Keep the rest of the programme. Sleep. Food. Strength work. Skill work. EMS in this paper sits beside those things.
The takeaway
A peer-reviewed sport-science team measured peak power and mean propulsive power on a loaded squat jump.
After 20 minutes of leg NMES, both scores rose. The effects were moderate and statistically significant.
That is evidence, in healthy men, that EMS can support explosive power work. The jump they used matters for basketball, soccer, martial arts, and other sports that live on fast force. The same quality also feeds sprints, throws, and many court and field actions.
The paper is public. The methods are listed. The stats are listed. That is why this post can stand on it.
This article is an educational summary of published research in healthy adults. It is not medical advice. It is not an advertisement for a device. It does not claim that EMS treats injury, disease, or a health condition. Training choices should stay with the athlete, the coach, and a qualified professional.
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Research Summary
| Detail | What the study reported |
|---|---|
| Full title | The acute effect of neuromuscular electrical stimulation on optimum power performance in healthy individuals |
| Where it was published | Journal of Men’s Health, 2025, Volume 21, Issue 4, pages 1–10 |
| Link to the original study | https://doi.org/10.22514/jomh.2025.046 |
| Who wrote it | İbrahim Can, Gökhan Yerlikaya, Serdar Bayrakdaroğlu, Halil İbrahim Ceylan, Gülhan Erdem Subak, Yeşim Bayrakdaroğlu, Sinem Uluç, and Pantelis T. Nikolaidis |
| Where the work was based | Sport-science teams at Iğdır University, Gümüşhane University, and Atatürk University in Türkiye, with the University of West Attica in Athens, Greece |
| Aim of the study | To test whether one NMES / EMS session can lift peak power and mean propulsive power in a loaded squat jump |
| Study design | Quasi-experimental crossover test. Each man was his own comparison. Tests were 48 hours apart, at the same time of day |
| Who took part | 14 healthy male sport-science students. Mean age 23.71 ± 2.30 years. Height 173.71 ± 6.89 cm. Weight 69.59 ± 9.08 kg. BMI 26.87 ± 3.49 |
| Ethics and consent | Approved by the Iğdır University ethics committee (10/27-3-2024). Written consent was collected. The team followed the Declaration of Helsinki |
| Jump test used | Loaded squat jump on a Smith machine with an extra load equal to 40% of body weight |
| How power was measured | Computer-linked T-Force linear velocity transducer recorded bar speed, then calculated peak power and mean propulsive power |
| EMS session | 20 minutes of bilateral NMES on the quadriceps and hamstrings using a Cefar Compex Rehab device |
| Stimulation settings | 10 seconds on, 50 seconds off; 10 reps × 2 sets (20 contractions); 120 Hz; 400 µs pulse width; highest tolerable intensity |
| Main result for mean propulsive power | Rose after NMES: t(13) = −2.756, p = 0.016, Cohen’s d = −0.73 (95% CI −1.32 to −0.13). Moderate effect |
| Main result for peak power | Rose after NMES: t(13) = −2.612, p = 0.021, Cohen’s d = −0.69 (95% CI −1.27 to −0.10). Moderate effect |
| What the authors concluded | One NMES session can raise explosive jump power and may be a short extra tool for sports training |
| Sports they link to this kind of power | Jumping, sprinting, throwing, basketball, soccer, martial arts, racket sports, gymnastics, swimming, and diving |
| Key limits | Small all-male student sample. Acute test only. One movement. No sham-pad control. Long-term effects were not measured |
| Funding and conflicts | No external funding. Authors declared no conflict of interest. The corresponding author recused himself from peer review |
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