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12 Weeks of EMS Helped Elite Rugby Players Get Stronger Squats and Higher Jumps

What if rugby training already filled the week?
Could EMS still add strength and power?
French scientists put that question to the test.

They studied 25 elite rugby players.
The men played in France’s first or second division.
Three also played for the national team.
All trained with the same military-team coach.

Fifteen players joined an EMS group.
Ten stayed in a control group.
Both groups kept the same rugby sessions.
Nobody added extra gym lifting.

The EMS group used a portable stimulator.
Sessions targeted the quads, calves and glutes.
Each muscle group worked for about 12 minutes.
Contractions lasted five seconds.
Rest lasted 15 seconds.
Players completed 36 contractions per muscle.

For six weeks they trained three times a week.
Then they dropped to once a week for six more weeks.
That second block copied a taper.
Scientists still wanted to see if progress would hold.

They tested everyone at week 0, week 6 and week 12.
They measured isokinetic knee strength on a Biodex machine.
They recorded full squat 1RM.
They measured scrum force on a machine.
They tested squat jumps, drop jumps and repeat jumps.
They timed 20-metre and 50-metre sprints.

After six weeks, one clear change stood out.
Squat strength in the EMS group rose 8.3%.
That gain was statistically significant.
Jump height had not moved yet.
Sprint times had not moved.
The control group showed no real change.

The brighter results arrived at week 12.
Squat strength was now up 15.0% from the start.
That is a large lift for already elite players.
From week 6 to week 12 the squat still rose 6.2%.

Knee torque improved at key speeds.
Eccentric strength at –120 degrees per second rose 18.0%.
Concentric torque at 120 degrees per second rose 19.4%.
Concentric torque at 240 degrees per second rose 10.0%.

Jump power moved too.
Squat jump height rose 10.0%.
Drop jump from 40 cm rose 6.6%.
Those jumps matter for tackle, ruck and restart work.

Scrum force did not rise.
Sprint times did not fall.
Countermovement jumps stayed flat.
Repeat-jump power stayed flat.
The control group still showed no significant change.

So the paper is honest.
EMS helped some strength and power tests.
It did not rewrite every rugby skill on its own.
The authors said specific drills should sit beside EMS.

That is still a bright finding for athletes.
These men were already highly trained.
Gains that size are harder at the top.
EMS was added on top of normal rugby work.
Twelve weeks produced more progress than six weeks.
Even after sessions fell to once a week, squat and jump scores kept rising.

Why can readers trust this story?
It comes from a real 2007 paper in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
That journal is published by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
The association is a leading American body for strength science.

The work was led by Nicolas Babault and colleagues.
They worked at French universities in Strasbourg, Dijon and Saint-Étienne.
The French Rugby Federation took part.
INSERM, France’s national biomedical research institute, was also involved.
France has a long record in physiology and sports science.
Players gave written consent.
A local ethics committee approved the protocol.

This is training research in healthy elite players.
It is not a medical trial.
It does not claim EMS treats injury or disease.
It shows measured strength and jump changes under a set programme.

For rugby players, the bright side is simple.
Added EMS helped squat strength and selected jump tests.
Other field sports that need lower-body power can study the same idea.
Coaches can place EMS in pre-season, then keep a lighter in-season dose.

The study’s own advice still stands.
Pair EMS with technical work.
Use it inside a planned block.
Track squat, jump and gym numbers, not slogans.

That is what this paper actually measured.
Elite rugby players got stronger squats.
They jumped higher on two key tests.
A control group did not.
That is why the finding is worth a careful read.

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Research Summary

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