Quick Overview
Scientists at Shanghai University of Sport tested 18 national-level male squash players in a 2026 peer-reviewed BMC paper.
Each man completed heavy squats, bands, and NMES with 70% squats.
Six minutes later they hit 20 match-speed forehands. EMG tracked 14 muscles.
Synergy number stayed near 5.5. NMES raised weights of the deltoid, gluteus maximus and gastrocnemius. It also lifted alpha and beta coherence across arm–trunk–leg pairs.
That acute pattern suggests EMS can prime stroke muscles before training. The ethics-cleared Chinese lab study is public.
Read the full post for numbers, limits and how athletes may place EMS around sessions.
We always provide direct links to the original research at the end of every article so you can review the evidence yourself.
A 2026 BMC study of 18 national-level players tested EMS against squats and bands: Elite Squash Study: EMS Primed Forehand Muscles in 6 Minutes
Elite squash players walked into a sports lab in Shanghai. Scientists wanted a sharper forehand. They tested three warm-up methods. One used EMS.
The work came from Shanghai University of Sport. That is a specialist sports university in China. Two corresponding authors led the team. They were Xie Wu and Jian Jiang. The ethics board approved the protocol. The paper is peer-reviewed. BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation published it on 22 January 2026. Springer Nature owns that journal.
Eighteen national-level male players took part. Their mean age was 23.4 years. They had 9.2 years of squash training. Mean height was 185.6 cm. Mean body mass was 77.8 kg. All were right-handed. None reported a major musculoskeletal injury.
Each athlete completed all three sessions. Seven days separated each visit. That crossover design lets each player act as his own comparison. The three methods were heavy squats, elastic bands, and NMES with lighter squats.
The EMS session used a Compex unit. Frequency was 75 Hz. Pulse width was 400 microseconds. Intensity sat at 90 percent of tolerable level. Players squatted at 70 percent of 1RM. They did three sets of three. Testing followed six minutes later.
Then came the real test. Players hit 20 match-speed forehand strokes. A machine fed the ball. The target was 50 cm by 50 cm. Scientists recorded EMG from 14 muscles. Those muscles covered the lower limb, trunk, and hitting arm.
They did not stop at raw muscle noise. They extracted muscle synergies with non-negative matrix factorization. They also measured intermuscular coherence across alpha, beta, and gamma bands.
The big picture stayed stable. Synergy number did not jump. Means sat near 5.4 to 5.6 modules. Activation timing also held steady. That suggests the core motor plan is robust.
The fine print changed. NMES shifted synergy weights. It raised the share of the deltoid. It also raised gluteus maximus and gastrocnemius medialis. Those muscles help drive and brace the stroke.
Coherence told a second story. NMES lifted alpha and beta coupling in several pairs. Examples included biceps with pectoralis major. Others were forearm with erector spinae. Still others linked trunk and thigh muscles. Authors read that as stronger central–peripheral drive.
Heavy squats and bands looked different. They favoured gamma-band links between trunk and legs. That pattern fits kinetic-chain timing and dynamic balance.
So what does that mean on court? The study did not publish extra match wins. It did measure how the body organised force on repeated forehands. After EMS, key hitting and support muscles contributed more inside the same modules. Shared neural drive also rose in the bands linked to posture and steady force.
That is useful before play. A short EMS block may prime selected muscles. It may tighten the link from brain to limb. Coaches can use that for a sharper first burst of strokes.
The authors were careful. The sample was men only. There was no separate control arm. The stimulus was acute, not a season-long plan. They recorded EMG, not brain scans. They studied the forehand, not every shot.
Even so, the signal is clear. In these elite players, NMES did not smash the motor map. It retuned it. Selective muscle weight went up. Alpha and beta coupling went up. Those are the exact marks this lab set out to find.
China has a long record in sports science. This trial sits inside that tradition. A named university ran it. A named ethics committee cleared it. A major open-access publisher printed it after review.
Readers can treat the blog as a plain-language map of that paper. The claims stay inside the data. EMS here is a training primer, not a medicine. The bright finding is simple. Used in this protocol, EMS helped elite squash athletes show cleaner neuromuscular signs on the forehand. That is the kind of lab clue coaches use when they want players ready to strike hard, and ready to strike again
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Research Summary
| Detail | What the paper shows |
|---|---|
| Study title | Effects of different post-activation potentiation strategies on forehand stroke performance in elite squash players: a muscle synergy and time-frequency coherence analysis |
| Authors | Weijie Zhou, Xinyu Lin, Haojie Li, Xie Wu, Jian Jiang. Zhou and Lin share first authorship. Wu and Jiang are corresponding authors. |
| Lab and country | School of Exercise and Health and School of Athletic Performance, Shanghai University of Sport, China. Ethics approval No. 102772025RT116. |
| Journal and publisher | BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation (2026) 18:87. Springer Nature / BMC. Open access. Peer-reviewed. |
| Dates | Received 9 September 2025. Accepted 9 December 2025. Published 22 January 2026. |
| Original study links | Publisher: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13102-025-01487-7. DOI: 10.1186/s13102-025-01487-7. PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41572394/ |
| Design | Randomised crossover. Every player completed all three PAP sessions. 7-day washout between visits. |
| Who was tested | 18 national-level male squash players. Age 23.4 ± 2.1 years. Height 185.6 ± 4.2 cm. Mass 77.8 ± 3.6 kg. Training age 9.2 ± 2.1 years. All right-handed. No major injury history. |
| The three warm-ups | Heavy squat at 90% 1RM, 3×3, test at 8 min. Elastic band side-steps at about 18% body weight, test at 6 min. NMES plus squat at 70% 1RM, 3×3, test at 6 min. |
| EMS protocol used | Compex SP 8.0. Biphasic square wave. 75 Hz. 400 µs. 90% of tolerable intensity. Electrodes on rectus femoris. Stimulation triggered at 90° knee flexion during the squat. |
| On-court test | 20 consecutive match-speed forehand strokes. Serve machine feed. 50 × 50 cm target. Invalid trials repeated. |
| What was measured | Surface EMG from 14 right-side muscles. Muscle synergies by NMF, VAF > 0.9. Time-frequency coherence by STFT in α (8–15 Hz), β (15–30 Hz) and γ (30–50 Hz) bands. |
| EMS / NMES findings | Synergy number did not change (5.58 ± 0.51). Activation timing did not change. NMES raised synergy weights in the deltoid, gluteus maximus and gastrocnemius medialis. It also raised α and β coherence in pairs such as BB–PM, BRD–ES, BRD–TRAP, ES–VL, LD–TA and PM–VL. Authors read this as stronger central–peripheral coupling and selective recruitment. |
| How the other methods differed | Squats raised pectoralis major weight versus bands (p = 0.040). Squats and bands raised γ coherence in trunk–leg pairs such as ES–VL and GM–LD. Mean synergy counts: squat 5.42 ± 0.51, band 5.5 ± 0.52. |
| Limits and training read | Men only. No separate control arm. Acute session, not a season-long plan. EMG only. Forehand only. Authors say NMES fits short-term activation before skill work. Squats and bands fit longer kinetic-chain work. This is sports-training lab data, not a medical claim. |
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