earticle

영어

Recently, there have been some issues about physical appearance management among young people in Korea. Electromyostimulation (EMS) is known to send electric stimulation to muscle and to subcutaneous fat layers to help manage body fat. However, EMS has been divided into the opinions of authors regarding the fat reduction and muscle mass increase. Thus, this study was to investigate the effect of various-stimulation parameters of EMS on body composition tested by Computer Tomograph (CT) and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) and physical appearance measured by questionnaire in collegiate men. The fourteen young men subjects aged between 20 and 24 years were recruited from the Hanseo University in Korea. All habitually wore the suit of EMS with various stimulation parameters for a duration of 6 weeks after signing an informed consent form which was approved by the Research Ethics Committee for Human Use (SYUIRB2015-120). The participants were allocated to each of 4 groups according to randomized control study design as follows: low stimulation group (LSG, n=3), mid stimulation group (MSG, n=4), high stimulation group (HSG, n=4), and control group (CG, n=3), respectively. Non-parametric statistical methods were conducted on the collected data with a significance level set a priori at P<.05. The Kruskal-Wallis was used for the differences among the 4 groups and then Bonferroni post hoc test was used for significant differences in the Kruskal-Wallis test. The results are as followed. First, there were significant decreases in visceral and subcutaneous fat in CT scan of three EMS groups compared with control group. Second, there was significant improvement in physical appearance of MSG and HSG compared with LSG and CG after 6 weeks. Electrical stimulation was reported that it has many clinical effects such as body shape control by body fat reduction, increase of blood circulation, anti-pain and anti-inflammation of injured muscle, tendon and ligament, regeneration of cartilage, enhancement of muscle strength, and transferring material continent into the dermis. As the results of various researches, this study confirmed that EMS could improve the body composition and the psychological factors such as physical appearance in collegiate men.