Would you believe that EMS goes all the way back to 500BC? It is said that the Egyptians were the first to benefit from the pain-relieving properties of electricity; in their case with some fish species used to treat patients in extreme pain. And yes, one of those fish species was the electrical eel! The Greeks and Romans were also keen proto-EMS trainers during the height of their civilisations. But it was in 1745 that the first use of electric muscle stimulation therapy was documented by German doctor Altus Kratzstein. He was quickly followed by the famous Italian researcher Luigi Galvani who provided the first scientific evidence that electrical currents could activate muscle. His concept became known as Galvanism.

In the 19th century British scientist Michael Faraday designed the Faradization technique which used EMS to treat patients with motor paralysis. By the beginning of the 20^th century this type of EMS therapy was used widely in London hospitals. However, it was at the 1976 Montreal Olympics where the EMS technology that is used today at Feel Electric really started to emerge. The Soviet scientist Dr Yakov Kots used EMS sessions to enhance the performance of USSR Olympic athletes’ for the Olympics. He publicly claimed up to 40% force gains in the Soviet athletes. That was a major turning point in the acceptance of EMS technology in mainstream fitness training. And today we’re getting the benefits of that EMS training development.