Charlie,
Based on your experience, do you think EMS (in either high intensity or pulsing mode) will improve overall muscle relaxation? In other words, does EMS improve the ability of muscle fibers to contract and relax in unison? I know that EMS can improve muscle relaxation by alleviating chronic spasm in a muscle, but is there also a motor learning effect as well?
Clarification, do you think EMS can be used to decrease relaxation time after a muscle fires?
As EMS can contract all available fibre at the same time, it will tend to relax at the same time as well. As for the rate of relaxation of individual fibres, I’m not sure, but, I suspect it is inate. the ability of a sprinter to shut down antagonists rapidly shows more variation than the recruitment velocity and may be one of the biggest markers of the great sprinters.
Do you think EMS can alter the autonomic control of muscle fibers (i.e. change resting muscle tension/tone), which would better facilitate coordinated fiber relaxation within the constraints of inate potential?
Likely, no.