EMS Theory Comments

[Charlie_Francis]

@kbm

I have a question on the timing of EMS recovery modes. In CFTS, it says, “according to Waldemar, an EMS session is never followed by massage. The massage is usually done the next day.”

What is the reasoning behind this? There was another thread about the timing of massage, and it seemed the consensus was to put deeper massage on low intensity days, but I never figured out the exact reason why. Reduced protein synthesis perhaps?

Also, do EMS active recovery modes count as “massage,” and therefore be avoided after an EMS strength session?

I ask because if I use active recovery immediately after doing EMS, the next day my legs feel great, but if I wait until the next day to do the Active recovery mode, it doesn’t seem to have the same effect on recovery, and my legs will often still stay sore.

think of wave recovery. you don’t want to diminish the normal downsweep, but rather accelerate the upsweep to enhance the supercompensation.
That said, Massage was done daily by us in varying degrees- deeper on tempo days. EMS was done last thing in the evening at home by the athletes. This could enhance the HGH response and, of course, massage wasn’t available then anyway.