As we age, many individuals notice changes in their strength and body composition. Tasks that once felt effortless may become more challenging, and maintaining muscle tone and body shape requires more effort. These changes are natural but can be addressed effectively with the right approach.
Why do strength and body composition change over time?
1. Age-Related Muscle Loss (Sarcopenia)
Starting in our 30s, we begin to lose muscle mass at a rate of approximately 3 – 8% per decade, a process known as sarcopenia. The muscle mass loss begins to accelerate faster as we age and becomes more difficult to counteract. This loss of muscle mass is not just the loss of visible muscle tone – its also the loss of strength, stability, power and agility. Reduced muscle mass also slows metabolism, making it easier to gain fat and harder to lose it.
If your body looks softer or less defined, the issue may not be “weight gain” - it may be muscle loss.
2. Hormonal Changes
Hormones such as estrogen and testosterone play crucial roles in maintaining muscle mass and regulating fat distribution. As these hormone levels change along with insulin sensitivity, individuals may experience increased fat accumulation, particularly around the abdomen, and decreased muscle tone.
In women, perimenopause and menopause can accelerate these changes dramatically – even if exercise and diet stay the same.
A workout that used to keep you in shape may not be enough anymore- because your physiology has changed.
3. Neuromuscular Efficiency Decline
This one surprises a lot of people. With aging, the communication between the nervous system and muscles becomes less efficient (our brain becomes less efficient at switching on muscles). This decline can lead to decreased muscle activation during physical activities, resulting in reduced strength and coordination
4. Lifestyle Factors
Busy schedules, sedentary lifestyles, and chronic stress can contribute to muscle loss and fat gain. Lack of regular, effective exercise exacerbates these issues, leading to further declines in physical fitness.
But why does this suddenly start to matter?
For many people, especially those in their late 30s or 40s, there’s a moment when their body no longer responds the way it used to.
Maybe you used to stay in shape just by walking, doing the occasional Pilates class, or maintaining a balanced diet. Perhaps you’ve never considered yourself “unfit.” But suddenly, your usual lifestyle stops working. You feel softer, weaker, less energised – and nothing obvious has changed.
The truth is, your body has changed.
As hormone levels shift and muscle mass naturally declines, metabolism slows, fat distribution shifts, and your body becomes less efficient at maintaining strength and shape on autopilot. What used to be enough (light movement, incidental activity, or a naturally fast metabolism) isn’t enough anymore.
At this point, strength training becomes non-negotiable.
It’s no longer just about how many steps you take or how clean you eat. To maintain, or regain, lean muscle, physical function, and body composition as you age, you need a progressive, consistent, and effective form of resistance training.
Without it, you’re trying to manage your body with fewer tools than it now requires.
Walking, light movement, and a good metabolism may have worked before - but without resistance training, they can’t offset the changes happening beneath the surface.
How EMS training addresses these challenges
Once strength and body composition begin to change, the solution isn’t just to move more – it’s to move smarter, with strategies that effectively stimulate muscle fibres, support neuromuscular coordination, and work with, not against, the changing physiology of your body.
EMS (Electro Muscle Stimulation) training offers a unique and evidence-based way to do just that. EMS is not a shortcut – it’s a modality backed by decades of research in sports performance, rehabilitation, and neuromuscular re-education. Here’s how it works, and why it’s relevant when traditional exercise stops delivering the results it used to.
1. It stimulates more muscle, more effectively
In voluntary exercise, even with focused effort, the average person activates just 30–60% of available muscle fibres during movement – often the same dominant ones over and over. EMS bypasses this limitation by using external impulses to stimulate deep and superficial muscle fibres simultaneously, including those that are often dormant due to disuse, inhibition, or compensation patterns.
This is particularly important for:
Reversing age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia)
Reactivating postural and stabilising muscles (e.g. glutes, deep core)
Supporting motor unit recruitment in individuals who feel like they’ve “lost connection” to certain areas
Most people only recruit 30–60% of their muscle fibres in a workout - EMS can access up to 98%, including the ones you’ve stopped using
2. It addresses neuromuscular inhibition directly
Hormonal changes, injury, pain, or long periods of underuse can lead to neuromuscular inhibition – where the brain struggles to activate certain muscles effectively. This isn’t fixed by “trying harder” or doing more reps. It requires re-educating the nervous system.
EMS provides the nervous system with a clear and repeated stimulus, helping restore the brain-muscle pathways and improving voluntary activation over time. This is one reason EMS is used in post-surgical rehab, neurological conditions, and elite sport performance settings.
Your nervous system controls which muscles fire and when - EMS doesn’t just strengthen muscles, it retrains how your brain activates them
3. It provides a high-intensity response with low joint load
Many people want to get stronger but can’t tolerate traditional resistance training due to joint pain, limited mobility, or fatigue. EMS allows for a full-body strength stimulus without the need for external weights or repetitive impact. This makes it uniquely suited for:
People in who are new to strength training
Individuals returning from injury or managing chronic joint issues
Those who are deconditioned or time-poor but need a therapeutic strength intervention
4. It supports meaningful body composition changes
Sustainable improvements in body shape don’t come from cardio alone – they come from building and maintaining lean muscle mass. Muscle is metabolically active tissue: the more of it you have, the better your resting metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and overall energy balance.
EMS training supports this by:
Increasing lean muscle mass, even in hard-to-reach or underused areas
Supporting fat reduction through improved muscle recruitment and metabolic demand
Triggering post-exercise metabolic effects similar to high-intensity resistance training—but in far less time
5. It’s scalable, measurable, and evidence-based
EMS isn’t random. Intensity, frequency, and muscle group stimulation can all be tailored to the individual. Whether you’re training for rehab, strength, aesthetics, or injury prevention, EMS allows for:
Progressive overload without joint stress
Measurable session intensity (via intensity output and time under tension)
Targeted protocols based on specific muscular or functional deficits
If you’ve reached a point where your exercise and a diet are no longer keeping your body where you want it to be, you’re not imagining it – your physiology has shifted. EMS training doesn’t replace movement, but it helps you train smarter and more precisely, especially when traditional strategies fall short.
It’s a modern tool grounded in solid science – supporting the kind of strength your body now needs to stay strong, lean, and functional through every decade.
