I have been all over the web, and I see the same questions regarding the numerous EMS (Electronic Muscle Stimulation) units that are currently being advertised on TV infomercials. You are going to be disappointed in the units , primarily because the start working, and you see results, then they fail. I'm convinced this is due in part to a scheme to enhance additional purchases of "conductive gel, centerpieces, batteries, etc. I made the following post on healthcom.com regarding these units, and the usefulness of EMS. Hopefully reprinting it will be of some assistance. The answer is EMS, electronic muscle stimulation does work, however a lot of those "high profile units" do not. I sincerely believe that there is a failure rate scheduled into the product, requiring you to make additional purchases if you wish to continue using the product. Prime examples would be abtronics, abenergizer, fastabs, etc. Abtronics was the biggest disappointment, and had the highest purchase price. For anyone interested in a little more information on EMS possibly the following will help to answer some questions. EMS has been around for some time, but was really brought to light after the 1972 Olympics when the USSR swept up a basketful of gold and silver medals. EMS was reportedly used on Soviet athletes with benefits reflected in the medal harvest. Since then, numerous research studies have been performed using EMS. Increases in strength, muscle size and athletic performance have all been attributed to this technology. Even claims of improved cardio-respiratory efficiency and reduced body fat levels have been made. EMS (Electrical Muscle Stimulation) uses electrical current to stimulate your muscles (passive exercise). This electrical current is similar to the electrical impulses produced by the brain to stimulate muscle tissue (active exercise). By placing the pair of pads on a particular muscle group, your muscles respond to the impulses that are generated by contracting and relaxing rhythmically as instructed by you through the unit. When a muscle contracts as a result of a unique EMS/TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) signal, the chemical changes taking place within the muscles are similar to those associated with voluntary contraction in "normal exercising". These chemical reactions which result from muscle contractions utilizes glycogen, fat and other nutrients stored in the muscle. These resulting series of muscle contractions will enable an individual to tone, strengthen, and combat flabbiness while improving contour. If you should experience an immobilizing injury, as we all have at one time or another, EMS use can effectively reduce muscle atrophy and prevent large-scale losses in the enzymes responsible for energy production in both slow and fast-switch muscle fibers. In addition, regular EMS use during immobilization improves nerve-muscle interactions necessary for a speedy recovery. As you can see, EMS use is a variable tool in bodybuilding training and has a positive influence on muscle strength and muscle growth. EMS can be used to enhance recovery from bodybuilding training or injury. Increased blood flow to the muscles helps to deliver nutrients necessary for recovery and subsequent growth while the pumping action (stimualtion/relaxation action of EMS training) helps to remove waste products, mainly lactic acid, from these muscles. If you are really serious about purchasing an EMS/TENS unit, save your money for a while a purchase a really good one that will last, and that has a prolonged guarantee to stand behind it. There are any number of excellent units out there so take your time and search around here on the web before spending your money. Check out a couple of the following: http://home.san.rr.com/backstore/ems4000.htm http://www.tens-store.com/ems/ems-faq.htm http://www.4dnet.com/~janne/ems.htm http://www.a1painproducts.com/ems_electronic_muscl.htm Just don't get taken by the infomercials, which happened to me. Remember, you get what you pay for.

This is a repost: I've had my Abenergizer for about a month and it appears to be working as advertized. Yes, it is a little difficult to secure sometimes, but I attribute that to my gut more than to any flaw with the product. The reason I think it is working is that I have gone to the gym regularly for years and I always do crunches. They never appear to yield any results. But after using the Abenergizer for less than a month I already notice that my abs are stronger when I do my thing in the gym. It also works to relieve pain in my lower back. Those of you who don't like the Abenergizer, are you also exercising? If not, don't blame the product. Besides, what do you expect for $60 bucks?

The answer is EMS, electronic muscle stimulation does work, however a lot of those "high profile units" do not. I sincerely believe that there is a failure rate scheduled into the product, requiring you to make additional purchases if you wish to continue using the product. Prime examples would be abtronics, abenergizer, fastabs, etc. Abtronics was the biggest disappointment, and having the highest purchase price. For anyone interested in a little more information on EMS possibly the following will help to answer some questions. EMS has been around for some time, but was really brought to light after the 1972 Olympics when the USSR swept up a basketful of gold and silver medals. EMS was reportedly used on Soviet athletes with benefits reflected in the medal harvest. Since then, numerous research studies have been performed using EMS. Increases in strength, muscle size and athletic performance have all been attributed to this technology. Even claims of improved cardio-respiratory efficiency and reduced body fat levels have been made. EMS (Electrical Muscle Stimulation) uses electrical current to stimulate your muscles (passive exercise). This electrical current is similar to the electrical impulses produced by the brain to stimulate muscle tissue (active exercise). By placing the pair of pads on a particular muscle group, your muscles respond to the impulses that are generated by contracting and relaxing rhythmically as instructed by you through the unit. When a muscle contracts as a result of a unique EMS/TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) signal, the chemical changes taking place within the muscles are similar to those associated with voluntary contraction in "normal exercising". These chemical reactions which result from muscle contractions utilizes glycogen, fat and other nutrients stored in the muscle. These resulting series of muscle contractions will enable an individual to tone, strengthen, and combat flabbiness while improving contour. If you should experience an immobilizing injury, as we all have at one time or another, EMS use can effectively reduce muscle atrophy and prevent large-scale losses in the enzymes responsible for energy production in both slow and fast-switch muscle fibers. In addition, regular EMS use during immobilization improves nerve-muscle interactions necessary for a speedy recovery. As you can see, EMS use is a variable tool in bodybuilding training and has a positive influence on muscle strength and muscle growth. EMS can be used to enhance recovery from bodybuilding training or injury. Increased blood flow to the muscles helps to deliver nutrients necessary for recovery and subsequent growth while the pumping action (stimualtion/relaxation action of EMS training) helps to remove waste products, mainly lactic acid, from these muscles. If you are really serious about purchasing an EMS/TENS unit, save your money for a while a purchase a really good one that will last, and that has a prolonged guarantee to stand behind it. There are any number of excellent units out there so take your time and search around here on the web before spending your money. Check out a couple of the following: http://home.san.rr.com/backstore/ems4000.htm http://www.tens-store.com/ems/ems-faq.htm http://www.4dnet.com/~janne/ems.htm http://www.a1painproducts.com/ems_electronic_muscl.htm Just don't get taken by the infomercials, which happened to me. Remember, you get what you pay for.

This is what I found in internet. Please read this before you order this ab energizer... Good Luck! Good Morning America's consumer correspondent Greg Hunter found that the machines can cause minor skin burns. Experts told him that anyone who thinks that the devices alone will turn them into Mr. Universe is mistaken. The gadgets are based on electronic muscle stimulation, or EMS, a system that delivers an electric charge to make muscles contract. John Porcari, a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin, tested an EMS device similar to those on the market in a study commissioned by the American Council on Exercise. After eight weeks of using the device only, participants had no significant increases in muscle size or strength. "I think people are wasting their time," Porcari said. "I think they're better off spending their money on a personal trainer or buying a membership to a health club, or buying a home piece of exercise equipment that they're going to use." AbTronic declined any comment under advice of their attorney. Ab-Energizer also declined comment, and Fast-Abs did not return phone calls or e-mails sent by Good Morning America. Want Flat Abs? Order Now The Fast-Abs ad claims the technology makes it easy: "It's like our engineer shrunk half a gym of bulky, expensive exercise equipment into a little electronic miracle the size of a pack of matches." Victoria Delaney, a San Francisco Bay area woman who saw the AbTronic infomerical, was intrigued by the thought of achieving amazing abs just like the young woman in the commercial. "That's what I thought I was going to get," Delaney told Hunter, pointing to the buff young woman's flat stomach. After seeing the ad, she immediately reached for her telephone and credit card and ordered an AbTronic. Delaney thought the device would let her get trim while sitting around and reading a book or watching TV. "Sure, I thought it would be easy," Delaney said. Company Warns of Skin Burning Reports Delaney said she used her AbTronic religiously for three days, but then she said she had to stop because it gave her a number of minor but painful burns on her arms, stomach, both legs and her back, making it difficult to sit. When she looked at the instruction booklet later, Delaney discovered that the company warned that "skin irritation and burns ... have been reported." Though Delaney does not have any permanent injuries, her pride is a little scarred, and she feels nae for being taken, she said. But it is easy to see why people like Delaney might be drawn to the devices. Not only does the AbTronic infomercial show seemingly perfect men and women using it, the commercials claim that a University of Maryland study backs up products like theirs. "Their conclusion was that an electronic stimulation was much better than exercise alone, whether you use it as a supplement to your normal workout, or just by itself," a female co-host of the infomercial says. "That proves that you get better results by the use of the AbTronic fitness system," the male co-host chimes in. Machine Can't Do It Alone The University of Maryland scientist who conducted the study, Dr. Gad Alon, published an article about electronic muscle stimulation in 1987. He said that he believes high-quality EMS devices can strengthen the abdominal muscles, but that the AbTronic infomercial took his findings out of context. "In fact, we have used electrical stimulation on abdominal strengthening in a number of studies," he said. "And that particular one [AbTronic] does not look at all like the type of strengthening we do with electrical stimulation." Porcari acknowledges that medically approved EMS devices can play a useful role in rehabilitative medicine. But he says consumers can't comfortably get strong enough contractions from these infomerical devices to build "awesome abs" without real exercise. "To get the benefits, you have to make your muscles contract to a certain level, and that requires you to be able to withstand a lot of pain," he said. Dr. Julio Garcia, a Las Vegas plastic surgeon, appeared in the AbTronic infomercial touting the device. "The nice thing about the AbTronic system is you don't have to go to a gymnasium, where you have to do weight-lifting exercises, where we may have some other medical problems that prevent from doing that - whether it's high blood pressure or bad joints," Garcia says in the infomercial. Garcia told Hunter that although EMS. can help maintain muscle tone, it will not help people lose weight. He also said that the AbTronic commercial took some of his words out of context, and that the machine alone cannot help a person lose weight, lose inches and gain muscle definition. "It was my intent to talk about many things together - diet, exercise, and the machine," Garcia said. "It has apparently been portrayed as just a machine itself. And that's not what I was there to talk about." Delaney says she spent $150 on the AbTronic, and chalks it up to one of life's lessons that she hopes others can learn from. Her advice to anyone lured by the ab machine commercials is simple "Don't buy it," she said.