How Many Gut Busters Can You Do In Thirty Minutes: A Crossfitters Experience With Emsculpt.

I’ve been a CrossFit junkie going on six years and sit-ups are my least favorite thing to do. Seriously, I’d rather hulk out and throw wall-balls for an hour or just swing the kettlebells over and over than get on an abmat and do sit-ups. It’s a mental block - I know, but the repetition gets in my head and I feel like I’m just rocking back and forth on a sweaty exercise train to nowhere. I’m also not built for sit-ups, as a bigger guy with some extra “goodness” around my waistline, the movement is less of a graceful rise forward and more of a huffy-puffy lurch as I struggle to get my arms propelled over my waistline. So every time I see an Annie or a Gutbuster CrossFit WOD on the board, I know it’s going to be a frustrating day.

For those who haven’t drunk the CrossFit Kool-aid: WODs are “Workouts of the Day” and many of them have names. “Annie” is a mix of double-unders and sit-ups, while “Gutbuster WODs” are rounds of a hundred and fifty situps, followed by a thousand meter row, followed by another hundred and fifty sit-ups. At the end of a workout I’m usually the last guy floundering through motions, and then falling to the mat, gasping for air, with a damp sweat angel spreading around me. So you can imagine my excitement when I tried Emsculpt for the first time, and I got to exercise my abs from an entirely different perspective.

Emsculpt uses magnetic waves to stimulate cycles of muscle contractions building up the lean muscle in whatever area you’re working on. Obviously I chose to use Emsculpt to exercise my abdominals, but you can use the magnetic applicators and train your biceps, butt, and calves as well. I can only describe the experience as a “cloud” of contractions radiating from the magnetic applicators throughout my core. These “micro-contractions” increase in intensity during your sessions, and are broken up by minutes-long periods of what feel like mini jabs to your gut that break up the lactic acid building up in your muscle fibers. People say it’s like doing twenty thousand sit-ups in thirty minutes, and my core definitely felt those numbers after. The medical technician at ReAlignMed said his estimation is that Emsculpt is like a thousand HIIT work-outs per session in terms of the muscle building. I can’t imagine what it would be like to do a thousand Gut Busters in thirty minutes.

The treatment process was really easy and I like the fact that Emsculpt is a procedure targeting strengthening and shaping your muscles. Every other procedure I’d heard of was oriented around getting rid of your fat in some way, where with this, I really liked the idea of making my body stronger. I’m also a big fan of anything non-surgical and FDA approved, and I really viewed this as an opportunity to focus on an area of my body that I’d always had trouble exercising. When I arrived at ReAlignMed, the medical technician had me strip to my underwear and lay down on a padded table. The medical technician then used a velcro strap to set the magnetic applicators on my stomach. The first time those micro contractions hit my abs, I did jump a bit. It’s not painful, but it does feel like you’re doing abdominal crunches. There were a couple moments where my abdominals felt on the edge of cramping, but those periods quickly faded when the “jabbing” cycle started and began to break up that lactic acid in my stomach muscles. I’ve tried e-stim before and that was much more painful. The micro-contractions do steadily increase and you can feel your abs shuddering as the muscles go into overdrive.

When I got off the table the first time, I could definitely feel the tightness in my core, and the upper abdominal muscles at the top of my torso were more defined. I think I was able to see a reaction so quickly because my upper torso is leaner and I carry my ab fat (what the people at ReAlignMed call “goodness”) in a layer around my lower abs and in the form of love handles. I even felt like my lower back was tighter, the medical technician mentioned this was because each pulse of the Emsculpt magnetic applicators was radiating through my entire torso and activating all the muscles in my abs which can have an effect on the strength of my lower back.

The next day after my first session, I drank a lot of water and also peed a lot. The ReAlignMed medical technician told me to really hydrate, and that I might be expelling some toxins from the lactic acid. I was a bit sore in that “I’ve been working out steadily” way, but I wasn’t in any pain and I did jump back into a CrossFit WOD that afternoon. To be honest I felt strong. I kept catching myself in the middle of an action, and thinking “Why are my abs so tight?”.

I’ve now done six Emsculpt sessions at ReAlignMed, and I can absolutely see a difference in the shape of my stomach. There’s more definition in my upper abdominals and more of a “V” shape to the sides of my torso also. I just feel this strength centered around the muscles in my core. I also think my work-outs are more intense - that may be mental, but I’m looking forward to more CrossFit WODs with sit-ups in them, because I’m way more invested now in my abdominals. I want to use this experience with Emsculpt to keep my abs shaped up and increase my strength even more. ReAlignMed taught me to love my gut. Bring on the Gut Busters.