BEGINNER SESSION

Video here

Part 1 : GREET THE CLIENT

This is the best time to get the session off to a great start. Always smile and look your clients in the eye when you greet them. Always start by ask them how they are feeling and if they have any niggles or injuries that we need to know about. You can go deeper and ask them how they slept, what exercise they have done that week, what their diet has been like and how hydrated they are.

If the client is early and you are busy with another client or are not set up yet you can give them the massage gun to use on their legs, calves and arms.

If you have a first timer ask them how they found out about EMS or what do they know about it so far.

Part 2: THE SET UP (5 min is best practice. This includes spraying the suit and suiting the client)

Prepare the suit: If you are unsure of a clients size its always safe to ask them to try a suit on before your begin to spray it up. All electrodes must be throughly wet. You can not over drench the suit but you can defiantly under wet it (if the suit is under wet it feels sharp and painful). If you don’t wet the suit enough it is time consuming to take it off the client, re-spay and and restart the session.
Undergarment: A pre existing client will most likely walk in wearing their own undergarment. A new client will need an undergarment ready for them in the changing room.

When choosing a size if you are un sure you are safer to go up in size then down. The material may go see through when stretched too far. You must make sure the client is not wearing anything under the undergarment. Sports bras tend to have too much back support and can stop the electrons from reaching the back muscles. If the client has a large chest and feels the need to wear a bra make sure there is NO underwire and very minimal strapping on the back. Underwear is best not worn unless they are wearing a G-string or 100 % cotton. Most fabrics do not allow the electrons to go through.
Suiting the client up.

As you are suiting up a new client it is best to talk them through what you are doing whilst placing everything on. Being strapped in for the first time can feel quite daunting so it is important to explain everything that you are doing to give them peace if mind and help them feel more relaxed going into the session.

Glutes- Line the two circle glute pads up with the clients glute muscles. It is important to make sure the pads are lined up otherwise the client my night feel it evenly in both glute muscles. . Say to the client. “This requires team work. The material is super stretchy. I need you to stretch it as far as possible then do the buckle up and spin around too me.”

Legs- Put the legs on firmly, half way up the thigh. 99%of clients will use the #2 for the legs. Make sure the electrode plug is in the centre of the leg and not on the side. Before moving onto the arm make sure the legs are both even to each other. If the pads are not even the client will feel one side stronger then the other.

Arms- Place the arms on firmly. The strap goes around the bicep, not towards the bottom near the elbow. Try and avoid the buckle being placed on the inside of the arm, otherwise you are likely to pinch the skin of your client. One arm will be placed upside down so that the buckle is placed on the outside of the arm.

If you place anything on too loose there is a risk of them sliding down or falling off during the session. Once the suit is on, tighten up the suit. When you tighten everything up make sure you do one strap per side to avoid the electrodes being lopsided and uncomfortable for the client. You want the jacket to feel very firm so there is no movement but you need to make sure your client can still breath.

Once the jacket has been tightened, tighten up the top straps on the traps to ensure the chest and upper back is firm on the skin. Don’t do this before you tighten up the side straps because you are at risk of moving the whole jacket upwards into an uncomfortable position.

Once everything is tight connect the electrodes. There are 3 different lengths to the electrode wires. Back - Legs. Blue - Arms. White - glutes. fold the fabric of the arms and pants over the electrodes. This is too stop the velcro tabs from getting caught and falling down.

Once you have suited up the client attach the client to the machine and do one last circle to make sure you have set your clients suit up correctly and have not forgotten something.
Check that the suit jack is centred front and back; the legs and arms are in an even place, no electrode buttons have been unplugged, the suit is sitting in the correct place on their torso, nothing is loose and the client is ready to begin the session.

Part 3: THE BASIC SESSION (20- 25min is best practice)

STRENGTH
The strength part goes for 10 – 15 minutes. This part stimulates your fast twitch muscle fibres which is used to generate strength, speed and power.

The set up: On old machine - ADV 4. New machine - BASIC
Before you turn everything on tell your client what you are about to do.

“The electrodes are going to go 4 seconds on and 4 seconds off. I’m going to turn everything on so you can feel it and then we are going to start with the legs and begin to turn everything up.
Now just remember this can’t hurt you, try and go as hard as you can but don’t worry because we do keep turning everything up as we go.”

“Before we begin we have a starting position.This is hands together and knees nice and soft.”
Turn the level up to 99% and turn up all of the electrodes to somewhere within levels 10-20.
“Now, you should be able to feel a little buzzing or tingling sensation.”
Go through the calibration procedure –
“Now, what i’m going to do is start turning the legs up and you stay STOP when you think thats enough for now.”
Begin turning the electrodes up slowly and only when the lights are ON ( aka when the client can feel it).

Go through the process of the knobs: legs, glutes, lower back, upper back, lats, core, chest and arms.

The whole time you are turning up the electrodes you are looking at your clients facial reaction as well as the body part you are turning up.
The calibration procedure should be completed in about 1min. Once you have finished ask the client.
“How does it feel?,” and “would you like more or less of anything?”
Once you are ready ask the client to hold the bottom of a squat. At this point you can begin to turn up the legs and glutes asking them to say ‘STOP.’
The exercises. For a basic session (and only if the client has no limitations) the exercises go from lower body to upper body. For example: Squats, arms up, one leg up RDL (alternating legs), core crunch, single-leg on bench (alternating), ‘W’ arm position.

Use the screen-countdown to keep an eye on how long to do each exercise; for large muscle exercises you can do around 2 minutes, and for smaller muscle exercises you can continue for about 1 minute before changing.
BE CAREFUL – The strength function is the phase where you can make clients feel uncomfortable. If you don’t do this right, there is a chance they will discontinue training. Always watch how their muscles are responding to the exercise. Watch out that the clients don’t get distracted and straighten their arms, that their legs aren’t too high that they keep locking, remind them to keep their knees bent or soft, and watch their facial reactions for pain or if they are too relaxed.

If you can see a client relaxes their arms and are about to lock out tell them to pull their arms up or get ready to turn the dial down. If they do lock out explain to them what happened, ensure them that it can’t hurt them and continue the session.

Constantly ask the client for feed back. Before moving onto the next part ask if the client wants a drink of water and ask them how they are feeling. Check their suit; some clients’ suits move quite a bit throughout the session. You may need undo the jacket and re-strap it if the core has moved out of place. The leg straps may need to be tightened and the gluteus may also need to be moved back into place.

ENDURANCE

This stimulates your slow twitch muscle fibres. These fibres are responsible for your endurance and cardiovascular health. This part goes for 3 to 5 minutes.

Once you have made sure the suit is in place explain to the client what is about to happen.

“Okay, so that was part one, now we are going to move onto the second part. This part stimulates your slow twitch muscle fibres which are responsible for our endurance. This one is going too have a completely different sensation. This time it’s not going to go on and off, the electrodes are going to be a continuous pulsing sensation.”

”For this part we don’t want to go too crazy we are looking for about 80%. If something feels a bit too sharp then just tell me to pull it back a bit. Remember you are the boss of me.”
Calibrate: “I’m just going to turn everything on a little bit so you can feel it. And then I will start turning each body part up like we did in the last function and you just say Stop.”
Watch the client: Some clients have a high pain threshold and go want too hard on this setting. Whist turning up their legs watch how much their body is shaking. Overtime you will get the touch for what is too much.
If a client is shaking uncontrollably then take it into your own hands and turn everything down using the level knob.
Once everything is calibrated ask them how it feels and if there is anywhere that they could go slightly harder on. Once they are ready to go, begin the exercises.

If after 2-3 minutes you can see your client is struggling begin to turn things down. Ether turn the whole level down or start with the chest, upper back and stomach.
Once you finished let your client grab a drink if needed and maybe a breather whilst asking them how they are feeling before moving onto round 3.

MASSAGE
This is a combination of your fast and slow twitch muscle fibres. This setting is similar to a tense machine and helps with recovery, blood flow and pain relief.

Ask your client to lay down with their feet towards you (legs FLAT on the ground) so you can keep an eye on their facial reactions. Then place a pillow under their head with a towel on top to decrease neck tension.
Check the suit. Roll down their undergarment covering their leg electrodes and re-tighten the leg straps. Do the same for the arms as well. Also make sure to check their vest; the core electrodes should NOT be touching their chest (pull the vest down if it needs readjusting).
Explain to the client what is about to happen.

“This part is a different sensation again. This time we are going to go one second on and one second off. This part is for relaxation and recovery but feel free to go as hard or as soft as you wish.
I’m going to turn everything on a little bit and you are going to tell me when to STOP. Okay now legs, say stop….”
If you are running behind schedule you can always do less of the massage setting.
Some clients struggle to get up and down off the floor or have breathing problems, especially if you lay them on their back. Rather, these clients might prefer to sit on a bench instead of laying down on the ground to finish off their session.
As you are turning up the electrodes watch your clients facial reaction, keep them talking to you (to measure any breathlessness) and watch how their body is moving.
Once everything is collaborated you can ether sit next to your client and talk about the session and or their personal life or you can grab your next clients suit and bring out out and spray it whist keeping an eye on your client.
Never leave your client for too long. If you are setting up another client make sure you do it where you can watch your client that is plugged in and not inside the room.
Keep going back to your client and ask if they would like anymore, how everything is feeling and how they felt about the session.

Part 4: UN-SUITING THE CLIENT

If the client is new, before you begin to un suit them ask them if they would like a Photo in the Bionic Suit. People love showing their friends, family and social media their new bionic get up and it is a good opportunity for us to have our brand shared to a new audience.

When un-suiting the client it is important to take the suit off properly to avoid anything being tangled or broken.

Start with the client facing you. Tell them not to touch anything.

Undo the arms and legs. Ask the client to turn around and under the glute and loosen off the jacket straps.
Once everything is disconnected and loosed tell the client they can take off the jacket and belt.

If you have the time put the suit away straight away as you make quick small talk with your client about how they are feeling.

Ask your client to get changed if they need to and if they are new show them where the washing basket is kept.

Part 5: Finishing the session

Once a client is finished, ask them when / if they would like to do anther session or when they are booked in again. Make sure they are put into the calendar or taken out if they are going to be away.

If the client is signing up for the first time walk them upstairs to sort out their bank details.
Whenever possible walk a client to the door.

Part 6: Following up

If that was a clients first session you must text the client the day after the session to see how they have pulled up and send them their photo of them in the Bionic Suit.