Put on an EMS suit and every exercise you know changes character. A bodyweight squat that felt like a warm-up suddenly has your quads humming by rep six, because the current recruits muscle fibers your nervous system normally holds in reserve. That changes which exercises are worth doing. You don't need heavy loads and you don't need speed. Slow tempo work and isometric holds win, because the stimulation supplies the overload while you supply position and control.
The frustrating part of the Visionbody system is that the app handles the electrical side well, with 8 main programs and 65 subprograms covering goals like strength and fat burning, but it doesn't tell you what to do with your body while a program runs. Plenty of owners end up marching in place for 20 minutes. These 15 exercises fix that. If you're still figuring out channels and intensity settings, read the full setup guide first.
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Lower body: 5 exercises
The legs and glutes get the largest share of the suit's 24 electrodes, so this is where EMS feels most dramatic. Keep every rep slow and deliberate.
1. Bodyweight squat
Stand with feet shoulder width apart, take three seconds down, pause at the bottom, then take three seconds up. The right intensity feels like squatting against a thick resistance band wrapped around your whole leg: hard work, but you stay in control of the movement. The most common mistake is rushing reps between pulses. Keep the same tempo whether the current is on or off.
2. Split squat
Take a long stance with your back heel up and lower until your front thigh is near parallel. Because the suit fires both legs at once, the rear leg gets stimulation it never sees in a normal split squat, so expect the trailing hip and glute to work surprisingly hard. If you wobble, hold a wall or a chair. Balancing under stimulation is a skill that arrives within a few sessions.
3. Glute bridge
Lie on your back with feet flat and drive your hips up as the pulse begins. Hold the top position for the full pulse while squeezing hard, then lower during the rest phase. If your hamstrings cramp before your glutes fatigue, drop the hamstring channel a few percent in the app. Per-muscle adjustment is one of the most useful things the Visionbody app does, so use it.
4. Wall sit
Slide down a wall until your thighs are close to parallel and simply stay there. This is the purest EMS exercise on this list, because an isometric hold gives the current a stable muscle to work on for the entire pulse. Keep your hands off your thighs. Pressing down shifts load away from the quads and can nudge the leg electrodes out of contact.
5. Calf raise
Rise onto the balls of your feet over two seconds, pause at the top for two more, then lower for three. Visionbody's Ultimate suit has dedicated calf electrodes, and this is the move that actually uses them. Don't bounce. A bouncy calf raise under stimulation feels productive and accomplishes almost nothing.
Core: 4 exercises
The abdominal and lower back channels turn simple holds into serious work. Start these at a lower intensity than your legs, since the trunk cramps more easily. If your main goal is a stronger backside or better posture, we built a dedicated list in our glutes, core and posture EMS exercises.
6. Plank
Set up on forearms and toes, brace your abs before the pulse arrives, and hold. When the abdominal channel fires, your hips will want to sag or pike, and your job is to keep a straight line anyway. Dropping to your knees is a legitimate scaling option in your first two weeks, not a failure.
7. Side plank
Stack your shoulders and hips and hold through two or three full pulse cycles per side. The suit's side electrodes light up the obliques far more than a regular side plank does, so expect these to feel short and intense. If your bottom shoulder aches, you're sinking into it. Push the floor away.
8. Dead bug
Lie on your back with arms and knees up, then lower your opposite arm and leg slowly while pressing your lower back into the floor. The current makes it obvious the instant your deep abs disengage, because your back pops off the floor. Move slower than feels necessary. One limb cycle per pulse is about right.
9. Bird dog
From all fours, extend your opposite arm and leg, hold for the pulse, and keep your hips level. This pairs the lower back channel with a balance demand, which is exactly what long days at a desk undo. The common mistake is lifting the leg too high and arching the spine. Your foot should stay at hip height.
Upper body: 3 exercises
Upper body work in the suit needs almost no external load. A light resistance band and a pair of small dumbbells cover everything here.
10. Band row
Anchor a band at chest height, pull for two seconds, then hold the squeeze for the length of the pulse with your shoulder blades pinched together. The back electrodes make the hold the productive part, so don't release early. Watch for shrugging. If your neck is doing the work, lower the band anchor and turn down the shoulder channel.
11. Push-up or incline push-up
Take three seconds down and pause an inch off the floor while the chest channel fires. Most people should start with hands on a bench or countertop, because added chest stimulation takes a full push-up from moderate to brutal very quickly. Hurried half reps are the failure mode here, usually a sign the incline is too low for you.
12. Overhead press with light dumbbells
Use 2 to 5 lb dumbbells, press slowly overhead, and pause at the top. That load sounds insulting until the shoulder electrodes join in. Grabbing your normal shoulder press weight is the classic first-session mistake, and it usually ends with form collapsing mid-pulse. Let the current do the loading.
Full body: 3 exercises
These combine several channels at once and add a light conditioning element without the risks of fast movement.
13. Lunge to press
Holding light dumbbells at your shoulders, step back into a reverse lunge, stand, and press overhead in one slow sequence. Aim for one complete rep per pulse cycle. It feels choreographed at first, and after a session or two the timing becomes automatic.
14. Farmer hold
Stand tall with a moderate dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand and don't move for 30 to 60 seconds. With the back and abdominal channels active, it becomes a posture drill as much as a grip exercise. Keep your ribs down and shoulders back. The current will find any slouch and make it uncomfortable, which turns out to be excellent feedback.
15. Slow mountain climber
From a plank position, drive one knee forward per second, no faster. This is as close to cardio as you should get in the suit, and at slow speed the abdominal stimulation stacks nicely with the plank position. Sprinting mountain climbers in an EMS suit shifts the electrodes and wrecks your lower back position, so treat the slowness as the point.
How to build a session from these
Pick 6 to 8 exercises with at least one from each group, then run them as a circuit: 45 to 60 seconds per exercise, switch stations during the rest phase, and repeat the loop until the program ends. That lines up neatly with the 20-minute session length Visionbody's programs are built around. You'll get through two or three rounds depending on how long you pause.
A sample circuit that works well: wall sit, glute bridge, plank, band row, incline push-up, dead bug, farmer hold. Swap exercises between sessions rather than mid-workout, so you can actually tell what's progressing. When you want structure across weeks instead of one session at a time, follow the 4-week Visionbody plan, which sequences these movements with rising intensity.
Progress by nudging channel intensity up a few percent or adding a round. Slowing your tempo even further works too. Adding external weight is the last lever to pull, not the first, because the current already handles the overload.
For how these settled into an actual routine over months, our three month log covers the schedule we ran and which programmes we ignored.
What to avoid in an EMS suit
Skip max lifts entirely. Heavy barbell squats or deadlifts stack an external load on top of stimulation your nervous system can't fully predict, and form tends to break mid-pulse. Expect strength and muscle tone gains from EMS work at these intensities, but if a one rep max is your goal, chase it in the gym without the suit.
Skip ballistic movement too. Jumping and kettlebell swings can land a pulse at the exact moment of takeoff or full extension, when an involuntary contraction is the last thing you want. The same goes for any plyometric work. Fast movement also slides the electrodes off their contact points, so stimulation gets patchy right when you need it consistent.
And never train through a cramp. A cramping muscle means that channel is set too high for the position you're in, so back it off in the app and continue. Pushing through teaches you nothing and can leave you sore for days. None of this is medical advice. If you have a pacemaker, are pregnant, or have any condition affected by electrical stimulation, talk to a doctor before EMS training.
More from our EMS hub
Frequently asked questions
How many of these exercises should I do in one session?
Fewer than you'd use in a gym workout. The session is 20 minutes including the app warm up, so a short list you cycle through beats a long menu you rush. Pick a squat pattern, a hinge or bridge, a push, a pull and a core hold, then repeat that circuit until the timer ends. Slow and simple is the point. Switching exercises constantly just costs you working time.
What intensity should I use for these exercises?
Every muscle group starts at level 0 and gets raised on its own, so there's no single setting to copy. Bring each group up until the contraction is unmistakably strong and you can still hold the position, breathe and speak. If your form breaks or the sensation turns sharp, that group is too high. The 180 minus your age heart rate guideline is a useful ceiling during the session. General information, not medical advice.
Can I do these exercises without any equipment?
Yes, and that's how they're meant to be done. Squats, lunges, rows, planks and bridges all work with bodyweight only, because the current supplies the overload rather than the load in your hands. You need floor space, a mat, and somewhere to anchor a band if you want one for rows. Nothing else. The suit, the PowerBox and your phone are the whole kit.
How fast should I move during these exercises?
Slowly. Movements stay slow and simple under EMS because the pulse cycles on and off, and you want the working phase of the rep to land inside the on phase. Move during the contraction, reset during the rest, and stop trying to squeeze in extra reps. Fast, jerky reps also shift the suit and cost you electrode contact, which is what makes stimulation feel patchy.
Should I add weight to these movements?
Not really. The current supplies the overload, not heavy weight, so loading up a squat under stimulation mostly buys you worse positions. If you want to lift heavy, do it on a non EMS day, which fits neatly with the 48 hours between sessions. EMS works best as a supplement to progressive resistance training rather than a replacement for it. Light bands are plenty inside a session.
Do I need to run the app warm up before these exercises?
Yes. The in app warm up is mandatory, not optional, and it does two jobs. It gets blood into the muscles before you push levels up, and it lets you feel where each group is sitting before you commit to a working level. Skipping it and jumping straight to your usual settings is how people end up sore in the wrong way. General information, not medical advice.
Which movements suit the upper body channels and which suit the lower?
The suit runs 12 channels across 24 electrodes, so groups are set separately and you match the movement to the groups you want working. Rows, presses, planks and holds load the upper body and core channels. Squats, lunges, bridges and hinges load the glutes, thighs and lower back channels. Choose the movement first, then raise the levels for the groups doing the work and leave the rest lower.
Why do these exercises feel so much harder in the suit?
Because the muscle is being driven through the whole rep rather than only when you decide to contract it. A bodyweight squat you'd normally not think twice about becomes a real effort, and holding a stable position at the bottom gets noticeably harder. That's normal. If it tips from hard into cramping, sharp sensation or collapsing form, lower that group instead of pushing through. General information, not medical advice.
The suit is FDA cleared, so are these exercises proven to build muscle?
Clearance covers the device, not the exercise list. Visionbody's 510(k) number is K222386, filed by Vb Technologies AG and cleared in February 2023 as a powered muscle stimulator for muscle conditioning. Clearance means the FDA found it substantially equivalent to a stimulator already on the market, not that any exercise here is guaranteed to build muscle. Some rivals claim clearance and publish no number at all. Visionbody's is public and checkable, and has been since 2023.
How often should I train with the Visionbody suit?
One to three full-body sessions per week, with at least 48 hours between them. EMS creates more deep muscle fatigue than it feels like in the moment, and the adaptation happens during recovery. On off days, light walking or mobility work with the suit off is plenty.