A biotech company wants to shock you while you exercise.
Barunbio Energywear’s workout clothes look like your typical gear: functional and somewhat fashionable.
But the trio of Korean scientists who founded the company, presenting at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, said they built these clothes to deliver low-power electrical stimulation all over your body.
No batteries required, though. Their products only need your own movement to power them – like a static electrical shock from shuffling wool socks on a carpet.
The idea behind the company’s gear, called WE-Stim (for Wearable Electric Stimulation) is that this micro-electric stimulation helps activate muscle cells for better workout performance.
WE-Stim clothing is designed to deliver small electrical shocks along the seams. The electrical current is generated by your body movements, and delivered by silver-containing fibers
These shorts contain special conductive fibers that collect and concentrate static electricity as your body moves during a workout
Most of the clothing is similar to your typical LuluLemon or Athleta. The difference lies in the seams.
They are stitched with special fibers that conduct electricity.
A small percentage of silver is all it takes to give the threads their unique power.
The silver is present in tiny proportions – less than 5 percent – but the molecules are arranged in a way that makes the fiber conductive, Patrick Hwang, co-founder and chief technical officer told DailyMail.com.
‘Whenever we move, our body can generate micro-electricity. But that energy’s dissipated and unused, wasted,’ Hwang said.
By capturing this energy with conductive clothing, Hwang and his colleagues found that they can deliver small shocks to the muscles during a workout.
The WE-Stim clothing looks like your typical workout clothing, but it’s designed to encourage muscle activation during workouts
WE-Stim socks provide small amounts of electrical stimulation to the soles of the feet while the wearer is running
This simulates the effects of electrostimulation devices, Hwang said, which have been shown to promote muscle activation and muscle relaxation.
‘Based on that, we don’t need any device or power source, Hwang said. ‘We collect it and concentrate it.’
The collected electric energy is delivered along the seams – along the belly and sides of the legs, in the case of shorts.
‘It enhances cell vitalization, signaling, metabolic activity, and blood flow, inducing movement of ions and molecules within cells,’ according to the company’s promotional materials.
Wearing their electrical stimulation gear can improve workout performance by 30 percent and reduce muscle fatigue by 6 percent or more, they claim, as well as accelerating recovery during rest.
A BIONIC suit that uses no electricity can help you lift heavy without hurting your back
Muscle Suit is a device developed by Japanese company Innophys, designed to help end back-breaking labor.
Like WE-Stim, it has no power source.
They imagine their strength-enhancing harness being used by manufacturing, warehouse, farming, and healthcare workers – professions where physical strain is high and injuries are common, Masaru Yoda, head of international business at Innophys, told DailyMail.com.
The strappy device is worn like a backpack, with a firm back brace and hooks that go over the thighs.
This braces your back and legs together to let you lift heavy objects without hurting yourself.
Innophys offered to let me try it, and as someone who lives with a chronic lower back injury, I was eager to see how it felt.
After Yoda helped me put on the device and pumped the pads full of air to snug it up, I could I could squat down, bend over to pick things up, and even lean forward and just hang there comfortably, my back braced against my legs.
I’m not sure how comfortable it would be to wear all day long, but it definitely seemed to do its job.
Muscle Suit braces the back and legs together to help people in labor-intensive professions avoide strain and injury.
