About the treatment
Contractions you could not produce yourself
A focused electromagnetic field is directed into the muscle of the treated area. Muscle responds to that field by contracting, and because the signal bypasses the usual limits your nervous system places on voluntary effort, the contractions are both far more frequent and far more complete than anything you can produce deliberately.
Thousands of them happen in a single sitting. The muscle adapts to that load the way it adapts to training — by building — and the intense metabolic demand also draws on the fat sitting over it. Those two effects together are what changes the look of the area.
Nothing enters the skin, there is no anaesthetic and there is nothing to recover from beyond the feeling of having trained hard. At our Macleod Trail clinic you lie down, an applicator is positioned, and you get up afterwards and drive home.
The appointment
What it feels like, honestly
This is the treatment people ask the most questions about beforehand, because the description sounds stranger than the experience is.
The first few minutes
The intensity is brought up gradually and the muscle begins to contract on its own. It is a peculiar sensation the first time — not painful, but entirely outside your control. Most people stop noticing it inside five minutes.
The middle of the session
Cycles of strong contraction with a tapping or tingling phase in between, which is there to clear the lactic acid that would otherwise leave you sore. You can hold a conversation throughout, and most people do.
Afterwards
Like the day following a hard session at the gym, without having done one. Mild soreness and sometimes a little tingling. Walking and stretching are fine; leave heavy training for a day.
The comparison
Muscle sculpting or laser lipo?
We are asked to choose between these two constantly. They work on different tissue, and the right answer depends on what is actually bothering you.
Muscle sculpting
- Acts on the muscle, and on the fat over it as a consequence
- For definition and tone in a specific area
- Four to six sessions, only a few days apart
- Best suited to someone already reasonably fit
Laser lipo cavitation
- Acts on the fat layer only; muscle is unaffected
- For reducing a defined deposit
- Six to twelve sessions, about a week apart
- Best suited to a pocket that has not responded to anything
Plenty of people benefit from both in sequence — laser lipo to reduce what is covering the muscle, then this to define what is underneath. Which order suits you is a decision worth making with someone who has looked at the area.
Indications
What is it good for?
Definition in an area where the muscle is already there and something is sitting over it, or where tone has gone.
Abdomen, buttocks, thighs and arms are the areas we treat most. For shape rather than tone, see the non-surgical butt lift. Everything available in south Calgary is on our Calgary SE clinic page.
Being straight with you
Who this is not for
There is a real list here, and it is shorter to be honest about it than to have the conversation at the appointment.
Anyone with an implanted device or metal in the area
A pacemaker, a defibrillator, an insulin pump, a metal plate, pins or an IUD in the treatment zone all rule it out. This is not a precaution we are willing to be flexible about. Tell us before booking rather than on the day.
Anyone pregnant or recently postpartum
We do not treat during pregnancy, and after a birth — particularly a caesarean — there is a waiting period. If abdominal separation is your concern, that needs assessing by someone qualified to do so first.
Anyone hoping to lose a substantial amount of weight
This is a definition treatment, not a weight-loss one. As a first step for somebody with a lot to lose it is a poor use of money, and we will suggest something more appropriate rather than take the booking.
Anyone expecting it to replace training
It reaches a depth and a contraction rate voluntary effort cannot, in one area, for half an hour. That is genuinely useful and it is not fitness. The clients who get the most from it are the ones who were already in the gym.
Getting ready
Pre & post treatment
Simple on both sides. Come fed and hydrated; leave and behave as you would after a workout.
On the day
- Eat something light beforehand and drink plenty of water. Arriving on an empty stomach is the main cause of feeling wobbly afterwards.
- Clean skin, no lotion, no oil, no cream on the area.
- Loose, comfortable clothing that gives easy access to the zone.
- Tell us about any medical condition, implant or pregnancy before we start. Not at the door — when you book.
Afterwards
- Mild soreness or tingling, similar to the day after heavy training. It settles within a day or two.
- Keep moving gently: walking and stretching yes, strenuous training no, for 24 hours.
- Keep drinking water to help clear the metabolic by-products the session produced.
- Everything else as normal. There is no downtime and no restriction on your day.
- Keep to the schedule. Sessions two to three days apart is what the protocol depends on.
Results
Muscle sculpting before and after
A client treated on the lower stomach at You Glow Aesthetics. What has changed is the definition of the area rather than the overall size of it.
Individual results vary with starting fitness, the area treated, the number of sessions completed and what you do between them. Visible change typically begins two to four weeks after starting and continues developing for around three months after the final session.
Also on Macleod Trail
Treatments that work well around this one
- Laser Lipo Cavitation in Calgary SE — reduces the fat layer sitting over the muscle
- Butt Lift in Calgary SE — contouring where the goal is shape rather than tone
- Double Chin Removal in Calgary SE — targeted fat reduction under the jaw
- Microneedling in Calgary SE — for stretch marks and skin texture over a treated area
- Muscle sculpting brand-wide — how the treatment works across all our clinics
