Is there a way to get more bang for your buck - aka maximum results in minimum time - with your workout?

That's what EMS (electronic muscle stimulation) promises to do. It involves stimulating the body with low-level electric pulses, to activate several muscle groups simultaneously to give you a more intense workout, meaning you only need to do 20 minutes, once or twice a week.

It's not a new way of exercising. EMS itself has been around for centuries as a form of physiotherapy, but it's making a resurgence as a form of exercise, gaining plenty of celebrity fans along the way. Madonna, Liz Hurley and Heidi Klum have all done it. So have Usain Bolt and Rafael Nadal. Meanwhile, Spider-Man himself, Tom Holland, did it to help get into superhero shape.

In Canberra, the home for EMS is SpeedFit in Kingston. Owner Lanette Helene, who has a background in pilates after bringing it to the capital in the 90s, opened the studio last year after getting hooked on the science behind EMS.

"The major thing is that the electrodes stimulate more muscle fibres to contract," she says.

"When we lift a light dumbbell, for example, you find that you recruit X number of muscle fibres. If you pick up a heavy weight, you'll recruit more. What this does is externally switches on more muscle fibres automatically."

Walking into SpeedFit isn't like walking into your traditional gym. Instead of a row of treadmills, you find two EMS machines sitting side by side - SpeedFit only accommodates two clients at a time. And instead of walking in wearing your own gym gear, you get given workout clothes and then fitted with a wetsuit-like vest and other body bands, which have been sprayed with water.

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Once connected to the machine, each muscle group is isolated as your trainer sets the intensity. It's not painful in any way. It's just an intense vibration felt directly on your muscles.

The exercises are pretty easy. The hardest things you need to do technique-wise are lunges and squats. The workout comes into it when you combine these with the electric pulses. It creates a resistance that you need to push through. The plus with this approach, particularly for those with joint problems, is that it doesn't put any pressure on your joints.

"You're not loading the joints, but you're stimulating those muscle fibres," Helene says.

"So for the prehab side of things - pre knee replacement operations or spinal operations for example - this is great for getting the core musculature switched on and working."

The verdict: The intensity relies on how high you set the EMS machine, so providing you do that, you'll feel it in your muscles after your session - just like a traditional workout. Cost-wise it's on par with what you would pay for a personal trainer. It's worth trying out if you're looking to change up your workout routine, wanting to add to it, or are too short on time to workout in the first place.

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