Vibration Plates
Do Vibration Plates Work?
Have you ever seen or used Vibration Plates often known as Power plates? You may have noticed one in your gym? A lot of these machines get forgotten about and I am not sure why, as they are a great piece of equipment, and yes, they do work. Ok, don’t take my word for it yet let me show you.
Why use a Vibration Plate?
I did a course with Power Plate many years ago and I was a little skeptical at first, but by the end of the course I was completely in awe, and here’s why…
A Vibration Plate is an exercise machine that uses a mechanical vibration called oscillation. These vibrations move in multi-directions. When using these machines when doing an exercise, recruits more muscle fibers that contract and relax, giving you a high-speed workout. Normally your muscles will contract and relax once or twice a second but on a vibration plate it’s between 30 to 50 times a second. So, this means that it’s more effective to do exercise on a Vibration Plate, as you will recruit more muscle fibers, which is what we need to tone our muscles.
More benefits
Shorten Workout Time – Because of the number of muscle fibers that contract at one time, it means that you can spend half the time you would usually spend in a gym and get the same results.
You can even have one at home – The original Power Plates were pretty big and expensive, but now you can find small plates that can fit in your home for a cheaper price, still with all functions and their benefits. Just like this one (a picture of a vibration plate)
Aid Weight loss
One of the most popular benefits of using a vibration plate is that it helps weight loss. As I said before the vibration plate turns up the intensity of your normal workout, which will help you tone up, plus it helps to boast your metabolism too which helps you to burn fat more effectively. Of course, you will need to combine your workouts on the vibration plate with a healthy diet.
Low Impact
Low impact exercise means that it’s easier on the joints, which makes exercising on a vibration plate great for those that are just starting exercise, the elderly, or those recovering from an injury. Using vibration plates are a great way to build up strength and endurance with minimal risk of injury.
Muscle Strength and Toning
Even just standing on the vibration plate with your knees bent, will help strengthen your legs and core as the vibrations will engage your muscle fibers and core stability. So, imagine if you did squats, lunges, press-ups and sit-ups on a vibration plate instead of the gym floor, you have already kicked up the intensity of your workout.
Core Stability and Strength
You can target your core on a vibration plate by doing planks and sit-ups, because of the vibrations the muscles will contract and relax at a higher level than on the gym floor, so will work the core muscles harder in a short amount of time. Plus, the vibration will work your core stability to help you maintain your balance whilst exercising. Developing a strong core will help with back pain and improve your posture.
Improves; Flexibility and Mobility: Vibration plates are great for improving flexibility, as the vibrations relax the muscles and increase blood flow, which in turn will help you gain more mobility in your joints. Of course, selecting the right stretching exercises is key.
- Balance: Because of the vibrations, the body will have to work harder than usual for you to maintain your balance and core stability. Balance is the ability to control your body’s position at all times, this is why it is so important to maintain and improve your balance.
- Bone density: Vibration therapy was developed originally by scientists involved in space travel, to help astronauts maintain muscle strength and bone density whilst in space. Weight-bearing exercise has a positive effect on your bones, so vibration therapy mixed with weight-bearing exercise will aim to strengthen the muscular-skeletal system, resulting in a knock-on effect to strengthen your bones.
- Circulation: A study from Loma Linda University (USA) showed that massaging on a vibration plate significantly increases the circulation in the arms and legs. This due to the vibrations increasing the blood flow around the body.
- Cellulite: Combine the benefits related to the vibrations – blood flow, weight loss, and muscle tone. All this put together with a healthy diet will help you reduce cellulite in a way that will improve your body confidence in no time.
Helps
Muscle Recovery
Using the vibration plate to massage after a workout will get the blood flow around your body, which will deliver oxygen, nutrients and flush away lactic acid. All this will help your muscles to recover a lot quicker.
Recovery From Injury
Because the exercises on a vibration plate are low impact, it’s the perfect way to build up strength after an injury. Using a vibration plate for flexibility will help to loosen up the muscles and joints around the injured area. Plus, you can have one in your own home, so you can do your exercises at any time.
What exercise is best on a Vibration Plate?
Depending on your goal, using Whole-Body Functional Training is great as you will work up to 90% of your muscles at the same time. For example, squats, lunges, planks. You can also use the cables that usually come with a vibration plate to add more variety to your workout and upper body strength, as well as adding dumbbells or whatever other equipment you like or have.
Conclusion
A Vibration Plate is a great piece of equipment to use in the gym or at home. Whether you want to lose weight, tone up, reduce cellulite, build strength after an injury or improve bone density. There are so many benefits to using a vibration plate, plus you can shorten your workout time to just 30 minutes on a vibration plate and still gain the same benefits as doing 1 hour in the gym. What’s not to love?!
Buy on Amazon