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Vibration Plate
Vibrating machines and how to buy them
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Christopher Wright of John Lewis stores said that their Vibration Plate sales have tripled in the past six months. He said: "Based on this, I think the market will only continue to grow. It's a strange sensation to start off with, but there are various levels of vibrations." More gyms are also looking to install vibrating fitness equipment.
Whole Body Vibration seems to be the hot thing in exercise technology. These machines allow you to exercise vertically on a vibrating platform (the intensity can be adjusted to suit). The theory is that when the body senses instability (in this case the vibration) the muscles involuntarily contract and stretch to compensate.

Cheryl Cullen, director of online retailer Kitten Kit said the Vibration Trainer takes up the same amount of floor space as a large set of scales and will "revolutionize fitness".



Whole body vibration (WBV) refers to a machine with a flat plate on which a person stands, that stimulates the whole body by tilting slightly around an axle. The person who stands on the machine tries to keep the head and body steady and upright. All the muscles that keep the body in this position are forced to react to the oscillatory movements provided by the machine, thus exercising them.


The whole- body vibration workout
Standing or working out on the vibration exercise machines sets off what's known as a "tonic vibration reflex," causing muscles to react. "Simply by standing on a vibrating plate, it actually causes your muscles to contract," says Jeff McBride, an associate professor in biomechanics at North Carolina's Appalachian State University, who has researched vibration.

It looks like a big scale, with a pole and handles similar to those found on some treadmills. Athletes can hang onto the handles and do a variety of exercises while it vibrates 30-50 times a second, depending on how it's set. Typically, one schedules 10-minute sessions about three times a week, according to Susan Hardy, owner of the Midvale Athletic Club, where this vibration exercise machine is located.

It's not disruptive, but there's a mild sense of instability. The body seems to respond automatically to try to correct it. And that's the magic, proponents say. On a basic, neural level, all the big and little muscles work to counter the vibration.

Barlow is Hardy's mother. And though she's not the reason Hardy got the device, both mother and daughter are convinced it may change Barlow's life. Davis says it's reduced swelling in Barlow's legs and overall water retention already.
 
Besides multiple sclerosis, the device boasts a track record for helping those who normally wouldn't exercise much -- people with arthritis, Parkinson's disease, stroke survivors and others -- get some of the benefits of exercise. It's also touted for people with osteoporosis, a condition in which bone density is lost, or as a prevention for it. Whole-body vibration increases growth hormone levels significantly, according to studies.

The theory behind whole-body vibration benefiting athletes came out of Russia in the 1970s. Trainers chasing Olympic gold said it worked, which led to research by the Russian space program. Now NASA is reportedly doing its own research with the vibrating machine because space travel and its zero-gravity conditions seems to degenerate bone and muscle mass, which both rely on weight-bearing activity to maintain them. 

It further claims that "100 percent of the muscle fibers contract," leading to a host of benefits. It's currently quite popular in Europe and is slowly picking up steam in the United States.

The athletic club installed the vibration plate about four months ago. What struck Hardy when she began to use it was the increase in her energy level. She was pleasantly surprised that her workout on the machine left her a little sore, just like a beneficial, more traditional workout.

She talks about the 60-something man who stands on cement floors all day. He said the Power Plate makes his legs and feet feel better. Or the woman who'd lost a fair amount of weight, then stopped losing. The addition of vibration fitness machine to her workout helped, she says. She's using the vibrating exercise machine for the third time, hoping it will jump-start weight loss that has stalled a bit. The stay-at-home mom laughs that "you can literally feel it at the end of your hair."