You have seen the infomercials for the Powerfit vibration platform claiming that just standing on it will transform your body to that of a toned bodybuilder or model. And like you, I also thought to myself…”What a load of bulls**t!” But when a couple of residents from the local retirement living centre started raving about it to me I decided to look closer at these machines. When I researched into the physiological effects these machines would have on the body I knew that I needed to get one for myself and felt obliged to let the rest of the community in on their secret health benefits…
Firstly let me be clear on some of the bulls**t claims about these machines because they do sprinkle it on quite thick during the infomercials…
Standing on the vibration platforms will NOT make you lose weight and tone up!
You will notice when they make that claim on TV, down the bottom of the screen is an asterisk with a lot of small writing that effectively says that the people who have lost weight and toned up on these machines actually did a regular exercise program on the machines and followed a certain eating plan. That being said, chances are that you will lose weight and tone up if you start a regular exercise program and improve your diet…but you don’t need a vibration platform to do that.
Vibration platforms make it easy to make healthier use of your “down time”
But the vibrating platform has many secret health benefits…
1) It Promotes Lymphatic Drainage
What this means to you that it helps drain excess fluid from your body tissues helping to prevent swelling. It also helps to enhance your bodies capacity to fight off infection by promoting the circulation of lymph around your body, which is a fluid full of infection-fighting white blood cells.
2) It Improves Your Bone Density
Your bones are living tissue that responds and remodels itself to the stresses that you place upon it. For example, if you spend time flying in the space shuttle you will develop osteoporosis due to the lack of gravity upon your bones but after a while back on earth, your bone density will improve. The repetitious up and down movement of the vibrating platform places mechanical forces on your bones which result in your bones improving your bone density. It does this without placing as much strain on possible dodgy muscles, ligaments and without putting as much demand on your heart and lungs. This is an especially valuable starting point for the more elderly, those with poor fitness, illness or injuries that restrict your ability to regularly do activities like running, jumping or hiking up and down hills, that create these same kinds of bone-stimulating forces.
3) It Improves The Discs in Your Back
The intervertebral discs in your neck and back compress and expand to the up and down forces of the vibrating platform. This compression and expansion of your discs (a process known as imbibition) forces water and nutrients in and out of your disc and is the only way your discs receive the nutrition to stay healthy.
The benefits of the vibrating platforms are that they provide a safe, convenient way for people to get the health-giving benefits or your body moving up and down. This is especially so for those who have some form of incapacity that limits their ability to run, jog or climb up and down hills. If you already run, jog and climb up and down hills, you can choose to do squats, lunges, push-ups or do various yoga poses on the vibrating platforms as a cool way to turbo-charge your exercise.
With prices of these platforms ranging from $100 ->$1000 there are cheaper alternatives available that do similar things… jumping up and down on a mini trampoline or stepping up and down a step or a stool do expose the body to the same type of forces. If you do choose those options, understand that you will need to use them for longer to get the same benefits as the vibrating platforms. This is because the vibrating platforms oscillate up and down far quicker than you can go on a step or mini trampoline so the vibrating platforms are worth considering if you are pressed for time.
Ultimately, you don’t need to even get a vibrating platform if you run regularly, play sports that require running and jumping, go to step classes or if you regularly hike up and down hills since these activities already provide your body with those up and down forces of the vibrating platform. But then again, the convenience that the vibrating platforms provide also creates an opportunity to make healthier use of our downtime. That’s why I’m looking forward to watching the footy while standing on my vibrating platform!