What do Madonna, Shaquille O’Neal, Lance Armstrong, Claudia Schiffer, Clint Eastwood, Karl Lagerfeld and many other celebrities and well-known athletes have in common? They’ve all reported using a vibrating exercise machine known as Whole Body Vibration (WBV). Lagerfeld apparently credits the shaking platform with his dramatic weight loss.
The theory of WBV is simple—you put your whole body, or a part of it, on the platform, and it moves from side to side at approximately 30 times a second. These very quick movements keep the body slightly off balance, forcing muscles to involuntarily react in order to keep you upright. These reactions, which happen several times a second, mean the body is contracting and releasing muscles rapidly, several times faster than would happen in a regular exercise routine. Since the vibrations get sent through the entire body, all the muscle groups are affected and the muscles are strengthened and toned without effort on the user’s part.
The Russian space program generated the idea for vibration exercise equipment. Since there is zero gravity in space, there is no resistance to work your muscles, and after prolonged stays in space, astronauts lost their muscles and bone density. To fight this, the Russians came up with vibration exercise.
Health Benefits
Many patients experience great health benefits from vibration, including one man who was over-weight and couldn’t walk up a flight of stairs due to arthritis in his knee. After using the WBV machine daily, for two months, he lost 40 pounds and his knee pain disappeared. A diabetic patient’s sugar levels dropped after one session and have remained level with constant usage.
An 89 year old patient used the machine in a doctor’s office and then decided to buy one because he saw it was helping his vertigo. After he had it in his home, he reported that using it has helped his balance.
Nearly everyday, patients with back pain experience relief from muscle spasms after vibrating for 10 minutes. It even helped one patient with a sprained ankle. He said it hurt severely, but one day later, he vibrated for 10 minutes and the pain disappeared.
WBV promotes fitness by allowing you to get a full body workout in less time and with less effort than going to the gym. You can even use the machine to massage your muscles. Because it is low impact, the machine is also kind to joints, making it suitable for all ages and abilities, from athletes to the elderly.
The vibration does the work and your body simply responds, melting away fat, relieving chronic pain, increasing bone density and joint stability, stimulating circulation and your immune system, soothing muscles, and improving overall well-being.
There are, of course, some caveats, so if you have any health issues, make sure to consult your doctor before using a vibration machine—and the weight loss effect won’t counteract eating cake and cookies, so combining WBV with sensible eating and a regular cardio exercise routine is definitely recommended for best results.
How It Works
Degenerative diseases, accelerated aging, and all diminished capacities can be ultimately attributed to insufficient cellular stimulation. Diseases develop and aging is accelerated when living cells have to struggle with poor nutrition, low oxygen levels, environmental toxins, and stagnation of lymphatic fluids (lymph fluids are a major part of your immune system). The vibration helps treat diseases because the shaking stretches the tendons—increasing blood flow and the amount of oxygen in your blood, giving your cells more nourishment.
