This time of year we are bombarded with claims from companies offering pills, programs, diets and meal plans that will make you slim. Many of these are misleading and recently the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) fined the marketers (Xenadrine EFX, One-A-Day WeightSmart, CortiSlim and TrimSpa) of four weight-loss pills $25 million for making false advertising claims including fast weight-loss and even cancer prevention. It is nice to see the government acting on and going after these fraudsters.
Who is Using Vibration Machines?
For the past few years I have been reporting my findings on vibration exercise machines and gathering more research. I have now worked with and talked to many people that using vibration exercise fitness machines to get in shape and to lose weight. Like most, I was very skeptical when I was first introduced to the technology but the more I researched the science behind the more intrigued I got. I found that most professional sports teams in the USA were using vibration machines for one reason or another. Some for training, some for rehab/therapy and some for stretching and core workouts.
I also found that vibration exercise had been adopted by medical professionals such as physiotherapists, chiropractors and spinal therapy specialists. The interesting thing is that many of these professionals a few years ago laughed at whole-body vibration fitness as a real science and medical treatment. Now that they had become educated and experienced on vibration exercise machines their view had completely changed. I found this is a common evolution with most people and their experience with vibration machines.
Benefits of Vibration Plate Fitness
So how can vibration do so much good for us? The basics are very simple and I found that once I had used the machine just once, I understood how it worked. When you exercise you contract and stretch your muscles under force. This causes small tears in the muscle which then are repaired and rebuilt even stronger. The vibration machine exercise does exactly this but in much smaller movements, about 3mm to 10mm. Your muscles do not care how much they are moving as long as they are contracting and stretching under force. The result is not only the same but better. In one minute on a vibration machine you can get 1500 muscle contractions, compared to maybe 60 to 200 doing traditional exercise. This is how the whole-body vibration workout only takes 10 to 15 minutes.
Beyond the muscle workout there are many other benefits that are not so obvious starting with Weight-loss. A new study presented at the Congress on Obesity showed that vibration exercise fitness was up to 4 times as effective as traditional exercise with fat loss. 60 minutes of cardio versus 15 minutes of vibration exercise machine use and vibration fitness won? This surprised everybody and has created a shockwave around the globe. Not only did the vibration fitness group lose much more fat but they were able to keep it off even after stopping using vibration for 6 months. The cardio group all experienced the yo yo effect and gained back the weight they had lost. Somehow vibration exercise is able to reset the bodies “Weight Set-Point” which is key to long term weight-loss. This is a game changer in the weight-loss industry and Vibration Exercise has is becoming adopted into many weight-loss program now.
North America is currently experiencing an epidemic in Osteoporosis and the drug companies are having a hay day selling drugs to treat it. In reality the drugs have been proven to have very little benefits and are costing consumers hundreds of millions a year. Vibration Exercise machines build bone mass naturally and are very effective at preventing bone loss.
My Results
As for myself and my wife our results continue to be impressive. We have both lost more weight and continue to get stronger. Our energy levels are up and overall we really feel better. My experience has been so positive that I have got many of my friends to start using whole-body vibration and they have really benefited from it.
Vibration Exercise Machine Buyer Tips
The most common question I get is “what machine to buy” and the answer is depends on how much you want to spend. We have had a VibraSlim Europlate for a few years now and we love it. There are many other good brands out there though such as Power Plate, Turbosonic and Pila-vibe although they do cost considerably more.
Beware of the dozens of websites and stores selling Chinese made vibration machines. These machines are notorious for breaking down and trying to repair them is futile. The Chinese machines, like most things from china, are made to be disposable and not made to repaired easily even if you are able to find parts. I have heard many horror stories of $2000 machines breaking after a few months and ending up in the garbage.
Whole Body Vibration Buyers Guide – Vibration Machine Reviews Video
