Vibration therapy: Shake the body - it's pure therapy

Can you get in shape just by standing on a plate that shakes? Shouldn't you even lift iron or ask around? Can you really boil the workout down to a minimum of only 15 minutes and still achieve great effect? We have tested shaking therapy - also called vibration therapy…

The form of vibration therapy originated in Russia and was created in the late 1980s on the basis of research on maintenance training for cosmonauts. Here they sought to invent a form of exercise that could be used in the room so that they did not return home with severely impaired bone and muscle mass.

And how do you even get the idea of ​​"shaking" people?

The story goes that one was wondering how the lions on the savannah could have such immense power and speed that they can easily take down a zebra despite having a really lazy lifestyle? How can they have the strength to do that? Sure, lions are cat animals and they spin very vigorously. Therefore, we began to investigate whether there was a deeper meaning to this phenomenon: the spider. And from that came the shaking therapy.

Vibration gives effect

So it turns out that just standing on a vibrating surface increases the bone density, which then sends shivers up through the body, strengthening both bones and muscles.

Vibration therapy quickly provides greater muscle strength, increased fat burning, better blood circulation and metabolism, and increased bone density. And of course a better and more secure balance.

Feedback from people who have been training for just a few weeks tells us that this training can also reduce orange skin, which must be traced back to the optimized blood flow.

A stronger pelvic floor, lower back pain and better posture are also reported.

It happens that when the plate vibrates at up to 35-40 turns per second, your muscles do everything possible to stabilize the body. The vibrations force the muscles to contract 20-50 times a second, which is basically constant. Therefore, the effect of the exercises will be approx. three times the normal.

The system that you can buy   is basically passive training. That is, one stands on the record and gets trained. (However, you can also do various exercises on it for eg arms and upper body).

In fact, a lot of research has been done on this form of training. Oddly enough, none of the public hospitals surveyed offers physical therapy this form of therapy. Nor the private clinics I have asked. Most people do not know about this vibration therapy at all, but two of the private clinics I contacted will investigate the phenomenon more closely after my inquiry.

It seems to me otherwise so obvious because the training is so intense and effective.

A walk in the shaking room

On a Powerplate the idea is also based on the fact that you are standing on a troubled surface. Powerplate is three-dimensional, ie. that the tiny little shakes it makes go both up and down and to the sides. Then your muscles must constantly work to balance. It is said that 15-20 minutes on such a "shaking machine" equals 1-2 hours in a fitness center. Yes, then I know what I would choose.

On a Powerplate you work approx. 20 minutes, doing about 10-12 exercises of 30-60 seconds duration distributed over the different muscle groups. Finally, you can get over the foot of the machine and have a nice game of "system massage"

Whether it gives something? If you ask my body, after just 20 minutes on a Powerplate, then the answer is YES. Also to that extent. I was training-sore, in the right way, for several days after.

The machine buzzes in the floor and sounds like a big cat lying under my feet and spinning.

Can shaking therapy your whole body?

And here we are back to the theory of the cat animal spin, which also assumes that the vibrations it makes should trigger a healing process.

Just hear this story:

“Recently, at a doctor's consultation about joint pain, I mentioned casually that on bad days, I'd rather just lie in bed with my cats. "It's absolutely perfect," the doctor said. "The spinning sound of a cat is known to strengthen human bones". I immediately asked the doctor to explain more about this phenomenon and I learned that being a cat owner has actually been scientifically proven to be a healthy thing. A cat's spine (vibrating stimulus) has been associated with pain relief in people with both acute and chronic pain, it has been proven that the vibrational stimulus helps to generate bone growth, accelerate wound healing, improve local blood circulation and - oxygenation, as well as reducing swelling and bacterial infections. ”

Studies show that so-called low vibrational frequencies have therapeutic efficacy. These frequencies can accelerate bone growth, promote bone fracture healing, increase joint mobility, relieve pain, strengthen muscles and remove or alleviate swelling and edema.

Cat mother also feeds her kittens while she spins.

So maybe that's why the cat has nine lives - because they are equipped with their own healing device?

The cat's bone damage, muscle damage, etc. heals much better than other animals eg. dogs. And it is believed to be solely due to the cat's ability to spin.

Many cat owners have found that if they have been ill, the cat will come and lie down in their bed and spin on life - perhaps to relieve and heal?

Vibration therapy as a relief

But is it not possible to make an apparatus that can mimic the cat's spin and which can send low vibrations into the body and all over it? Yes, it exists - e.g. TENS appliances or electrostimulations that can be used in acupuncture treatments.

TENS devices are used e.g. by a very few, privately practicing midwives to relieve pain. Strangely, it is not a fixture in every dining room, because it is very easy to use. They can also be purchased for private use.

The TENS device is used by attaching the self-adhesive electrode pads directly to the site of pain. It stimulates the nerves to both block pain perception and speeds up the production of the body's natural morphine-like substance, endorphins and encephalins.

In Chinese medicine, pain is an indication that stagnation is present. It can either be the blood stagnating or the energy doing. Ordinary acupuncture needles can help restore the free flow, but to turn turbo on that process, you can apply power.

The body's own morphine-like substances are also produced by having needles in the body's acupuncture points.

I think shake therapy could be really useful in many places, both in hospitals and in gyms, pain clinics, etc. We just have to be aware of the possibility!