Whole Body Vibration
Whole Body Vibration is a practice where the individual stands, sits, or lies on a machine with a vibrating platform. This vibration transmits energy to the body, and strengthens muscles by forcing them to contract and relax several times per second.
It has been previously shown that this approach can improve the formation and maintenance of neuromuscular junctions — the site where nerve cells and muscles communicate — resulting in enhanced muscle strength in different situations.
Whole-body vibration therapy decreases coordination deficits, reflex excitability, and spasticity, positively affecting gait and gross motor skills, increases joint mobility, and improves strength in patients with cerebral palsy, with effects lasting up to 30 minutes after treatment. Long-term benefits of vibration therapy include increased muscle mass and bone-mineral density, improved gross motor function, strength, gait, and mobility, and reduced muscle tone and spasticity. Both core, arm, and leg exercises are performed on the vibration platform, improving overall strength.
When you stand or place other parts of your body on Hypervibe’s moving platform, the repetitive upward movement of the platform sends pulses of kinetic energy up through your body. You control the strength of these energy waves using the machine’s control panel.
As each wave moves up through your body some of the energy is absorbed by the tissues of your body and is converted to heat. Muscles and joints feel and operate better when they are warm. Whole Body Vibration has been proven to create a warming effect in muscles and joints faster and easier than other types of exercise.
The upwards movement of the platform also causes movement in the joints of your body which has a mobilising effect and causes the muscles and tissues surrounding the joints to stretch and vibrate.
Your brain is constantly monitoring the position of your joints and will increase muscle activation in an attempt to stabilize your posture when there is a risk of you becoming unbalanced.
Further, if the stretching and vibration of tissues are sufficient, microscopic sensors inside your body detect these changes and quickly activate reflexes that cause the muscles to contract, keeping joints and soft tissues protected from excessive movement. The strength of muscle contraction depends on the strength of the energy pulse coming up from the platform and the health of your nerves and muscles.
Whole Body Vibration is a unique way of increasing your exposure to gravity. The upward movement of the platform causes the body to accelerate upwards. Imagine the example of standing in an elevator. If the elevator were to move downwards at high speed, it would make you feel light, almost like floating. If, however, it suddenly slowed to a stop and immediately moved upwards with the rapidly increasing speed, it would feel like your body just became a lot heavier, and you would have to push down with your legs to keep yourself upright. Whole Body Vibration creates an effect similar to the elevator moving upwards, it’s as if your body just became heavier. You feel this acceleration as a force on your body, a force called G-force, which is adding to the force of gravity pulling you toward the Earth.
Pivotal vs linear
In Pivotal vibration machines, the platform you stand on tilts around a central pivot point like a see-saw. The left and right sides alternate up and down while the centre remains fixed.You can change the total distance your feet move up and down (other terms include ‘displacement’ and ‘peak-to-peak amplitude’) by moving them either closer or further away from the centre. The Hypervibe is a Pivotal vibration plate.
A Lineal vibration platform remains horizontal at all times with the entire platform moving up and down by the same amount. The Powerplate is a Lineal vibration platform.