American football player Trace Armstrong, Russian cosmonauts and Ivana Trump all have one thing in common: power plates.
One uses it for rehabilitation from injury and improving sports performance, another in trying to slow down the detrimental effects weightlessness has on the body, and finally the third (guess who) to look good on the international jet-set scene.
While their reasons for using this device differ greatly, how power plates work is the same. Basically, it is a machine that looks like large bathroom scales with a 50cm x 76cm platform that vibrates between 30 and 60 times a second while you sit, stand, squat and stretch on it. Various claims made about this 'miracle' fitness machine are a decrease in training time by 85 per cent (a one-hour workout takes approximately 15 minutes for the same results), an increase in muscle strength and co-ordination by 20-30 per cent, and quicker recovery time with less stress placed on the joints, ligaments and tendons. All of this can be allegedly achieved without even breaking into a sweat.
The idea behind power plates, using vibrations to train the body, is not new. In the former Soviet Union, scientists conducted research on how to counteract the loss of bone density and muscle in astronauts during their stay in space. They discovered by applying vibrations to the body, a stretch reflex is initiated, causing the muscle to continuously contract. In the 1970s, this technology was being used to enhance sports performances and demonstrated increases in muscle strength, flexibility and the capacity to recover from training. After the Iron Curtain fell, European scientists went on to discover that vibrations caused certain hormones to increase and decrease. It was a Dutch team using gymnasts and other athletes who became the first to really develop the commercial model of the power plate.
While the use of vibrations for sports performance and rehabilitation isn't new in Europe (the Olympic German bob-sleigh team are just one example of sportsmen who use power plates), Americans are only beginning to catch on. A few top teams such as the Oakland Raiders have purchased their own power plates and Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) agrees that these vibrations do actually increase bone growth by stimulating the body's tissues. The actual physiological reasons for how it works are not fully understood, but some scientists believe the body is fooled into thinking it is working hard. An example of this same training effect without power plates are barefoot water skiers. They have been known to develop incredibly strong legs without working out their lower bodies in a gym.
Simply put, the power plate produces the same reaction in your body as a physical workout - only the machine does the work for you. But before you go searching the Internet on where to buy one, it's not perfect. The power plate is only good for developing core and muscular strength and fitness. You'll still need to burn calories and work your heart the good old-fashioned way, through cardiovascular activity for 20-30 minutes a day.