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Passive Exerciser
| Date: |
12 July 2010 07:00 |
| Producer: |
Sophia Phirippides
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| Show: | Carte Blanche Medical |
It has been marketed as the lazy person's way to fitness, and touted as everything from 'cellulite burner' to 'muscle builder'. They would have you believe that just 10 minutes every other day on this machine will give you the body you've always desired. But how effective is the Whole Body Vibration Machine?
Whole Body Vibration was originally developed for the Russian space flight programme, to counteract the effects of bone and muscle wastage which take place in a zero-gravity environment.
The training allowed the Russians to stay for longer periods in space than any other astronauts. The rapidly accelerating platform creates a form of hyper-gravity, which challenges the body to work harder. The vibrations trigger the so-called 'tonic vibration reflex', which is an involuntary tightening of the muscles in response to the high frequency vibrations. It's also known as the sinusoidal response, which is part of the body's ability to maintain its balance. Sports Physician Dr Johan Patricios has looked into the research on the machine.
Dr Johan Patricios (Sports physician): 'Where we're exercising in the modern environment with these machines, the science, the research, shows there are some benefits in terms of helping to preserve bone density, in terms of stimulating the muscles - the skeletal muscles in particular, to improve strength.'
At mainstream gyms, trainers are more enthusiastic in their support. Iain Homan is a personal trainer at Planet Fitness.
Iain Homan (Personal trainer): 'Because of the fact that it vibrates, it sends a high frequency vibration through the body as well. So you're actually doing a lot more work over a muscle without having to do really anything. So, for example, if the frequency is at 30Hz you're getting 30 contractions per second over the muscle just by standing on a vibration plate.'
Sports scientists agree that the low-impact nature of the exercise can be of benefit, in certain specific situations.
Dr Patricios: 'Where it may be of benefit is in special populations. Those people that have joint disease and can't take impact on their joints, those people that are perhaps overweight and can't exercise for long periods of time on their legs.'
Post menopausal women are at high risk of osteoporosis. Could whole body vibration help them?
Dr Patricios: 'One of the main concerns with post-menopausal women is the quite rapid deterioration or decrease in their bone density, which has repercussions in terms of fracture of major bones. Can vibratory therapy help prevent this? Well, to a degree. The science shows it may help slow down the process. There are better ways of exercising to help boost bone density or help slow down the degree of osteopenia. And that would be weight-bearing exercise, walking, running, and stressing the bones using the muscles.'
But what about claims that these machines can help with weight loss in just 10 minutes a day?
Iain: 'It can be used as a stand-alone. Very often your smaller gyms do have it has a stand-alone class only where you do it for 10 minutes at a time. The uses of it are really only limited by one's imagination. Body builders can use it by standing on it and actually lifting the weights on it because it actually makes the weights appear heavier than they actually are because you're actually increasing the effects of gravity while doing the exercise. When used in conjuncture with your other types of training would actually increase the benefits and effectiveness of the vibration plate.'
Dr Patricios: 'I would be very sceptical of relying on 10 or 15 minutes of vibration therapy just to lose weight. I would, however, have no objection to including it as part of an exercise regime where one is doing other cardiovascular forms of exercise, strength training. That's really the way to work at losing weight loss.'
Iain: 'This is not the miracle machine where you stand on it for 10 minutes and you're going to lose weight. You are required to do some active work on it, because the more work you do on it, the more effective the exercises are and the more weight you're going to lose.'
Dr Patricios: 'Vibratory therapy is definitely not the holy grail of exercise. It has to be put in context. It has a small place as an alternative form of exercise incorporated within a multi modality exercise programme.'
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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