Whole body vibration has many benefits including: breaking down lactic acid to prevent the occurrence of sore muscles, improving blood circulation across the body, and aiding in detoxifying the lymphatic system.
Whole body Vibration (WBV) is the technique of generating whole body mechanical vibration through a vibrating platform. It is a less tiring alternative to regular exercise and is used in rehabilitation.
With whole-body vibration, you stand, sit or lie on a machine with a vibrating platform. As the machine vibrates, it transmits energy to your body, forcing your muscles to contract and relax dozens of times each second. The activity may cause you to feel as if you’re exerting yourself. Exercises such as calf raises and squats can also be performed on the platform.
Studies have shown that WBV can help:
- Speed up recovery from some injuries.
- Increasing muscle strength, endurance, and power.
- Improvement in proprioceptive balance and decreasing falls in both trained athletes and untrained population.
- Improving bone density as well as helping to reduce body fat in the long term.
- Pain reduction.
- Increase flexibility and mobility.
- Increase lymphatic drainage.
- significant changes in spring running kinematics and explosive strength performance.
Other Effects of Wbv
WBV also appears to have effects on other aspects of health. Recent studies have shown that Whole Body Vibration:
- Reduces inflammatory response by increasing M2 macrophages.
- Can reverse many symptoms of type II diabetes mellitus such as frequent urination and thirst.
- Significantly improves glucose metabolism measured by a glucose tolerance test and Hb A1C.
- Shown marked improvement in hepatic lipid content,(fatty liver) decreasing it three-fold.
- Increased gut bacteria levels by 17-fold.
- Increase flexibility and mobility.
- Increase IGF-1 Testosterone, and Human Growth Hormone.
- Decrease cortisol levels.
- Increase serotonin and norepinephrine.
While WBV is not for everyone, it can be an additional benefit to the quality of your life. To see if WBV is right for you, call us at 215-337-3997.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Whole Body Vibration New?
Yes and no. Whole body vibration has been around for over 40 years. But some of the methods and applications used today are new. It was first used by the Soviet Union for rehabilitation of the muscle weakness and bone density loss that occurred from travelling in outer space. WBV has evolved from there to use for strengthening the muscles and body fat loss (when combined with proper diet). Currently, there are new studies being done regarding the many other effects reported such as: reduction of fatty liver, increasing glucose metabolism and even as an adjunctive therapy for combating the physical effects of Parkinson’s Disease.
How Often Should I Do Whole Body Vibration?
While many people perform WBV 10 minutes daily, it is recommended that you start less and work up a daily regimen. The most common recommendation is 2-3 times a week for 5-15 minutes.
Why Do I Itch After a Session?
While using vibration therapy, you may notice your skin beginning to itch. For some this may be subtle, but for others it can be extreme. There are a few different reasons for this. The most common reason is a type of “hyper circulation”. As with runners, the heart rate and blood flow as your heart delivers more blood and oxygen to the targeted muscles. This causes your capillaries and arteries to expand and stimulates your nerve cells, which can lead to an itchy sensation. We recommend always starting at lower numbers.
Other reasons may be things such as vibratory urticaria. This is a rare skin allergy to vibration caused by a genetic mutation. This would not be just on a vibration plate but all types of vibration such as jackhammers, bumpy rides, or even towel drying. If this is you, WBV is not recommended. As with any form of treatment, check with your physician before beginning.
Are There Any Contraindications to Wbv?
Some contraindications include: Pregnancy, seizures, epilepsy, kidney or bladder stones, clotting disorders, deep vein thrombosis, advanced diabetes that affects foot sensation, and pacemakers.
We always recommend checking with your doctor before trying whole body vibration.
Information resources:
Can whole body vibration exercises promote improvement on quality of life and on chronic pain level of metabolic syndrome patients? A pseudorandomized crossover study Laisa Liane Paineiras-Domingos et al ; Journal of Applied Physiology 2020 128:4, 934-940
Whole Body Vibration-Induced Omental Macrophage Polarization and Fecal Microbiome Modification in a Murine Model; Jack Yu et al;International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Whole-body vibration changes the microbiome, lowers inflammation ; Medical News Today report;
Comparison of the effect of whole-body vibration therapy versus conventional therapy on functional balance of patients with Parkinson’s disease: adding a mixed group ; Eduardo Guadarrama-Molina et al.July 2020 Acta neurologica Belgica 121(11)DOI:10.1007/s13760-020-01439-7
The Many Health Benefits of Whole Body Vibrational Training; Peak Fitness.com; Mercola, Joseph; April 7,201