Shake up your workout routine with Power Plate and vibration technology!

The Power Plate is a vibrating platform that stimulates muscle 95-97% where the general population only stimulates 30-40% when doing conventional lifting. We’re not talking about the old school band you put around your waist or thighs and it allegedly shakes the fat off your body; this is a new technology that can take your workout to the next level! No matter your fitness goal, wouldn’t you want your metabolism to be as high as possible in order to burn more calories and lean out quicker? Incorporating the Power Plate with conventional weight training and diet WILL enable you to achieve better results!

About Power Plate:
Vibration training has been around since the 19th century. In the 20th century scientific research was done in order to understand the influence on vibration on bone density. Scientists found vibration therapy improved bone density enormously in astronauts that would normally lose bone density and experience muscle atrophy due to zero gravity. After the fall of the Iron Curtain vibration research turned to performance among athletes and the Power Plate (a Dutch product) was invented and introduced to the U.S. in 2001. Since then it has been featured in the media a number of times. From Muscle and Fitness, Iron Man, Sweat Magazine, to Good Morning America, Inside Edition, and local news people are talking about the value of training on the Power Plate. The Power Plate has also been used by several professional athletes and teams (Lance Armstrong, Chicago Bulls, Chicago White Sox, several World Cup teams, Olympic athletes) and celebrities (Madonna and Claudia Schiffer included!)

How does it work?
This occurs due to the unique displacement the machine places on the individual. It not only moves up and down 70% it also moves 10% in the frontal plane and 20% in the sagital plane. Depending on the frequency (30, 35, 40, 50 hertz) or the amplitude (high/low) one can place anywhere from 2x’s to over 6x’s the force of gravity on the body. This is important because according to Newton’s Law: Force=Mass x Acceleration. For our purposes force is the same as work, mass is equivalent to weight. Normally when we want to work out harder we increases weight thus increasing the amount of work we do. However we decrease acceleration as we add weight. For example, if you increase your bench press from 100lb to 200lb, you won’t bench as quickly. With the Power Plate, your mass (because it’s your weight) stays constant while acceleration can increase (due to the hertz) thus forcing you to work harder.

Why Power Plate?
Now that you have an idea of what the Power Plate is, we will look into reasons why an individual would want to incorporate this training tool into one’s workouts. Speaking from experience my team and I have been using the plate to stimulate more muscle growth, bring out more definition, burn more calories, and increase strength, burn fat, and help prevent Osteoporosis for years.

Let me dive into the way the Power Plate helps builds strength. When one performs an exercise on the Power Plate (whether it be squats, lunges, crunches, pushups, static rows, dips, etc.) the individual is not only working voluntary muscles but also involuntary muscles. As a result, the individual will stimulate more muscle growth and by using more muscles will burn more calories as well. When an individual is on the plate for only 30 seconds and has the hertz set at 30 (this is the lowest setting) the individual will contract his muscles 900 times! This is awesome because it is working not only slow twitch muscles fibers (which are more oxidative and the ones we want to target to burn fat and calories), but also builds more muscle mass in short durations (30 seconds to 1 minute) – this leads to fast twitch muscle stimulation as well. This is unique because traditional weight training only uses one or the other. This means shorter sessions with the same or better results! Additionally, we decrease the likelihood of overtraining and allowing us to make more of our time to focus on cardio, stretching and life!

Now let’s dive into getting more definition and losing body fat. Remember that using the Power Plate you are contracting the muscle 900 times just standing on the plate, so one will work more muscles and burn more calories thus burning more fat (this assumes your diet is on point!). A 6 week study of 2 groups in 2003 showed the group that used vibration training 3x’s a week in their routine had an 18% increase in their resting metabolism, while the group that did similar exercises without vibration had a 2% decline.

Studies have been done on the plate in regards to Human Growth Hormone production. This is critical for those of us who compete naturally and especially us that are over 30. After 30, about every 5 years are bodies will decrease the production of HGH, so it is important we stimulate as much as we can naturally! This occurs by using larger muscle groups, rest, proper nutrition and the correct supplementation. Since we are working larger and more muscles using the Plate we will increases the production of HGH. However, the plate should not take the place of proper nutrition and rest. It should be used in conjunction with.

The Power Plate is also used by many health spas to reduce cellulite by stimulating fat cells and mobilizing fat acids. The Power Plate will not eliminate cellulite, but the research does show a decrease in the accumulation of cellulite.

Chiropractors and physical therapist use the Power Plate as well to stretch individuals either before an adjustment and/or before they perform their physical therapy. The forced contraction of the muscle allows for greater blood flow to the area, helping the specific area to not be as tight and along for great range of motion.

Trainers
STS Trainers specializing in Power Plate Training are: Scott, Wes