Vibration Plates are fast becoming a proven method of fitness, exercise and rehabilitation. It used to be a sceptical form of fitness but now research is proving more and more that vibration plates do work in weight loss, muscle strengthening and overall core body conditioning.

Vibration plates have become more and more popular in the gyms with manufacturers such as Power Plate offering high quality vibration plates. Vibration plates are also becoming more and more popular with the home market as the technology advances has allowed manufacturers such as body sculpture to make high quality machines at cheaper prices that are more suited to the home user that may have before invested in a running machine or exercise bike for the home. In fact the Body Sculpture Power Trainer bm1500 is proving a popular model with Amazon, often appearing in their top 10 overall fitness equipment sales.

So with the machines becoming more popular but still with a number of people dismissing the idea some research was needed to prove the vibration plates effectiveness.

The joint University of Antwerp and Artesis University College took it upon themselves to do a study on the effectiveness of using a vibration plate rather than the more conventional form of exercise. The results reported that obese people in the study who combined a calorie-restricted diet with regular use of the vibration plate machines had greater success in losing weight and fat loss than those obese people who combined dieting with a more conventional exercise form of exercise.

How the study was conducted.

This study was performed over a 12 month period so as to use an effective period of time to study the participants. The study tracked the progress of 61 obese volunteers, most of them women, for the duration of 12 months. For the first six months, which scientists called the “intervention phrase,” the participants were monitored very closely, with the scientists tracking their use of the vibration plates and their diets. During the succeeding six months, the participants were on their own,

The volunteers were all around the same level of obesity and fat mass at the beginning of the study and the scientists split them into 4 groups:

• The first group of participants were put on a calorie-restricted diet with no exercise. Specialist dietitians monitored them every two weeks during the first three months and monthly during the second three months.

• The second group of participants were placed on the same calorie-restricted diet as the first group but conventional exercise was also included. The participants followed a twice-weekly, hour-long group fitness program that included swimming, cycling, running, step aerobics, and muscle strengthening exercises. Members of this group were urged to exercise on their own a third time each week.

• A third group of participants ate the same diet but instead of using the conventional exercise program they used the vibration plates for 30 or 60 seconds while performing a variety of exercises up to 32 in their repertoire.

• A fourth group of participants, the control, was not placed on any calorie controlled diet or asked to perform any exercise.

The results of the study were very good for vibration plates technology. After the 12 month period the results showed that diet and exercise produced the biggest weight loss which was expected, but it also showed that those in the third group using the vibration plates as a form of exercise lost more weight and had higher fat loss than those using conventional exercise.

Members of the first group, the diet-only group, lost 6% of their body weight over the first six months, but could not maintain a 5% weight loss over the second six months.

Members of the second group, the diet and conventional exercise group, lost 7% of their weight during the initial part of the study and managed to keep almost all of it, 6.9% off by the end of the study.

Members of the third group, the diet and vibrating plate exercise group, lost 11% of their body weight during the first 6 months and maintained a 10.5% loss over the second six months.

Members of the fourth group, the no-diet, no-exercise group, added an average 1.5% to their body weight over the whole 12 month period..

The scientists involved in this study are now looking to a larger study group to see if the same trend follows.