Personal Trainer’s Weekly Fitness Fit: The Power Plate

By Kelly Turner on September 28th, 2009

• Share
• Link to StumbleUpon
• 5 Comments

Ah, the easy way out. We all wish there was one, especially when it comes to weight loss, which explains all those infomercial gadgets shoved in the back of your closets and diet books collecting dust on your self.

If you read anything I write, you know I’m not a fan of gimmicks and supposed quick fixes when it comes to fitness, mainly because they don’t work.  But what if they did? What if there was a gadget out there where you could do basically nothing and  get results- Would I stand behind it?

When someone sent me a link to the Power Plate, I thought I had found the next money suck to make weight loss promises it couldn’t keep.  I was all ready to compare this thing to a free standing, giant Shake Weight, but no such luck.  I did a little digging and was surprised to find this one might actually work which bothered me.  I’ll get to that later.

According to Power Plate’s manufacturers, standing on the vibrating plates of The Power Plates 10 minutes a day three times a week, will cause you to lose weight, increase bone density and improve your overall health.  They claim this because, unlike the old-fashioned belt exercisers that physically mushed your surface skin back and forth, the Power Plate utilizes whole-body vibration, or WBV, to contract muscles 30 to 50 times per second. While you stand on the moving plates in the bent-knee position recommended for beginners, the continual vibration causes you to tense and relax your muscles to keep your balance- much like a BOSU ball makes you tense your muscles to keep from falling off, except more difficult. So, compared to traditional exercises, its a workout with relatively little effort.

Of course, to get real results, you have to perform exercises on the Power Plate, like squats and push-ups.  The idea is since your muscles have to work over time to accommodate the vibration, you fatigue faster.  Just how much faster you see results needs to be studied further, but it adds a little boost for sure.

Aside from the fact the thing is frighteningly expensive ($3,500 for the home unit and $9,250 for the gym model) and having my teeth chatter for 10 minutes straight doesn’t sound like much fun to me, it seems there is no down side.  Even if the results are almost negligible- any extra help isn’t going to hurt.

Scientifically and from a kineseology stand point, it totally will offer a more intense workout than doing the same exercises on the ground (again, the exact reason I LOVE the BOSU). That’s precisely why I like it: you still have to do your exercises.  You still have to workout to get the benefits unless you are a very beginner, in which case trying to hold your balance against resistance is working out.

So would I recommend this product? Yes, and that’s why its my “fit” for the week:

1) I don’t like being wrong, even if its just my visceral reaction.
2) Not so much the product itself, but the fact that it may get lost in the sea of empty promises and completely unsubstantiated modes of “working out with little effort.”

The buzz around the internet is that this thing is a miracle worker that you just have to stand on and can lose weight- which cheapens it.  I find it sad that in order for anyone to get excited about a new fitness product or machine, it has to offer quicker! faster! better! results.  Why can’t it gain popularity for what it is: a new piece of equipment that offers you a new way to workout? Its not necessarily a BETTER way, just different, which I think is awesome.  But no one gets excited to try something that you still have to work at, which is a shame.

These guys are popping up in gyms everywhere, so be on the look out and give it a shot.  Let me know if you get shaken baby syndrome.

So, finally, a new fitness “gimmick” I can’t say anything bad about. Grrrr.