Nearly ALL vibration exercise companies use this statement in their marketing material. Most people rank this as one of the top 2 reasons for using or buying a vibration exercise machine. It’s become so competitive among different manufacturers that some change this to 10 minutes. What if I told you that I can show you how to do a workout in 5 minutes? Surely you’ll want to buy my vibration platform if that was the case! This article is going to go into how this ’15 minute’ workout came about. We’ll also show how some companies are using this to provide misinformation. When we finish, we’ll show why you actually can get a quicker workout with vibration but in a way that makes sense.
This article is in response to a conversation I had with a wonderful lady that bought a vertical type of platform. She immediately voiced some concern that the machine did not let her do a full continuous 15 minute workout. I tried to explain why you do not need to stand on a machine for 15 minutes, but its hard to explain something when emotions are running high. At that moment in time, she felt cheated and was adamant on standing on a machine for 15 minutes. This article provides the key points to my side of the argument, with the hopes that it can educate you prior to purchasing a vibration exercise machine, or let you think differently about the way you use your vibration platform.
Where did they get the 15 minutes equals an hour at the gym anyways?
The 15 minute finding actually came from a research study done in 2003 by Dr. Christophe Delecluse entitled Strength Increase After Whole Body vibration compared to resistance training. The study was done on a vertical vibration platform. It started with about 3 minutes of vibration and ended with a 20 minute vibration session. The longest time for one exercise was 1 minute with the most rest between exercises being 1 minute. Notice that there is actually rest in between each exercise. The resistance group actually performed 20 minutes of warm up and then strengthening of the legs. At the end of the study, they found that strength gains of the knee muscles were equal among both groups. This is where the claim ’15 minutes of vibration equals 1 hour at the gym’.
Vibration exercise is not about 15 minutes of NONSTOP exercise
Eventually, marketers got a hold of this study and platforms began marketing it as such. Pivotal machines started offering an easy 10 to 15 minute program whereby you simply stand on a vibration platform and get the wonderful results shown in research. This led to late night infomercials showing the effortless exercises that one can do. This also led to a lot of misinformation about vibration training. Yes, you can get a good workout in a very short period of time on a vibration platform compared to regular resistance training. However, you shouldn’t be doing this by simply standing on a vibration platform.
Fitness goals versus wellness goals
How you use a vibration platform is dependent on what you want to achieve. If you are looking for fitness or toning effects, standing on a vibration platform will not be the best way to achieve this. Can you see results? Sure, in the beginning stages. Any form of movement or activity will get you some initial results. Just look at people starting a weight loss program. They get results in the short term but it becomes a struggle long term. If you are looking at fitness effects, you actually need to position yourself in exercise postures so that your muscles are challenged. This isn’t anything new. This is common sense. Your body needs to be constantly challenged to have any chance of staying toned and fit. That’s why vertical machines have various exercise poses to be in. Surprisingly, pivotal machines also have the same exercises, although they tend to want to only promote the ‘stand on for 10 minutes and see instant results’ angle. If you are only looking to get some form of exercise to keep your body limber, maintain circulation and mobility, then standing on a vibration machine for a few minutes a day may be suitable. However, you’d be surprised to learn that over 86% of the people that originally wanted to do very little, craved more after a few weeks. They started feeling better and moving better. Hence, they wanted to be challenged because now they were motivated. Just a thought next time you feel that all you have to do is stand on a vibration machine. Embrace your new found mobility and well being and crave more.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
