Typically the exercise mantra is to get up and, well, move!

But can an exercise machine that appears to have no moving parts help you build muscle strength? Endurance? Even bone mass?

Appears is the operative term.

Because it might look like there’s nothing going on here. Now, whether or not it does something is another issue, but no question, the power plate gives a whole new meaning to shake your booty.

The power plate is a vibrating platform.

Dr. Dennis Sall, a chiropractor and spokesperson for Power Plate, says, “You just have to stay there what we call a static position, you are not actually going to be moving. The vibration is going to be traveling up through the legs into the leg muscle and cause the reflex to cause those muscles to contract. the muscle fibers are actually lengthening and shortening so it is not really an isometric movement it is a dynamic movement.”

Believe it or not, this concept of whole body vibration is the latest rage in Europe. Fitness expert sally imvo swears by it; she even bought two for her gym, at 10,000 dollars a pop.

“If you are not doing anything to strengthen your bone or muscle then this is the great place to start//2609 for six months I haven’t done anything but the power plate, I love it,” says Sally.

And if you do move and exercise on it, they say you can take it to the next level.

“So you can actually do squats on the power plate so now you are getting more of a dynamic workout and increasing muscle recruitment that you normally might not get in a traditional gym,” states Dr. Sall.

Dr. Robert Gotlin, director of orthopedic and sports rehabilitation at Beth Israel Medical Center, says, “In theory that makes sense but the reality is how do we really test that, how do we really know that is working.”

Some claims--for the muscle strength, perhaps stretching, and the bone density research seem good enough and make sense also from a physiological standpoint.
Other claims, such as that it can increase testosterone, growth hormone, and collagen production, would need some good quality studies to back them up.

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