We’re not talking about the old school band you put around your waist or your thighs and it allegedly shakes the fat off your body. We are talking about the Power Plate and vibration technology. These next series of articles will look at the several of the benefits associated with using total vibration technology to achieve one’s fitness goals.
Before we discuss the benefits, I feel it is important to explain the piece of equipment we use to for total vibration training.
The Power Plate is a vibrating platform that stimulates muscles 95-97% where the general population only stimulates 30-40% when doing conventional lifting. This occurs do 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 any where from 2x to over 6x 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. Try and move a 200 lbs bench press as quickly as you can a 100 lb bench press. With the plate, your mass (because it’s your weight) stays constant, while acceleration can increase (due to the hertz) thus forcing you to work harder.
An example: If we were to take a 70 kg person (about 150 lbs) and had him squat with no weight on the ground, the force he would exert is 700 Newton’s. Force=Mass (70kg) x Acceleration (9.81m/s2). The 9.81 m/s2 comes from the acceleration of gravity. If this person added 70kg on a barbell for a squat he would exert 1400 Newton. Take that same person and have him squat on the Power Plate with no weight and amplitude of high and 40 hertz he would exert 3500 Newton. You can see this is over twice the amount of work he was doing with a conventional squat.
There is a wealth of knowledge about the Power Plate, so contact us at www.scottstrainingsystems.com or call us at 480-820-0835 to learn more.