Proven Effects of WBV Therapy in Different Conditions by Age Groups

Whether you’re aiming to strengthen your muscles and get leaner, to reduce your body fat percentage and reshape your body, or to relieve the tension from your body and relax after a tiring day, a training session can help you achieve these goals.

But if you don’t have the time to spend hours at the gym, or you don’t want to invest too much in a treadmill and a multifunctional fitness machine for home, exercising daily can turn into a real challenge.

Buying a vibration platform for home use can be a solution, as these fitness devices combine the benefits of strength training (stronger and leaner muscles, improved body composition and posture) with those of cardio exercises (improved circulation and lymph flow) and stretching (better flexibility).

Moreover, a WBV platform requires less space for storage and it’s easier to fit a 10-minute training session into a busy schedule. Once you own a vibrating platform, you can use it for different health purposes without having to invest in additional pieces of equipment or tools, as often happens after purchasing conventional fitness machines.

Yet, the most important advantage of a vibration platform is that the machine can be used by people of different ages and fitness levels. Given below are some of the proven health effects of WBV training in children, adults, and elders.

1. Studies on WBV in children

Whole body vibration training isn’t officially recommended to kids, not because it’s not safe, but because there isn’t enough scientific evidence to support the safety of this form of therapy in kids. Yet, the available research suggest some special categories of patients under 18 years can benefit from WBV therapy, as follows:

• In kids with cerebral palsy, vibration training was found to improve mobility and cortical bone density.
• This form of therapy was found to be efficient in increasing leg strength and power in children with cystic fibrosis.
• WBV was found to improve mobility in severely motor-impaired children and adolescents.
• Vibration training could be a promising treatment for children with Down syndrome, one study showing that 20 weeks of WBV training can improve body composition.

2. Effects of WBV therapy in elders

WBV therapy is considered safe in elders and can be used both for therapeutic and fitness purposes. Here’s what studies say about the effects of vibration training in this age group:

• WBV was found to improve the knee muscle strength, speed of movement and jump performance in older women.
• Vibration therapy was found to reduce lower back pain in patients aged 50+.
• 4 sessions of WBV therapy per week, for 8 weeks, were shown to improve balance and lower body strength in older adults, with no loss or reverse in gains after 3 weeks of detraining.
• WBV was found to decrease the fall risk and to improve the health-related quality of life in elders.

3. Whole body vibration benefits in adults

Besides the widely known benefits of vibration training on circulation, flexibility and body composition, there are some additional positive effects that this form of therapy provides for healthy adults or people in this age category, affected by certain conditions.

• Vibration therapy was proven to improve cognitive performance in people with ADHD.
• Exercises performed on a vibration platform were found to improve bone mineral density of the spine in college-age men and women.
• WBV training in combination with conventional exercise was also found to improve balance as muscle endurance of the lower leg, in well-trained adults.
• Whole body vibration exercises were proven to exert positive effects and to improve the muscle strength and jump height in untrained healthy adults, when incorporated in a resistance training routine.
• WBV training added to classical strength exercises was shown to improve the ankle and knee muscle strength in young athletes. Also, whole body vibration sessions were proven to improve flexibility in female athletes.
• Vibration therapy was found to improve the walking function in people with spinal cord injury.
• Exercises on a vibration platform were shown to improve body balance in young, healthy adults.

These arguments are powerful enough to support the use of WBV therapy at home, so if your schedule is too busy for regular gym workouts, a whole body vibration platform for