When you stand or place other parts of your body on Hypervibe’s moving platform, the repetitive upward movement of the platform sends pulses of kinetic energy up through your body. You control the strength of these energy waves using the machine’s control panel.
With a suitable machine and correct technique Whole Body Vibration can stimulate the body in a variety of unique and beneficial ways not possible with other forms of exercise. Research confirms that a number of direct effects on the body are possible.
Whole Body Vibration is a unique way of increasing the amount of gravity acting on your body, or as we like to call it, Vitamin G. The upward movement of the platform causes the body to accelerate upwards. Imagine the example of standing in an elevator. If the elevator was to move downwards at high speed it would make you feel light, almost like floating. If however it suddenly slowed to a stop and immediately moved upwards with rapidly increasing speed it would feel like your body just became a lot heavier and you would have to push down with your legs to keep yourself upright. Whole Body Vibration creates an effect similar to the elevator moving upwards, it’s as if your body just became heavier. You feel this acceleration as a force on your body, a force called G-force, which is adding to the force of gravity pulling you toward the Earth.
Where conventional exercise has failed, researchers at the European Space Agency have successfully used Whole Body Vibration to completely prevent the degeneration in bone and muscle during prolonged weightlessness by using Whole Body Vibration.
At this point it becomes important to distinguish between Vibration Training machines and Vibration Massage machines. A review of the research literature indicates that insufficient G loads is the #1 reason for disappointing outcomes in many if not most cases.
This becomes important information to be aware of before buying a vibration machine as most vibration machines are not capable of producing high G-forces and are really only suitable as massage machines. This includes all machines for under $1000 and most machines from $2000 – $3000.
G-force is the most important factor when it comes to stimulating the body to improve with Whole Body Vibration. If you want maximum results with minimum time and effort your aim should be to use the highest G-forces you feel comfortable with.
Your brain is constantly monitoring the position of your joints and will increase muscle activation in an attempt to stabilise your posture when there is a risk of you becoming unbalanced.
Further, if the stretching and vibration of tissues is sufficient, microscopic sensors inside your body detect these changes and quickly activate reflexes that cause the muscles to contract 1, keeping joints and soft tissues protected from excessive movement. The strength of muscle contraction depends on the strength of the energy pulse coming up from the platform and the health of your nerves and muscles.
Repetitive pulses of sufficient energy cause rhythmic muscles contractions. These muscle contractions create a strong pumping effect and result in a huge increase in peripheral blood flow as well as lymphatic drainage. This can be particularly effective for those with poor circulation or swelling in the extremities.
The upwards movement of the platform also causes movement in the joints of your body which has a mobilising effect and causes the muscles and tissues surrounding the joints to stretch and vibrate.
As each wave moves up through your body some of the energy is absorbed by the tissues of your body and is converted to heat. Muscles and joints feel and operate better when they are warm. Whole Body Vibration has been proven to create a warming effect in muscles and joints faster and easier than other types of exercise.
The type of machine and the settings used to determine the degree to which you experience those effects, if at all. A Hypervibe machine is one of very few machines with the right combination of power and features needed to generate these effects on your body in a significant way.
FACT Not all Whole Body Vibration machines can generate these effects on the body to a significant degree, in fact, most cannot. Read the rest of this page to find out why.
