Dr. Ruscoe: All right thanks Doug my title is a specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist and may have been in practice as you said for about 29 years in in the private sector primarily and started with some friends with a practice and gradually I took over ownership and then brought in some partnership and grew our practice from you know from a single physiotherapist up to about 20 staff we have a an orthopedic type bias back pain neck pain but also a strong interest in women’s health and we have a very large Pilates base to rehabilitation gymnasium that we use and it was through our gymnasium an interesting exercise that we first became aware of whole body vibration.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah, was in 2004 so some time ago my business partner attended the World Conference on lower back pain and she came across whole body vibration and returned to the practice to talk to me to say this thing is amazing and like you know most new initiatives I took it fairly skeptically but she persisted and presented the research that was being done it’s put it in front of me and said look if this thing does half of what the research is showing it’s going to make a huge difference and that certainly got me interested.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah look very good question when we first looked at it I looked at the research and the research was mainly being conducted on a machine coming out of Germany and so we pursued the manufacturers that machine and we saw the price and that made us take a double take couldn’t quite do it so part of my role my diligence role was to check for alternatives and really at that time the only alternatives on the market were linear machines or vertical machines as opposed to this tilting machine upon which most of the work was being done and we had a look at those little machines and their prices were probably about a quarter and as the person in charge of the finances for the practice I was into that option but my partner was insistent that if the research was being produced on this German machine then we need to go that way so we did we invested the money in it and had some great results the outcomes were so fabulous that many of our clients said look I’m one of these machines for home how can I get one but when we told them the price again they bought that just wasn’t possible so that prompted me to go looking again for specifically tilting or pivotal plate alternatives and around that time Hypervibe just started so we made contact with the owner Murray and said Murray look we you know we love the concept we love your price can we have a look at your product and Murray brought his product into us and we were amazed it was this much difference between Murray’s product and this high-quality German more and it even was a quarter of the price and so we were very happy to recommend Hypervibe to our patients to utilize Hypervibe and you know we just think it’s the best value for exercise product that you can get.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah look at that first glance it was that’s where the evidence coming in frontal so you use the machine that that matches the evidence but then from our own experience we found that the pivotal machine offers a better outcome better results so first up the tilting motion the left right of the pivotal pipe matches the water motion of human gait and we found that more attractive the second thing is the tilting motion it moves your through the pelvis so the vibrations traveling up to the head were significantly less then there were a few limitations on the vertical or linear machines the amplitude range that we could see was 2 or 4 millimeters the pivotal machines because the amplitude is relative to the width of your feet meant you had a range of your one millimeter up to 13 millimeters and so that amplitude range offered us more variety in variability of the dosage that we were applying to patients when using amplitude and probably the final factor is that the frequency that was being produced the because the amplitude is so small to generate sufficient g-forces the lineal or vertical plates need to have very high amplitude so they were 30 to 50 Hertz and that range is excessive whereas we found the pivotal plates with an ambulatory with a frequency range of 1 to about 30 Hertz again we’re offering us more variety more options.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah look it was a once we sort of captured the concepts it was wildly obvious that the pivotal machines produce better outcomes and offer us more flexibility.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yes look everyone thinks about the muscle strengthening component or functionality of the machines but with lower frequencies you can work on balance you can work on other elements and you know you want when you have a gym you want to have the least number of machines that offer the greatest range of services otherwise you get a very crowded gym.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah, look the first interest we had was building muscle strength quickly so post-orthopedic surgery, total knee replacements, fractures anyone who had lost muscle bulk and we’re looking to build it quickly what appealed to us most of look things that appeal to us most about whole body vibration was that it was incredibly effective and efficient but most importantly it was incredibly functional so we could put the person on the machine in standing and standing is where we spend most of our lives when we move you know when we’re not sitting down and so it replicated that position that functional position for the patient and then we could exercise them in that position so that was so muscle strength was an obvious one a lot of the muscle strength comes from neural potentiation which is the stimulation that machine causes into the nervous system to kind of wake up the nervous system to fire the muscles more and we would often use it on our clients pretty getting them to use other weight based machines so it would wake them up wake up their bodies that get better outcomes from the machines some of the highlights we had look I’ll never forget this gentleman that we put on it who’s loss of muscle mass was primarily just related to age and it was becoming having an impact on his independence and after five sessions on this machine he had delightedly reported to me that he could now put his trousers on standing up whereas previously it had to sit on the bed to get dressed and just the independence that that created because he had the strength to put his pants on standing up it was it was particularly exciting some other some other areas very excited about bone strength two areas there we had a couple of very interesting patients with delayed union nonunion fractures that through stimulating the muscle through increased gravity gravitational effects really solve some of those problems and then there’s the osteo product osteopenia population that we were able to use the machine on as well we he used a number of athletes we had another of young athletes would you believe they were looking to build strength quickly and particularly those involving jumping sports because of the strength and the power that it generates quickly they are able to improve their vertical leap by 15-20 percent and for a young athlete who was trying to break into the state volleyball team the state basketball team that was a huge bonus I never forget we had a series of Irish dances I don’t know if you are Irish dancing you know they put their hands down by the sides and they’re jumping up and down and they would be practicing their techniques on the machine to actually replicate the jumping.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah so that’s the neural potentiation fact that I alluded to where it wakes up the nervous system and then you can go out and pump hard awaits if you’re pumping those harder awaits then you’re going to build strength quicker so whilst will use the machine just for the injured person or the weaker person so it can be used for the athlete to take their training to a higher level.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yes in the middle frequencies it does have that effect now if I go one step further I can see the day when these machines are on the side of the field so that athletes prior to going onto the field are firing up their nervous system ready for performance and when I’m coming off the field they can be using it in those middle frequencies to be removing the byproducts of their excess exercise it’s a very exciting concept it will appear soon.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah sure look we start of course we will stand the patient next to the machine and turn the machine on and show them that the small amplitude the plate that it’s not going to move them around will then stand turn the machine off stand them on the plate and then we’ll teach them the concept of where their weight bearing through their feet a lot of people with poor balance into weight bear through their heels and that’s going to have a very jarring effect on the machine so we’ll get them to rock backwards and forwards get the feel of where the midpoint of their foot is so that their weight is evenly splayed across their foot we’ll turn the machine on at very low frequency of course we’ve got them holding on to the handles and we’ll spend some time in this just talking to the person saying what are you feeling do you feel comfortable do you feel safe and then we’ll stop the machine and ask them to get off it’s sort of like returning them to safety I somehow have them wriggle around how do you feel you looking fine and they’re enthusiastic and then came to stick it back onto the machine once we got them back onto the machine will increase the frequency to show them what it feels like and then we’ll start to get them to move by been small squats starting to move will explain that here is the stop button if you’re concerned but also you can just jump off or step off anytime you’d like there’s no problem you don’t have to wait for the machine to stop if you’re feeling uncomfortable just step away and so safety confidence comfort there are all vital important elements of making sure that they can use the machine well.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yes, look it’s finding a balance between giving them sufficient quantity for them to think yes that was worth it and not overworking them so start moving within the realm of 5 to 10 minutes in 1-minute increments is where we would start a person but as you identified depending of course on their starting place.

Dr. Ruscoe: Um percentage-wise look it’s reflective of the kind of patients that you’re seeing so being a musculoskeletal physiotherapist backs necks shoulders pain is their primary problem I’m probably using in about thirty percent of my clients but for other physiotherapists in our practice who are working in the gym are they’re using it on 80 90 percent of their clients and if I have a client who I think it’s appropriate I’ll refer them up to my colleagues to use the machine on them another area they want to touch on where we found it very useful is in the circulatory problems so people with peripheral vascular disease very cold feet the nerves in the feet are being affected so they lose their sensation diabetics also feeling of that role and will often put them on the machine to create that capillary opening to increase the blood flow to the area and these people are so excited to be able to feel their feet so well again and we’ll use this as a part of the warm up to get the blood flow to get the nerves moving well and then we’ll take them into their other part of their exercise program and the delight that they share with us of being able to feel their feet so well again.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah sure look um look good choice of word that Doug as a catalyst it wasn’t the cause of the cure and I don’t make it very clear it it’s not a primary product for back pain it doesn’t solve back pain but what it does do is help many of the elements surrounding back pain to help you in your recovery so I alluded on a few of them capillary opening so increase blood flow neural potentiation so stimulation of the nervous system we talked about strength and perhaps the last area is proprioceptive positioning knowing where you are in space now if you have a back injury all of those four elements are going to help you in your recovery process now there is a natural resolution with back pain we know that this is just kind of help it happen a little bit faster what the Hypervibe did for you likely Doug is it started you moving you know its movement that is the key it started giving you confidence that yes I can do these things and my back won’t hurt and then gradually you could progress the loading that the machine was creating and your body adapted to that new load it was also that one of the great values to is it also confused your brain a little bit as well because you were getting all these sensory input and your brain was going well usually I feel pain I don’t understand why this is what’s going on and you’re confused brain then stopped focusing on your back allowing you to move more and you begin a sort of upward spiral of motion decrease pain normality and then I’m sure you found that then gave you the confidence the strength the capacity to build your exercise in other domains as well.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah listen I’ll take that back a few steps to help explain this world we live on has a gravity force of 1g and as a species we’ve evolved upwards and we have systems in place to help us flourish in a world with 1g as people become older they lose muscle mass their nervous system slows down a little bit and their capacity to cope with 1g of gravity is almost exceeded now the wonderful thing about the whole body vibration machine is you think of it under it as an artificial environment of increased gravity or increased g-forces so by simply standing on the machine with an increased gravitational force you are exercising because your body has all the systems to cope with gravity and by increasing the gravitational loading you’re building those systems you’re building that strength so for the person you described if it really is as simple as just stand on the machine and turn it on you need to do no more now after a while they can get a little boring for the person it will look for challenges so then you can start to begin those anti-gravitational exercises so squats calf raises you could start to challenge them by putting them onto one leg to improve their balance as well what we loved about the machine was the way in which we could try and use the person’s function that they struggle with the most to practice on the machine so in Australia and many other commonwealth countries there’s a game called lawn bowls that’s very attractive to older people and it’s bowling except it’s a little sedate and you bowl along a gras to try and get as close as you can to a smaller warm all of the jackets called anyway so a lot of people a lot of elderly people like to play bowls but they have trouble getting down we were able to replicate that position of squatting down in the lunge position on the plate so they could practice their technique in this increased gravitational field and therefore build up their strength improve their mobility improve their balance practicing the very function that they had difficulty with.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yes that reminds me we have had golfers older people who heard standing on the platform with it vibrating will spin them around so that their back is to the control panel and there’s open space in front of them and then yeah we’ll put a golf club in their hands and we’ll have them practicing their swing on this unstable moving environment and it really challenges all their body systems to be able to maintain stability and control through movement on a vibrating platform as a physiotherapist you can have a whole lot of fun with people finding ways to challenge what they take for granted.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah look I can’t see where that danger is coming from think of the chain of the human body our ankle joint and they join our hip joint our spine they all absorb the forces that we apply when we’re walk-in when we’re running when we’re jumping there’s all the forces through the muscles on either side of the joint so the more we can challenge those muscles the stronger they will become now in everyday life that that’s what happens you know we walk around we jump but as we get older our enthusiasm for those activities diminishes but then so too does our muscle mass whole body vibration provides that opportunity for exposure to gravitational forces that we wouldn’t be getting otherwise I have a vision I see whole body vibrates in nursing homes and I see elderly people being taken for their dose of gravity today you know Jim we’re going to go and spend ten minutes and we’re going to give you 15 GS of gravity and that’s equivalent to I’m going to make this figure up so they give me walking for an hour but Jim’s able to achieve that in 10 minutes and in the safety of his environment being supervised holding onto a platform so the risk of falls is diminish.

Dr. Ruscoe: Look um bed rest is we all know that’s prolonged bed rest is bad for us and it’s assumed that what’s wrong with bed rest is we’re just not using our muscles enough it’s more than that bed rest lays us horizontal and so our body is now acting across gravity and that’s what’s bad it’s the absence of gravity in bed rest that is bad for us not so much the absence of movement as I said before we are designed perfectly to flourish in an environment with gravity and for us to continue to grow we need to expose ourselves to gravity it’s a life is a challenge and we have to embrace that challenge to flourish.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah look you’re exactly right it’s that middle step isn’t it between sedentariness and full activity and some people who just need that little push that little bit of help this is going to help get them there.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yep I look a hundred percent with you Doug and I’ll add one more benefit to that it warms up your feet so if in winter if you’re working away you’re sitting still you above blood circulation slow down your feet get really cold it’s uncomfortable so I’ll often back up to our gym stand on the machine just to warm-up my toes.

Dr. Ruscoe: Look it’s certainly it’s the greatest thing since last bread we have been using it as I said for 14 years in our practice and you don’t use a piece of equipment unless it’s produced in great results for that long so I would encourage people to take a look at it to try it out and to research the effects of it we’ve loved our machines we’ve loved our relationship with Hypervibe always willing to help us and I couldn’t encourage people to more to take advantage of what this machine offers

Dr. Ruscoe: Sure Doug look I had another one of my visions very visionary and is to is to unite the physiotherapy and physical therapy profession around the globe particularly in the digital space and so I’ve joined a number of others to create a new domain extension for the profession so instead of dot com dot org dot net or the various country codes physiotherapists and physical therapists can now have a domain extension that ends in dot physio it’s one of 1,400 so there’s a doc doctor or dentist or lawyer or dot accountant about 500 multinational companies have their names so you’ll soon see websites ending in dot Google dot Apple it looks likes the NBL the NFL various other codes all have their domain extensions as well and so what we’re seeing is a change in the way that we navigate through the internet and I’m real excited to be able to offer a version our own namespace for the physiotherapy and physical therapy profession and so if you are one of those can I say it’s worth taking a look just simply go to www.dot.physio and search to see if your domain name is available. Thanks Doug.

Dr. Ruscoe: Yeah, great. Look I also would like to any professionals out there on the globe if you want to know more about whole body vibration reach out, I would love to make myself available share our experience.

Dr. Ruscoe: Thank you!