“I wonder if there’s a way to stimulate my nervous system’s firing ability to turn on my muscles and increase my balance/reaction ability.”
Vibration training has been used now for over decades in athletic performance training and for over at least a decade in physical therapy environments to help patients recover. Termed whole body vibration (WBV) the platform vibrates at a chosen frequency to stimulate the nervous system, thereby enhancing activation of the muscle’s “motor units” and the proprioceptors (feedback sensors) in the muscles and around the joints.
Vibe PlateTM describes it as “micro hits of gravity” – so, the forces are like enhancements of the real-life forces the body has to deal with. Other vibration devices often utilize horizontal or rotary micromotions, which certainly are a nervous system stimulus but they’re less “authentic” and on the functional spectrum of optimal training we’d prefer closer to reality when we can.
WBV has been shown to assist in development of strength, explosive power, and even in improving bone density for osteoporosis patients.
Looking for more information from Vibe PlateTM on what’s happening during vibration? Learn more here.
We use our WBV therapy for all sorts of lower extremity injuries like ACL reconstructions or ankle sprains but also later in recovery for total joint replacements and many others. While traditionally thought of as a lower extremity training tool the WBV stimulus also can be helpful for spinal rehab and core activation as well as various upper extremity injury and post-op care, especially for shoulder instability type cases and scapular winging (“dyskinesia”) cases.
