The Basics

Riding A Wave Of Energy

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.

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 upwards movement of the platform also causes movement in the joints of your body which has a mobilizing effect and causes the muscles and tissues surrounding the joints to stretch and vibrate.

Reflex Activation

Your brain is constantly monitoring the position of your joints and will increase muscle activation in an attempt to stabilize 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, 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.

Warmed Up and Ready

Repetitive pulses of sufficient energy cause rhythmic muscle contractions. In a short time, the cumulative effect of exercising warms and mobilizes the joints and muscles as well as the increased circulation caused by muscle pumping, leaves you with a pleasant feeling, makes movement easier and prepares the body for working optimally.

Frequency, Amplitude and Gravitational Load

Frequency

The Frequency of vibration is a measure of how many times the platform moves up and down each second. A Hypervibe has a minimum frequency of 6Hz (six times a second) and a maximum of 28Hz.

Higher frequencies generate a faster platform movement and deliver more energy to your body however the way that muscles respond to vibration stimulus is complicated. The frequencies that are best for YOU to train with will depend on your body type, your level of fitness and your desired outcomes.

For example, the weight of existing research shows that muscle stretch reflex activity peaks around 30Hz or less. However, each muscle belly contains multiple stretch receptors that are not necessarily activated all at exactly the same time. There exists the possibility that while one muscle fiber and its nerves are already responding to a vibration stimulus and therefore unable to respond to another wave of vibration energy, another is resting and available to respond to vibration.

This would increase the ability of the muscle to keep responding to vibration frequencies above 30Hz however there are yet other factors that set an upper limit on the frequencies that muscles can respond to. One example is termed "synchronization" in which the nerves that control the muscle belly become more and more likely to fire at the same time. This adaptation is reported to increase at vibration frequencies above 40Hz and in particular in trained weight lifters.

When reflexes are triggered, the strength of the resultant muscle contraction will depend on the rate of stretch ie. how fast the muscle is stretched (determined by the vibration frequency) and also the degree or amount of stretch which is determined by the vibration amplitude.

If you are trying to determine the best frequency to maximize your own muscle activation, get a sense of how your muscles feel at frequencies below 30Hz before attempting higher frequencies. Many users report the intensity of muscle activity declines noticeably when increasing from 40Hz to 50Hz which would indicate their limit is around 40Hz.

Beyond 30-40Hz the degree to which your muscles continue to increase their level of activity becomes highly individual and will be influenced by factors such as your age, fitness, body-weight, height and level of Whole Body Vibration experience.

Most people can be quite certain that their muscles will increase in activation from 15 to 30Hz.

Amplitude

Along with frequency, the amplitude of the plate movement is also a key factor that determines how much energy is delivered to your body. Amplitude is a measure of how high the platform moves above its horizontal resting place. The total distance a platform moves up and down is called its peak-to-peak Amplitude or its Displacement. A Hypervibe machine has a peak-to-peak Amplitude of 11 millimeters.

Larger amplitudes cause a greater amount of movement of muscles and joints and generate a stronger response from the organs controlling muscle reflexes. If however, the amplitude became so large that it caused you to bounce up and down off the platform, the exercise would become ineffective.

Small amplitudes are more comfortable for doing upper body work on the platform however they will reduce the stimulation to your body and for lower body work could render the exercise ineffective. You should exercise with the largest amplitude you feel comfortable with.

 

Gravitational Load (G-force)

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.

With a high frequency (eg. 28Hz) to create rapid movement and a high amplitude (eg. 11mm) to create a sufficient amount of movement, Whole Body Vibration creates an effect similar to the elevator moving upwards, it's as if your body just became a lot 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.

Because of this additional gravitational load, your muscles have to work harder to keep you upright. When a Whole Body Vibration machine can generate a high degree of G-force using frequencies close to 30Hz you get the additional effect of stretch reflex muscle activation resulting in your muscles working hard without you actually having to try; the machine is doing the work for you.

NOTE: Most Whole Body Vibration Machines are not capable of generating high G-forces. When 17 Whole Body Vibration machines were tested by an independent engineering laboratory, the average G-force was found to be 4G, barely more stimulating than simply getting out of bed.

If you have been out of condition for some time or are recovering from an injury or poor health, you may need to limit the intensity of your Whole Body Vibration exercise to begin with. Using lower frequencies and/or amplitudes will limit the G-force.

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 for 5-10 minutes each session.

"Humans Thrive With Enough Gravity But Perish Without It!"

The human body thrives when under sufficient gravity but perishes under low gravity. Think of what happens to Astronauts in the zero-gravity of space. According to Dr. Per Tesch of Sweden's Karolinska Institute, Astronauts lose muscle at a rate of 2% per week and bone at a rate of 1% per month. eg. A man with 60kg of muscle would lose 11kg of muscle after just 10 weeks in zero-gravity.

These are all reversed when the Astronaut returns to Earth's gravity. Russian scientist Vladimir Nazarov discovered that Astronaut recovery happened much quicker when the Astronauts used Whole Body Vibration. Using Whole Body Vibration gave the Russian Space Program a secret advantage enabling Russian Cosmonauts to stay in space three times longer than American Astronauts.