Vibration machines, also known as shaking machines or shaking platforms, employ whole-body vibrations to stimulate muscles to contract reflexively. These machines are available in some gyms, and individuals can purchase them for home use. While some proponents suggest vibration machines can enhance muscle work, potentially leading to fat loss, muscle gain, and increased strength, it's crucial to examine the existing research to understand the true scope of their effectiveness. At this time, there’s a limited amount of high quality research looking at the effectiveness of these devices.
How Vibration Machines Work
The underlying principle behind vibration machines lies in their ability to induce rapid muscle contractions. When the platform of a vibration machine shakes, your muscles reflexively contract rapidly. When you stand on a vibrating plate, this forces your muscles to constantly contract and relax. This constant contraction requires energy and causes you to burn calories. Electromyographs, which measure electrical activity in your muscles, have confirmed that vibration machines cause an increase in muscular activity. The amount of energy your body burns depends on the frequency and strength of the vibrations. These vibrations usually happen 20-60 times each second.
Potential Benefits of Vibration Machines
While more research is needed, some studies suggest vibration plates can help you build muscle and lose weight, especially if you also lower the amount of calories you eat. These devices may benefit your health and fitness in different ways.
Weight Loss and Fat Reduction
Some studies suggest whole-body vibration machines may help people lose weight and build muscle. The aerobic and calorie-burning benefits from vibration plates are similar to what you get from moderate-intensity walking.
A 2019 review of studies published in the Journal of Musculoskeletal and Neuronal Interactions examined the potential fat loss effects of whole-body vibration machines. The researchers looked at seven trials with 280 people. Vibrating plates appeared to lead to a large amount of fat loss. The review concluded that longer and larger studies are required to accurately evaluate the use of whole-body vibration machines for weight loss.
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Another study found that vibration plates were better at lowering visceral fat than a traditional aerobic and resistance training program. Visceral fat is the fat that’s deep within your belly. It’s believed to raise your risk of heart disease.
Another study published in the journal Endocrinology found that mice that spent 20 minutes a day on a vibration plate over 3 months reduced fat in their bellies and liver. But these sorts of studies need to be repeated in humans.
Muscle Strength and Power
A 2012 study examined the potential benefits of vibration training among 36 women in their 20s who did not have obesity. The participants trained twice per week for 8 weeks. The researchers noticed a significant improvement in the participants’ standing long jump scores, which is a measurement of lower body power. Another study, for example, found that while people didn’t seem to lose much body fat, their fat-free, or muscle mass, increased by 2.2% after 24 weeks of training.
Body Composition
In a 2016 study, researchers looked at the effects of vibration training on the body composition of middle-aged women with obesity, which they assigned into three groups: dieting only, dieting and vibration training, and dieting and aerobic exercise. All three groups lost body fat, but the second and third groups lost more fat than the first. The researchers concluded that vibration training combined with a diet program was equally as effective as an aerobic program with a diet program over 9 months.
Potential Benefits for Osteoporosis
Some people believe that vibration plates are another way to treat osteoporosis without using medication. Experts found that the bone density in the sheep’s thighbones increased by about a third, compared to sheep that didn’t get this treatment.
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One study did show that vibration plates reduced the risk of falls. A German study looked at about 150 postmenopausal women. Experts found that an exercise program - 20 minutes of dancing, 5 minutes of balance training, 20 minutes of functional gymnastics, and 15 minutes of leg strengthening exercises on vibration plates - lowered the risk of falls, compared to women who did the exercise program without vibration, or a control group that did no exercise at all. While fall prevention is important for all older adults, it’s especially important for older adults with osteoporosis. This is because falling could lead to a life-threatening fracture, such as a hip fracture.
Other Potential Health Benefits
There are a few other health benefits linked to vibrating plates. But more research is needed to confirm them. Here’s what studies show so far:
Reduced blood pressure. A small study of 38 young, overweight women/women with obesity found that 6 weeks of vibration training reduced artery stiffness and improved blood pressure. Other research has looked at postmenopausal, overweight women/women with obesity and found that doing four leg exercises three times a week on a vibration plate for 8 weeks, along with a supplement of the amino acid L-citrulline, helped to lower blood pressure.
Improved lower back pain. A 2023 review of 14 studies published in the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research found that vibration plate training can improve pain and function among people with chronic lower back pain. The review authors think there are three ways that vibration is helpful:
- It activates muscle fibers and improves muscle strength in your trunk.
- It relaxes your lower back muscles, which relieves pain.
- It activates your proprioceptors, which are neurons within your muscles and tendons that help align your body in space. This will help to improve any back instability.
Better cognitive function. A 2023 review of eight studies published in the journal AIMS Neuroscience found that vibration plate training improves cognitive (thinking) skills both in healthy people and those who already have cognitive problems such as dementia or ADHD. The review suggests that how you stand during vibration training matters. If you squat at a 110-degree knee angle, for example, there’s very little transmission of vibrations to your head, compared to other high or low squat positions. This may help to explain why some studies found less of a brain-boosting effect than others. But if you stand on a vibrating platform with one foot to the front, one to the back, more vibrations go to your head. While research shows the most vibrations are transmitted to your head while you sit, it’s not clear whether that’ll help or hurt your cognition.
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Exercises to Perform on a Vibration Machine
Depending on the model, you can usually use vibration machines while standing, lying, or sitting. Most of the time, people perform exercises on the machine while it’s vibrating to increase the number of calories they burn. A person can perform many different types of exercise on a vibration machine, including both static and dynamic exercises. Static exercises involve holding a position for a set length of time. A plank is a static exercise. Dynamic exercises involve moving during the exercise, for example, doing pushups.
You can do a number of exercises on a vibrating plate. Some good vibration plate exercises to start with include:
- Pushups. Place your hands on the vibration plate with your wrists slightly outside your body width but aligned with your elbows and shoulders. Flex your elbows and lower your body to the vibration plate. Keep your core engaged and your hips down. Now push back to your start position.
- Step-ups. Face the vibration plate and put your right foot on it. Press down through your right heel and step up onto the plate. Then reverse the movement so that you return to your start position. Complete the rest of your right leg, then switch legs.
- Plank. Place your forearms on the vibration plate, your shoulders aligned with your elbows. Your entire body, including your head and neck, should extend in a straight line at an angle from your scalp to your feet. Engage your core muscles, with your hips down. Hold the plank for your set length of time.
- Body weight squats. Stand with both feet on the vibration plate. Your feet should be hip-width, and your toes slightly pointed outward. Now push your hips back and slowly lower yourself to a squat position. Once you’ve reached it, push through your heels to return to your start one.
- Reverse lunge. Stand with your right foot on the vibration plate, then take a step back and down with your left foot. Make sure your right hip, knee, and ankle are all in alignment. Now press through your right heel to get back to your starting position. Complete the reps with your right leg, then switch sides.
- Calf raises. Start with both feet on the vibration plate. Press through the balls of your feet to raise your heels up and off the platform, then lower your heels back down.
You’ll most likely find that the vibration plate makes it harder to do these exercises than if you were on solid ground. You may have to scale back on reps to keep proper form and prevent injury.
Safety Considerations and Potential Risks
Vibration machines are generally safe, but they may not be suitable for some people. Talk to your doctor before you try one, especially if you have any health conditions. People who’ve had recent injuries or surgery should avoid them. So should children, and anyone who’s pregnant. It’s not clear yet who can or cannot use vibration plates.
People who are at a high risk of falling may want to stick to exercises they can perform while lying on their back or sitting down, as opposed to standing.
Some studies have looked at negative health effects associated with repeated exposure to vibration machines at work, such as through using jackhammers, driving delivery vehicles, and using earth-moving equipment. These studies suggest an association between repeated exposure to vibrations and an increased risk of developing pain in the back, neck, hand, shoulder, and hip. Repeated exposure to vibrations was also associated with an increased risk of developing:
- cardiovascular disease
- digestive problems
- nerve damage
- headaches
- cancer
However, most studies linking vibration to these health effects have involved people exposed to vibration every day for an extended period while working. These people are also often exposed to other risk factors, like toxic chemicals and repeated heavy lifting. More research is needed to understand exactly how vibration affects your body. Research suggests that some vibration plates give off vibrations up to seven times higher than what’s generally considered safe. But the long-term safety risks are unknown.
Integrating Vibration Machines into a Healthy Lifestyle
It’s not clear how effective vibration machines are compared with traditional weight loss techniques, and they aren’t a substitute for regular exercise and a healthy diet. Many other factors also affect weight loss, including changes in your metabolism.
No matter how you lose weight, the aim is to eat fewer calories than you’re burning. You need to burn about 3,500 calories to lose 1 pound of fat, including calories burned while resting. It’s best if this calorie deficit comes from a combination of diet (reducing calories in) and exercise (increasing calories out). Combining exercise with a healthy diet is often more effective than focusing on one or the other.
People who focus on a slow and steady approach to weight loss are generally more able to keep any weight they lose off than those who try to lose weight as quickly as possible.
If you don’t enjoy traditional forms of exercise like running or biking, many other activities can help you increase the number of calories you burn each day. The following are just some examples:
- bowling
- hiking
- kayaking
- dancing
- gardening
- playing frisbee
If you do lose weight with a vibration plate, it’s probably because you’ve also taken other steps, like cutting your calories and doing regular exercise.