What is Vibration Therapy?
OsteoStrong's vibration plate is a cutting-edge wellness device designed to enhance bone density and overall health by using powerful, high-frequency vibrations. This technology works by stimulating the body's natural response to vibrations, which causes muscles to contract and relax rapidly. These vibrations trigger a reflex action in the muscles, leading to increased strength and flexibility. The use of the vibration plate at OsteoStrong focuses on improving bone health by enhancing the mechanical loading of bones, which is crucial for maintaining and increasing bone density, particularly in individuals at risk of osteoporosis or other bone-related conditions.
How does it work?
During a vibration therapy session, the device applies vibrations at a frequency of 32-38Hz, a range shown in research to effectively stimulate muscle fibers and activate spinal reflexes. At this frequency, the body's stabilizing muscles are triggered without inducing muscle spasms (tetany). The vibrations impact every tendon, ligament, muscle, and cell, engaging the joints in a stabilizing effort. This dynamic process activates over 90% of your muscle fibers, compared to about 40% during exercise on stable ground, generating rapid contractions at a rate of 10 to 60 times per second. The result is a more efficient workout that leads to increased muscle density, strength, coordination, and bone density, significantly optimizing the time and effort needed to achieve superior results. Studies indicate that the 32-38Hz range is particularly effective for improving muscle and bone health, accelerating bone formation, and enhancing overall physical performance.
What are the benefits?
Increased Bone Density: When used as part of a regular OsteoStrong session, the vibration plate helps to boost bone density through a process called "osteogenesis." The vibrations stimulate bone remodeling, encouraging bone cells to produce more bone tissue, leading to stronger, denser bones over time. VibePlate™ also helps increase bone density and mass by causing muscles to contract and relax dozens of times per second. These rapid muscle contractions place beneficial stress on the bone, prompting it to respond and grow. This process has been shown to significantly enhance both bone mineral content and bone density by accelerating bone formation and metabolism, while also helping to protect against bone loss and support the increase of both bone and muscle mass.
Improved Muscle Strengthening: Due to stimulation of rapid muscle contractions, vibration therapy enhances muscle strength stimulating more intense muscle activity which leads to greater strength development over time. Vibration therapy helps improve muscle endurance, tone, and overall strength by efficiently targeting both slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers, accelerating muscle growth and recovery.
Enhanced Balance, Coordination, and Mobility: There is increasing evidence that vibration therapy helps with balance and reducing falls. Any reduction in falling reduces the chance of breaking bones. The rapid contractions and relaxation of the muscles challenges the body to maintain stability on the platform. The vibration also stimulates the nervous system, enhancing the “mind-body connection”, or the communication between your brain and muscles, leading to better muscle coordination and improves your body’s awareness of its position in space (proprioception), which is crucial for maintaining balance.
Upregulating Human Growth Hormone (HGH): These vibrations trigger the body’s natural response, activating the mechanoreceptors in muscle and bone tissue, which sends signals to the pituitary gland to release HGH. HGH plays a key role in stimulating muscle growth, cell regeneration, and tissue repair. It boosts protein synthesis to increase bone mineral density (BMD) and strength, while also promoting the production of IGF-1, which stimulates osteoblast activity and bone formation. Additionally, HGH aids in muscle recovery and the preservation of muscle mass.
Improved Circulation: The vibrations stimulate improved circulation and lymphatic drainage, which aids in the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the cells, helping reduce inflammation and muscle soreness.
Neuropathy Relief: The vibrations also offer benefits for individuals with neuropathy by stimulating nerve function (as mentioned above), which can help reduce pain, improve sensation, and promote better circulation in affected areas. This may help alleviate some of the discomfort and symptoms associated with nerve damage.
Pain Reduction: Vibration therapy helps alleviate pain by stimulating sensory nerves to block pain signals, increasing blood flow to tissues for faster healing, relaxing tight muscles, reducing inflammation, and enhancing the body’s natural pain management mechanisms for both acute and chronic pain relief.
How do we use Vibration therapy at OsteoStrong?
Before the osteogenic loading session, spending two minutes on the vibration plate primes the body for optimal performance. This initial vibration stimulates the neuromuscular connection for optimal response and outcomes on the Spectrum equipment. It increases circulation for improved flexibility and sensation. This is a great time to work on warm up movements like stretching, basic range of motion activities and balance.
After the osteogenic loading session, there is increased communication between your muscles and the triggering of the central nervous system. This increased communication is called “neural potentiation” and lasts for approximately 15 minutes following the session. Using the vibration plate post-session enhances the benefits of osteogenic loading on balance and can aid in muscle relaxation and reduce soreness. It is also a great time to incorporate weights for upper body lifting or other strengthening activities like squats and lunges.
In summary, VibePlate™ offers a comprehensive approach to supporting individuals with osteoporosis by enhancing bone density, muscle strength, and overall physical function. The vibrations stimulate bone remodeling, increasing bone mass and density, which helps protect against bone loss and reduce the risk of fractures. At the same time, the rapid muscle contractions improve muscle strength, endurance, and coordination, which supports better balance and mobility, crucial for reducing the risk of falls. The increased circulation and lymphatic drainage promote faster healing and reduce inflammation, while also providing relief for conditions like neuropathy by stimulating nerve function. Together, these benefits create a holistic approach to osteoporosis management, improving bone health, muscle strength, and mobility, and ultimately enhancing quality of life.