by Lloyd Shaw
This article is to explain exactly why its so hard to hold a static pose on a High Energy Vibration Training device. Because it may seem obvious, but its not until you break down the reality of what you are doing, does it make sense why someone would move around so much when you ask them to stay bloody still.
To start out I have to tell you that there is no such thing as "holding your pose" on a true Vibration Training platform. You are instead in a fight to "correct your position" for every second you are on the plate. And this is what you are up against to do that.....
(1) Firstly you are not staying still at all, if the machine is at 43Hz on 3mm you are actually moving around quite a bit . How on earth do you figure that out you say, because the person is clearly not going anywhere. Well think about this , if you are being pushed up 3mm , then dropped 3mm in every vibration, and that is 43 vibrations a second that is 6mm x 43 = 258 mm. During the 60 sec pose you have actually moved 15 meters.
How to explain this to someone else is .....
If I asked you to run a mile , in a squash court , you would have to run back and forth like an idiot instead of in a straight line . If someone walked past and gave you a quick glance , it would appear you are going nowhere fast , but looks can be deceiving. Its totally irrelevant how the distance is covered , just that it is.
(2) A High Energy Platform will be lifting your feet clear off the deck in the top part of the upward thrust. So you kind of just slightly leave the ground , hence becoming weightless, which allows your muscles to completely relax , completing the "stretch reflex" , sounds great but only one problem. Have you ever tried to jump up and down exactly on the same spot ? its actually physically impossible. There will ALWAYS be some variation in the place you land. And that’s not just your feet but all your limbs cant go back to exactly the same spot as before.
Or....
Try running in a perfectly straight line , you cant cant you , it’s a constant process of correction. If you allowed you body to "drift" to the left or right without correction you will end up running in a big curve. Even half an inch in each step out and in 100 meters you end up nowhere near your target.
Well times all those small variations in each limb by 43 a second. And it doesn’t take much to make an arm, leg, elbow or knee to appear to magically move about 2 inches in 10 seconds.
(3) And if that was not bad enough, you are fighting fatigue the entire time , which makes the constant "correction process" of putting your limbs back into position harder the longer you try and hold the pose. Almost an impossible task near the end of a minute for most people.
So you put all the above together and you start to understand how someone right in front of you ( our yourself ) can get so out of pose you have to turn the machine off to correct them. Here are a few of my favorites ...
(a) Knees coming together in squat.
(b) Elbows tucking back towards ribs in push up.
(c) Chest dropping in push up while your rear end starts to stick out the back , making it look like you are a devotee to some middle eastern religion.
(c) Legs straightening quickly and chest/head dropping down in squat , making it look like you are trying to stick you own head up your backside ( I think attitude and pose is actually promoted by Power Plate )
Why is it important to know the above, because upstanding the causes of something does help you counter it yourself and stops you getting complacent about the forces we are dealing with. Education always makes you safer.
