Vibration Training & Muscle Wasting Conditions
Vibration Training & Muscle Wasting Conditions
What can Vibration Training do for muscle wasting diseases and conditions that others forms of exercise can not do ?
Firstly to understand what you can gain from this form of training you have to fully understand what you are losing with some of these conditions
(1) Multiple Sclerosis
(2) Motor Neuron Disease
(3) Parkinson's
(4) Muscular Dystrophy
And any other illness that systematically takes away muscle control, weather it be muscle based , central nervous system depletion or "brain to body" interrupted communication. All these illnesses has one thing in common . They all lead to muscle wastage due to inactivity. Now sometimes it a "chicken before the egg" argument. Does the muscle waste away due to lack of use, or do you not use it because its wasting away and its too hard to exercise. Sometimes the muscle is wasting away internally and you lose cells faster than you can make the. Either way its all a downward spiral.
How Vibration Training gets around all these issues is quite simple, you are asked NOT to do anything. Yes that is right, you are asked not to move and relax . Sounds crazy I know but I will explain how it all works, and then if you choose to try it the experience will leave no doubts as to its effectiveness.
Involuntary reflexes , what are they and why are they so special ?
(1) You are born with them.
(2) They are very powerful responses
(3) You do not need to be fit to use them
(4) They do not degrade with illness or old age
(5) They respond to their environment, which means no voluntary input from the brain is needed. In fact even complete spinal cord severance does not stop the muscles from reacting to vibration.
Basically these are the base reflexes that range from something as mundane as blinking to full on fight or flight. But Vibration Training specifically targets muscles with directed controlled vibration at particular angles to fire off a " catching response " . This is usually the kind of response in the muscles you would use to walk down a set of stairs. Each time you go down you "catch" your own bodyweight, so you do not fall down. In a movement like that you do not really think about it, it just seems logical and normal if it happens. But how does this really work ?
When your foot strikes the floor, your local muscles that receive the pressure automatically respond by producing the exact force required to hold your body weight up. In that case your legs muscles. This happens independently from everything else and is a reaction to force that is built into the very muscle and surrounding nerve tissue itself. And how powerful is this reaction ? Well because of gravity pulling us down at 30 feet a second, just walking off a normal step, an 80 kg person is forced to produce 160kg of force to not fall down. And you have to catch that on one leg. That's a 160kg squat on one leg.
Voluntarily we all know that is not possible for anyone but the best athletes to produce that kind of pressure, but you do it every time you walk down a set of stairs, without thinking about it. A very smart way to put pressure and movement into a muscle that voluntarily does not function well, for whatever reason.
What Vibration Training is all about, is simulating that response by putting you in certain poses and putting your feet or hands in contact with a Vibration Platform and let your involuntary reflexes do the rest. It is all very controlled and there is zero risk to you. The lighter forms can even be done sitting down. I know it sounds to good to be true but it works and it is undeniable exercise. You will feel like you have worked out and you will feel tired afterwards. So make sure you are prepared for that. But remember you do not have to be fit to do this, only alive and willing.
Notice number....... (4) They do not degrade with illness or old age
What is with that you might ask, why do these systems remain working even when the body is falling to pieces ? Well it depends on weather you think they are a God given right or they are base reflexes that are at the very core of evolution. But basically you can think of them as something that every living organism has, even the very earliest life forms had thing in common, you poke them with a stick and they move. Just think of everything else you have as an add-on to those base reflexes. All the higher functions are recent arrivals and hence are the weaker systems, easy to knock off during illness and age related issues. But no matter how old or sick you get, someone pokes you with a stick and you will react.
So what can Vibration Training actually do for you...
(1) Increase circulation .
(2) Increase muscle mass ( training poses )
(3) Send signals back towards the brain, which is a very large part of traditional Physio work.
(4) Increase muscle control through a combination of the above.
(5) Increase bone density.
(6) Increase flexibility and reduce joint stiffness or pain.
All the things we know voluntary exercise can help with, but the fact is if you had no issues with exercising at the gym , you would not be reading this. So don't sit back and think, "that's sounds interesting" make the effort and give it a try. I promise it will open your eyes to a whole new method for looking after your body, and fighting your illness.
