Powerplate is the latest fitness tool that has celebs and fitness folk in a lather. Madonna swears by it (apparently) and Premiership football teams incorporate it into their training and recovery regimes. Its fast, fits easily into a busy lifestyle and has benefits. The Powerplate is positioned at the top end of the 'vibration training' market of fitness equipment and here are my experiences of trying it out.

There are many scientific studies that provide support to these claims. Google the words 'power plate' and 'scientific support' and you'll see it.
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The Power Plate is a sleek piece of kit, it looks like a weighing scale you'd find on the deck of the Starship Enterprise. All brushed grey chrome and black foam handles, the display reminds me of what you seen when you get behind the wheel of an expensive. This can be intimidating to some people. As previously mentioned, the 'Powerplate' brand falls at the upper end of the vibration training market. You can get cheaper pieces of equipment like the interestingly handled 'Crazy Fit Body Shaper/Massager' for around £300 whereas the 'My 5' (the flagship Powerplate model) weighs in at just under three and half grand. To be honest, I would trust my fitness and well-being to a company whose products have the word 'crazy' in them. Besides, the cheaper products may work on the same principles of vibration training, but are not as effective.

A typical session is just thirty minutes in duration, it involves a number of callisthenics and yoga style moves which are mostly easy to master. Section one begins with a 1 minute massage to increase blood flow and warm up the muscles for work, a gentle flexibility stretch follows. As a session involves minimal weight and very little movement, the 5-10 minutes of pre preparation stretching is not required. Two minutes is all that is needed. Afterwards the programme moves to a core and stability section, exercises to strengthen the core muscles (abdominals, glutes etc) and improve balance, two sets of exercises in each. Making up to 4 minutes on this component. The core exercises are much in demand, the ladies (and gents) who visit primarily focus on tums, bums and thighs which aren't as toned as they once where - and you certainly can feel these muscles being worked. The main component of a session targets individual body parts; backs of arms, chest, shoulders, lower/mid low back, legs etc for anything up to a minute for each. Once these moves are completed the sequences is repeated - making perhaps 12 exercises in total for 15 minutes in duration. A massage and stretch complete the session, the lights are dimmed and the upbeat music turned down, you leave the studio feeling worked out and surprisingly chilled out.

You can buy this product from many online retailers such as John Lewis.