It was October 18, 1998 that my mentor Carmelo Bosco came to Holland to introduce the new concept of vertical whole body vibration training for sports.
This would lead to the development of the first vertical whole body vibration platform called Nemes (neuro-muscular mechanical stimulation) mainly used to increase explosive strength in athletes. His research showed that this worked very well. In a later stage we found out that vertical WBV improves flexibility (increases the range of motion), has positive effects on bone density (in osteoporosis and for astronauts). it also helps to improve peripheral circulation in the legs, and it supports in cases of neuro-muscular diseases like MS and spasticity.
Real soon after that, copy-cats tried to cash in on this development and the market was hit by many cheap WBV platforms that did not work at all and/or came with claims the were exaggerated or straight lies, Also we observed a lot of damage, because it was promoted as a “magic machine” on which one could do any exercise and use it as long as possible without any side effects. Vibration training became a fitness hype that went down as fast as it came up, in the end the only factor driving it was naked greed (and human stupidity). So soon WBV fell from grace and was discarded. Still, when one has a good machine that works (most Nemes machines are still running until today, almost 25 years old!)
The Nemes… still going strong after 25 years!
Do the right exercises and protocols on it, and use the optimal frequency, the effects will still be unmatched. Unfortunately, Carmelo Bosco passed away in 2003 and the production of his platform has stopped since then.
What does this all mean?
-standing on a not working platform in squat position (knee angle 90-100 degrees) one will measure some EMG activity, measuring the recruitment of muscle fibers in the quads. But when one switches the machine on, the EMG activity should be really much higher, meaning the muscles really start to work hard.
Many platforms do not work, no matter what frequency one uses, which means that there is no change or increase in EMG activity when one switches the machine on!
-our legs are perfect shock absorbers (foot, ankle, knees and hips) , we can jump from a 7 feet box and land on our feet without trouble, but now pull a chair from underneath a person sitting on it, he/she will land on his/her buttocks and may suffer great damage, the shock is not absorbed well and transferred though the pelvis into the spine. Our bony pelvis is not a shock absorber. Also sitting on a platform e.g. doing abdominals will shake the pelvis and the internal organs in and above it. Again… bad news…!
-how long can you stand or put your body weight on your legs? Quite a few hours, since our legs are perfectly designed to withstand high forces and shocks. But standing on your hands, how long can you do that (look at your fingers). Also our hands and arms are not designed to absorb high forces or deal with shocks. Normally they are floating free in the air without any external load. For vibration training with the arms, we used or vibrating rings like in gymnastics or a vibrating dumbbell with milder vibration parameters.
It has been hard to find a vibration platform that really works, but I found a US-based brand that does the job very well, since we tested the platform with EMG.
The Vibeplate does a great job: simple, robust and it works! More information at their website: https://vibeplate.com/
