I’m pickin’ up good vibrations – thanks to Skandika

As soon as the box arrived, I was so excited to open it. The first thing I saw in the box was the remote control. As you can see, it is fairly simple, but it includes everything you need.

I then removed the top layer of polystyrene to get my first glimpse of the vibration plate:

Also in the packaging was a poster showing a variety of exercises and a detailed user guide showing a range of exercises for everyone from beginners to experienced users.

I’m not sure whether my photos show the size of the product very well – the top of the plate is 73x34cm, so it’s a reasonable size to be able to balance on, but it’s also small enough to be able to tuck it away when you’re not using it.

The benefits of using a vibration plate

Vibration training is believed to work because exercising on a vibrating/unstable surface makes your muscles to work harder to regain stability. These multiple reflexive muscle contractions per second are what help to build strength and tone up. I’ll be interested to find out how this ‘instability training’ benefits me.

I thought I’d start with some easy exercises and I got Stuart to take some photos for me. My initial thought was that balancing shouldn’t be too hard:

I’d love to say that I nailed it, but the beauty of the vibration plate is that it’s always possible to make an exercise more difficult by increasing the level.

I then tried a range of other exercises, including squats:

lunges,

and dips.

Also included in the box were some elastic straps for arm training.

I think I impressed myself with my ability to hold a reasonable dish/V-sit/whatever you want to call it!

How to use the Skandika vibration plate

The vibration plate came with a really detailed instruction booklet that gave me loads of ideas for exercises, so I worked through all of them and in the weeks since the vibration plate arrived, I’ve been trying to use it a couple of times a week. It also included a poster with exercises on it, but I haven’t got around to putting it up in my training room yet.

My favourite exercises to do on the vibration plate are squats and balances. I can really feel the results the following day. I used to love doing Jillian Michael’s DVD The 30 Day Shred. One of her oft-repeated sayings on that DVD is “You gotta work the little muscles in with the big muscles!” I certainly think the vibration plate does that.

So, have I seen any results from the vibration plate yet? Yes and no. I’m definitely getting better at keeping my balance and my glutes ache less when I’m doing squats. I don’t know whether I would have had the same results with the squats if I were doing them without the plate; I know that simply doing balances on a level surface wouldn’t have worked more than the usual muscles, so it probably wouldn’t have made a difference to me. So, the jury’s out. I can’t see any downsides to using the vibration plate, so I’m going to keep using it. I even managed to persuade my mother-in-law to have a go (and sneakily turned it up a bit when her back was turned).

The only other thing that I have to admit is that the massage function left me in hysterics! (However, laughing is known to have health properties and it gave my abs and core and extra workout!)

Live-action!

Some of my friends insisted that they wanted to see me in action on the Skandika vibration plate, so here’s a short video.

If you are interested in trying out a vibration plate for yourself, I’d recommending checking out this Skandika model.

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As an aside, please don’t judge me on my lounge decor. It is authentic ’80s and it’s definitely not to my taste, but we only moved in November and can’t afford to change it yet!