Vibration plates are the Rorschach inkblot test of the moment no one asked for or saw coming.
To some, trendy vibration plates—at-home devices that provide high-frequency, whole-body vibrations and are said to stimulate muscle contractions and relaxation—are used by fitness diehards who will try almost anything for extra gains. Others (myself included) approach vibration plates cautiously, only to find their muscles and joints feel pretty good when utilizing them post-workout or as part of their fitness routine.
And to a population of people, primarily women, with conditions like lipedema and lymphedema who may have found little help from their doctors, vibration plates may be valuable tools in sufferers’ arsenals to treat the conditions.
Despite the different lenses through which vibration plates are viewed, facts are facts: To date, there aren’t sufficient trials that reveal significant health benefits from using vibration plates, according to Bruce H. Dobkin, MD, distinguished professor emeritus of clinical neurology at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “I am not familiar with any adequately designed trial that reveals weight loss, osteoporosis, muscle strength, or proprioception [your body’s ability to sense its position and movements in space] being affected by present designs,” Dobkin says. “What you find in occasional small trials are minor differences between groups (e.g., a 1 kg loss in a 100 kg mean weight group) that clearly is not clinically meaningful.”
