The POWERPLATE Trial!

I have to admit, I am a serious sceptic when it comes to the powerplate. My Sports masseuse Phil Croney (@Active_Group_UK on twitter, and here’s his web site http://www.active-uk.com/ ) also runs a women’s gym. He has recently bought two, and has asked me if I will be his guinea-pig. Well. There was nothing to lose, (apart from some of my valuable time!) so I thought why not. It’ll make a good few blogs, if nothing else!

Research

Unofficially, I asked a few people what they thought. The views seem to be very mixed. Athletes are very sceptical, whereas other people are more welcoming. A man I spoke to, whose wife runs a similar gym that has two, claims that people have dropped dress sizes by using it, and was very scathing of my sceptical views!

Further research I feel is warranted, and I will put this in a separate blog, or you will be sitting reading this all day!!

My 1st experiences

Wellingboro Multi terrain '06

I turned up, in gym gear, (but not really expecting to need it!) I had a face on me very much like this picture! He just laughed at me, but knew he had his hands full! I was asked did I want to give this a miss.. nope, I’m here now, I might as well go through with this! Each woman that came into the gym, he made a point of explaining how he was initiating me on this thing, and hoping to change my views! I was not sure who he was reassuring, myself or himself!!

The series of exercises he asked me to do seemed, quite frankly, a little odd. I felt very self conscious standing, for example, in a squat position on a vibrating plate pulling up on some very much non elastic straps / handles. All the movements were small, simple and seemingly easy, but it wasn’t long before, unexpectedly, I was beginning to sweat! How can this be, I am not doing anything other than striking a pose! They were all pretty standard movements that I had seen before, but somehow, doing them on a vibrating plate made them much harder (for me, at least!) Phil tells me that the reason for this is because the vibrations make your muscles fire many times a second. I’ll have to look up some research to substantiate that one.

One interesting thing that I did note though, Phil is NOT my trainer, in any way. He knows very little about my own personal strengths and weaknesses, other than what we chat about while I am on his massage bench, or what his thumbs might find! The routine that he started me on was, he tells me, a standard beginner one. He was able to point out to me through these movements and exercises that where my weaknesses lie, and told me some of the same things that David Sutton (@PerformTrain) told me a few weeks back in the gym.  

I do, at this stage, have a confession to make. When I took my new routing to my regular gym I attend, and saw how many people were around, I must confess I bottled out, for fear of looking like a complete loon! I think the way forward it to try it at quiet times of the day!

The next day, I was very surprised to discover that I had serious DOMS in my obliques! I have been doing some very regular strength and conditioning work, and my regular routine now does not usually cause DOMS like it did when I first started it. I do think the Powerplate helped in a small way to ease my aches, from a hard weeks training and some very tired muscles. What I cannot guarantee, is whether that same effect would have been reached on the foam roller too!

I promised Phil I would try this for a good while so that’s what I will do. I hope to get at least one session of it in per week. I do not intend to compromise my regular training in any way during this time.

So I guess it’s a case of ‘watch this space’!