Stretching and the Power Plate:

The Power Plate whole body vibration platform is a great tool for stretching. Close to 30 professional sports teams use it with their athletes, primarily as part of their warmup. With around 30 reflex muscle contractions per second, you get the muscles warmed up in no time.

All those muscle contractions occur while you are holding a stretch for thirty seconds. Besides creating a lot of heat in the muscle and connective tissue, those contractions also make a change in your nervous system. The end result is greater flexibility in a relatively short amount of time.

That's one of the reasons athletes use vibration platforms - it speeds up the warmup process and gets you ready for the movements to follow. If you're not an athlete but need to increase your flexibility, the Power Plate can help with that.

If you've read my articles before, you know that I am a big movement person. I believe that most of us don't move enough and thus aren't as healthy as we should be. Many of the physical problems I've dealt with in clinic settings have been movement related - not enough of some movements and too much of others (overuse injuries).

Which is why I generally advocate movements such as joint mobility or some type of dynamic stretching, in order to move more efficiently and to be flexible in motion, which is more important than being flexible in a stationary position.

Whole body vibration platforms offer a perfect solution as whether to do static (stationary) stretching or do some type of movement to increase your flexibility. Do static stretching with a Power Plate and then do some type of movement afterwards to get the best of both worlds.

Combining these techniques will give you a synergistic effect, where the sum total is more than either of the parts on their own.

If you don't have access to a WBV platform you can do some type of self-massage first, to release tension in your muscles. When you have tense muscles that may have some triggerpoints, they won't stretch as easy and will quickly return to their previous length.