The truth about vibration plates

TikTok influencers claim they’re an easy route to fitness but they don’t replace good diet and exercise

- KATIE MOGG

By standing on a vibration plate roughly the size of a bathroom scale, you could shed kilos and build muscle. At least, that’s the claim you’ll find all over TikTok.

“All you have to do is just hop on the vibration plate, and it does all the work for you,” one user said.

Adding vibration to a workout isn’t new. But research on how vibration may (or may not) benefit your health is increasingly, er, expert say. And vibration plates aren’t cheap: Many run hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Here’s what to know.

WHAT DOES VIBRATION DO TO THE BODY?

Vibrating the body stimulates muscle spindle dles, the receptors that help control when muscles contract and relax, said Brad Schoenfeld, a professor of exercise science at Lehman College in New York City.

Your muscles also contract during exercise, so it’s reasonable to think that using a vibration plate would tire them out and change your physique — especially if you perform exercises while on top of the plate. But data suggesting that vibration will help you gain muscle or lose fat is sparse, Schoenfeld said.

Vibration alone isn’t enough for most people to significantly challenge their muscles, said Dr. Hani Al-Shaikh, a sports medicine physician at Northwell Health in New York. To do that, you’d need to do resistance training and aerobic exercise.