History of WBV

WBV in the United States

Several WBV manufacturers have penetrated high-end fitness and medical markets here in the US. Many professional sports teams use big machines made for athletes who lift weights on the vibrating platform.  These machines are priced in excess of $8,000 - $15,000. Since many of these units are developed to help professional athletes, they tend to be very large units and are uncomfortable for the standard user. They are simply too powerful.  In America it's common to think that more is better but this isn't the case with WBV.

The origins of Whole Body Vibration technology can be traced back to the Swedish gymnast, physician, and inventor Gustav Zander (1835-1920) and Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943).

The Germans picked up on the health and wellness benefits that vibration technology offered in the 1960’s by developing an exercise technique called rhythmic neuromuscular stimulation.

Then the Russians moved vibration technology forward for good in the 1960’s. The space race between the Russians from Eastern Europe and the United States from the west fueled research and development of all kinds of new products. The Soviets quickly realized that being exposed to zero gravity conditions in outer space caused severe deterioration of bone mineral density and muscle tissue. The concept of humans living with the constant force of Earth’s gravity is where the theory behind WBV originated.

The Russian space program used Whole Body Vibration as a way to simulate weight bearing loads for their cosmonauts while training and rehabbing before, during, and after trips in outer space.

Introducing WBV in zero gravity conditions is something that worked to simulate the forces of gravity when there isn’t any. Cosmonauts (and now NASA) used WBV machines to maintain bone mineral density and muscle strength. Instead of being too weak to walk upon returning from orbit, the Russian cosmonauts were returning from space in almost the same condition as when they left.

Ever wonder why the Russians were so dominant in the Olympics during the 1980’s. You guessed it...their athletes were using WBV regularly in training and rehabilitation programs.

German Universities continued their own research on the effects of WBV. Many studies were done on a variety of effects on the body, such as WBV and Osteoporosis, developing muscle mass, improving balance and circulation, rehabilitation for injuries, weight loss, and the like.

This is not WBV... and here's WHY.

The famous exercise belt of the 1950s is not comparable to today's form of WBV. PowerVibe utilize weight bearing load (your body) that is in line with the vibration stimulus to produce positive effects. Your body experiences rapid acceleration and deceleration in the tissues that are in line with the vibrations.