Is vibration therapy a good idea for older adults?
Vibration therapy is a trend in the fitness world right now. A big thanks to Chad Benson, an expert in this area, for training the Vintage Fitness personal training team on vibration therapy a few weeks ago during the Canadian Fitness Professionals conference here in Toronto.
Vibration therapy is simply using vibration to the whole body with a product like the power plate or to a specific muscle with vibrating foam rollers. The benefits of vibration is the vibration activates your nervous system quickly encouraging the right muscles to start working. The result can be an improvement in mobility and range of motion, circulation and joint stability.
I see both potential and risk for older adults when it comes to vibration therapy.
Potential:
- Low intensity vibration to stimulate postural muscles in the back of the shoulder and improve often slouched posture in older adults
- Using vibration to stimulate maintenance of bone density. Research done by the national osteoporosis society recommends the use of whole body vibration as a part of osteoporosis treatment.
- Improved circulation
- Improved joint stability especially in the mobility joints such as the spine, hips, knees and ankles
Risks:
- Vibration is used where it is contra-indicated such as on bruised tissue, varicose veins, on the fingers, neck or near a pace-maker
- If vibration used is too strong for the older adult
- Vibration is used at the wrong places—there is a science behind understanding when to activate muscles with vibration and when to release tight muscles with vibration. It is important to work with a personal trainer or therapist that has training using vibration.
Personal training team at Vintage Fitness will continue to learn more about vibration therapy and start to use it with clients at low intensities especially for clients with poor posture and osteoporosis.
If you have questions or a personal experience with vibration therapy to share drop me a note erin@vintagefitness.ca.
Next week I will create a few videos to show you how to activate postural muscles with vibration.
Good Luck!
Erin
Vintage Fitness
Vintage Fitness is an in home personal training company in Toronto, Canada. We specialize in energizing the lives of people over 50 with exercise.
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