Recently Alex signed me up for a power plate session which terrified me no end. I considered calling in sick on the day, but as was genuinely under the weather, I went anyway. The workout was not what I’d expected, but just as difficult as I imagined. While there I also got to experience the InBody, a device which was brand new to me but managed to impress nonetheless.

Power Plate workouts are not new. Madonna used them to great effect 3 years ago and the plate now has an extensive celeb following. Formerly only available at select studios and Harrods, it started becoming widely available about a year ago. If you currently belong to a Virgin gym, you could meet the love of your life while on one of these machines. Sign up for ‘Speed Plating’ in February to combine both flirting (if you have the breath for it) and your workout.

In case you’ve never heard of Power Plate before, it’s effectively a huge vibrator on which you exercise [Ed’ – and I chose PI, why?...].   Shaped like a large mobile phone stand, it allows you to do both vertical exercises (like squatting) and also horizontal (like stomach crunches). That sounds a bit worrying but actually its quite comfortable, soothing even, which brings us to another use of the Power Plate - It’s a very effective massager.

For my Power Plate workout I took myself to Harrods to be shown the ropes by one of their resident trainers, Jana. She tells me that the greatest benefit of adding vibrations to your workout is that it cuts the time you need to be actually working out by half, which is a huge bonus if you’re always in a hurry. This happens due to the vibrations from the machine creating instability and forcing your muscles to involuntarily contract and relax. This means that whatever exercise you do on the Power Plate, and for however long you do it, your muscles will be working out the whole time. Jana tells me that 3 Power plate sessions a week, along with some cardio, would be enough to get me toned in no time.

When I first turned the machine on, it was quite pleasant. Half an hour later after a gruelling workout, I was utterly relieved to be cooling down with some gentle Power Plate massage. It was then that Jana told me that the Power Plate has proven to be so effective at improving the muscular condition, it now has certification as a medical device. Is there no end to its talents? But wait, there’s more!  Prior to my workout Jana got me to stand on a very special set of scales – The InBody.

I’m a bit suspicious of scales, was very reluctant to step on them and probably only did so as it was necessary for the review. After the workout Jana showed me my results and promptly put all my fears to bed. The InBody is part of a new wave of scales – scales which actually consider different facets of an active human body rather than just its weight. The InBody, being only a year old and quite snazzy, is supposed to be very accurate.  Now that I’ve seen my results, no one can tell me that it isn’t! Rather than telling me off for being overweight, the InBody instead recommended that I gain 2kg of muscle and only lose a tiny 0.2kg of fat. As well as that, it also evaluated a lot of other stats including my total body water (TBW), my fat free mass (FFM), my BMI and my WHR (waist, hip ratio). The InBody I stood on is for Studio use only, however you can get a smaller home version if you feel you need one of your very own.

In conclusion, I rather liked the Power plate, so much that I’m heading back to Harrods this week. If you are lucky enough to have them at your gym, you can go onto the uk.powerplate.com website and download some workouts for free.
The Power plate and the InBody? 9/10