As published in Eden Magazine, July 1, 2017

Do you worry about your weight? Does gaining five pounds ruin your day? Send you into a tailspin of frustration, panic, and despair? Join the crowd—most of America is obsessed with their weight, and still gaining despite vast quantities of angst, time, and money thrown at the elusive perfect body.

Whole Body Vibration to the rescue!

Whole Body Vibration (WBV) is particularly useful for weight loss because in addition to being an intense exercise system, it is also therapy for the mind and spirit.  WBV is best know though for its incredible workout effect. In face, it was originally developed for Olympic athletes in Russia about fifty years ago and is now used by most professional athletes and teams in the US. Amateur sports enthusiasts, weekend warriors and even couch potatoes are also enthusiastic users, because a little effort goes a long way with WBV.

Over a thousand research studies have shown a wide range of physical benefits from this new exercise system, including that ten minutes of working out on a powerful WBV machine gives you the benefits of an hour of conventional weight lifting; muscle strength, bone density, balance, coordination, and flexibility all increase. The research on metabolic rate and weight loss is not as clear, with some studies showing clear benefits (Vissers 2010) and others more mixed results (Cristi-Montero 2013). However, my experience is that when WBV is used along with aerobic exercise (particularly the new and popular system of Interval Training), an understanding of detoxification, and the importance of nutrition, results are usually satisfying and fast.

At first the intense workout effect of WBV might seem hard to believe, but think of a guy using a jack hammer, and the arm and shoulder muscles they develop – it is hard work to hold weight against vibration. Different exercise positions target your arms, your stomach, your shoulders, etc., so that with ten one-minute exercises you can achieve a full body workout.

Other benefits include increased levels of brain neurotransmitters (serotonin and norepinephrine), which boost your mood, motivation, and self-confidence, help you sleep, and give you energy—and that helps you be active, make better food choices and not eat as much. In addition, cortisol, our major stress hormone signaling our body to store and keep fat especially around our bellies, decreases.

Combining WBV with homeopathy, a powerful energy medicine, helps you not only lose weight more effectively, by helping your emotional and mental state at the same time. Our chi energy guides our mind and body; without changing this energy it can be like fighting the tide to change your body and mind. Changing your energy is about changing your deep, subconscious thoughts and feelings, which can be very helpful in changing stubborn behavior patterns!

Thirty years ago I lost 80 pounds, because I became so sick I couldn’t eat—not a recommended way to lose weight! But losing weight is actually easier than keeping it off—one doctor I consulted ten years after losing eighty pounds exclaimed, “You must be sick!” because it is so rare to lose a lot of weight and not regain it.

Homeopathy can even help with compulsions such as compulsive overeating and food cravings—for example for ice cream, chocolate, chips, etc.

I’ve even seen food cravings in my dog change with homeopathy—where the effects are obviously not placebo. Below are two $100 bills my dog ate two years ago. I made her puke them up, washed, dried, and taped them back together and took them to the bank where they did give me new bills, after much laughter.

For eight years my dog ate every Kleenex she could find.  After the attention grabbing $200 episode, I gave her a series of homeopathic remedies for a compulsion to eat indigestible things, and within a short time she stopped eating all paper products. I recommend this remarkable energy medicine, along with WBV, special diets, and nutrition as a complete system to address weight loss along with other health issues.

WBV effects every part of your body so you do need to be careful with it. For example, WBV has a very powerful detoxification effect. This is a good thing as toxins are part of almost all chronic health issues including weight gain, but this effect can stress your body if you try to do too much WBV too quickly. Go slowly—don’t jump on a powerful machine and try to do ten minutes your first time—you may well end up feeling ill instead of better. For most people, I recommend starting with one minute on a gentle machine and gradually increasing. Most of us are not the Olympic athletes this technology was originally designed for—we have older, more delicately balanced bodies, full of quirks and issues.  Second, educate yourself; not all WBV machines are the same, and it is important to use the right type of vibration. Third, there are quite a few contraindications for WBV—be sure to check that you don’t have one of these health conditions before trying WBV. Check my website, www.BCVibrantHealth.com, or my book Whole Body Vibration: The Future of Good Health, for more information.

 

Vissers, D. et al. (2013). “Effect of Long-Term Whole Body Vibration Training on Visceral Adipose Tissue: A Preliminary Report.” Obes Facts 3, no. 2: 93–100.

Cristi-Montero, C1, MJ Cuevas, PS Collado. (2013). “Whole-Body Vibration Training as Complement to Programs Aimed at Weight Loss.” Nutr Hosp. 28, no. 5:1365–71. doi: 10.3305/nh.2013.28.5.6656.