Easter Skiing
It seems that vibration plates have started to garner a bad reputation over the years; the internet is saturated with people complaining that their vibration training did nothing to boost their fitness regime. However, the largest reason for this, is that people still don’t know how to utilise vibration plates correctly. The majority of people believe that all they need to do in order to reap the benefits is stand on a vibration plate and let it do its work. However, this is not true – if you know how to effectively use a vibration plate, the results you see can be astonishing.
If the glistening peaks of snow-dusted mountains are calling for you this Easter, you’ll need to be sure that you’re in the best possible physical condition to get the most out of your skiing vacation. Using a vibration plate is extremely effective for developing the strength of your core and enhancing muscular endurance. This is perfect for ski fanatics who want to improve their balance, ski for longer, and avoid unnecessary injury.
How the Vibration Plate Works
The vibration plate is a machine that gives the muscles of your body a high-speed workout, by using vibrations to stimulate them into contracting and relaxing quicker than usual. Generally, your muscles will contract once or twice a second, but when you’re standing on a vibration plate, an automatic reflex contraction increases this number to thirty or fifty per second.
Most people regard the vibration plate to be a great time-saving device, due to the fact that numerous muscle groups can be activated at the same time. What’s more, as little as ten minutes of exercise on a vibration plate can give you the same effect as sixty minutes of conventional training. For sports, it’s particularly useful at providing benefits. For example, with skiing, if you stand in a squat position for thirty seconds, your quads will be getting a better training stimulus than simply standing squat against a wall.
How to Use a Vibration Plate
Vibration is effective and fast alternative to resistance training that increases the power and muscular strength of athletes and beginners alike. For those individuals looking to tackle the slopes with the best possible form, there are a number of useful exercises that can be utilised. The following movements using a vibration plate may come in handy for your skiing preparation:
- Single leg squats and ski squats are perfect for targeting your quads. Both exercises are great for improving your balance, and help to encourage the proper tracking of your knees over toes.
- To push a little further, you can try doing squat jumps. These exercises are both fun and intensive at the same time, and they’re useful for putting power into your legs, and toning up your thighs.
- Side planks and centre planks are fantastic for improving stability for better muscle endurance, and developing core strength.
- Tricep dips and press ups will help to strengthen your wrists and upper body, which is a great thing if you’re new to skiing, and may be picking yourself up out of the snow throughout the day.
- To advance your fitness, throw an exercise ball into the mix, this will work your stabiliser muscles and help to boost your core stability.