Galileo Whole Body Vibration
A revolutionary training technique to achieve an enormous range of health and fitness benefits, from increased strength to improved bone density. Developed in the Soviet Union to treat Cosmonauts and improve the performance of Olympic athletes, this technology is used widely throughout Europe and North America by elite sports clubs, world class athletes, hospitals, gyms, physiotherapy and therapeutic centres.
Now, for the first time, this innovative and ground breaking technology is available in Australia.
Galileo Benefits
The Galileo is an exciting tool for functional low load strengthening. It is a truly unique concept that has been well proven in studies from universities worldwide.
The Galileo works by tilting on a central axis and so producing a tilting action as it vibrates. The frequency of the tilt and the amplitude can be varied depending on the effect required. The frequency is between 5 and 30 Hz and the amplitude 0-13mm. Low frequencies are used for balance control, medium low for circulation and from 18 Hz up for muscle strengthening. Low amplitude is best for bone strengthening and less strong individuals and higher amplitudes for stronger individuals.
How it works
1. Muscle strengthening
When using the Galileo the users muscles are stimulated to work by the stretch reflex. This is the same as the patella reflex, which we see when the doctor taps the patella tendon below the kneecap and the lower leg moves upwards without the brain being able to prevent the movement.
Because the muscles are activated with the stretch reflex we get a number of benefits not seen with regular exercise. Under normal circumstances we do not use all our muscles for standing or moving.
The stretch reflex ensures that all muscle fibres being stimulated are working at one time. For this reason exercising using the Galileo is much more time efficient than dong normal exercise. The stretch reflex also gives benefits to the user by stimulating a movement without the brain being involved in planning and executing the activity. The brain still receives information about the activity and so can learn from the experience. This can be highly useful when trying to rehabilitate after an injury or to change old movement patterns, which may not be an ideal movement pattern for that person.
Because the exercises are all functional and we can move on the plate, it is easy to strengthen through range for activities we do in daily living or in sporting pursuits. Usually sports people have to train using weights in high load non-functional positions and hope for functional carryover resulting from on field practice. Using the Galileo strengthening can be very sport specific.
2. Bone Strengthening
By increasing the gravitational loading in a functional manner, the Galileo has been proven to stimulate bone growth. The Galileo can be useful for stress fractures, bone healing, osteoponinea, osteoporosis and bone pain.
By strengthening muscles this creates a greater pull on the bone again assisting with bone strengthening.
3. Balance control
At low frequency the body has to react to the tilting action of the Galileo and hence work hard as one leg goes up while the other goes down, as in walking. There are no benefits to balance control from vertical plates.
Uses include falls prevention, balance retraining in sport specific positions and in rehabilitation after knee and ankle injury or surgery.
How is the Galileo different to the other plate?
The Galileo is the only tilting form of Whole Body Vibration because the concept is patented. As such we are truly different from the more common vertical plates. The tilting platform simulates the action of walking where one hip is up while the other is down. This means all actions on the Galileo are functional to the human.
It must be noted by the reader of research papers that most of the Whole Body Vibration research has been performed on the Galileo. Results will vary considerably between the Galileo and vertical plates. All research papers on this web site involve research on the Galileo. We have not included other research as the results are not the same and the results on one plate cannot be assumed to occur on a different plate. Most other plates quote Galileo research to back claims for the effectiveness of their plates. When the reader is reading other papers it is important to firstly ascertain whether the study was done on a vertical or the tilting Galileo platform.
Proven Galileo Benefits
- increased muscle strength
- increased bone strength
- increased explosive power
- increased tendon strength
- up to 460% increase in growth hormone production
- up to 7% increase in testosterone production
- 100-150% increase in peripheral blood flow
- increased balance control in the elderly and post ACL repair
- increased jump height ability
- cortisol levels decreased by 30%
- decreased low back pain
- decreased diastolic blood pressure
- treatment of stress incontinence
- muscle lengthening
- neurological conditions such as Parkinson's
- increased lumbar proprioception
Click here for more Galileo information.
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