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Walking provides a straightforward and powerful way to enhance your health, elevate your mood, and keep active—all without requiring any special gear or strenuous effort.
However, if you’re looking to incorporate fitness equipment into your routine, a vibration plate offers an excellent option to intensify your workouts, improve muscle tone, and boost overall stability and balance.1
That said, how does a vibration plate vs walking compare? In this guide, we explore the health benefits and potential risks of each.
Pros and Cons of Vibration Plates
Regular whole-body vibration training can enhance various aspects of your health and wellness, including your bone density, muscular strength, and even your cognitive health.2 Learn more about whole-body vibration benefits in our blog.
That said, what are the key advantages and drawbacks of vibration plates when compared to other fitness tools and exercises? Let’s explore.
Advantages
If you’re exploring vibration plates as an option to enhance your fitness, check out these benefits:
- Low impact – Even when sitting on a vibration plate, you can engage your muscles. This is an excellent option for people with severe joint pain and mobility issues looking for low-impact exercise equipment as a way to incorporate movement into their days.
- Convenient – Vibration plates are compact and user-friendly, making them ideal for home use. Further, they are designed for efficient, short sessions of less than 30 minutes, fitting seamlessly into even the busiest schedules.
- Adaptable – Vibration plates offer versatility by allowing you to perform a variety of stretches and exercises, adjusting the intensity of each session to suit your needs. You can experiment with different settings on the machine to target specific muscle groups or enhance your workout, too. Examples include incorporating squats, lunges, or planks, and adjusting the vibration speed to match your fitness level and goals.
Learn more about the benefits of vibration plates in our blog.
Disadvantages
Before you purchase your vibration plate, consider these potential drawbacks:
- Requires equipment – Unlike walking and resistance training, you do need to purchase a vibration plate to get started.
- Not for everyone – If you’re pregnant or have underlying health issues, such as cardiovascular conditions, diabetes, or joint problems, vibration therapy may not be recommended, and it’s advised to consult with your healthcare provider before adding a vibration plate to your routine. Learn more about who cannot use vibration plates.
Pros and Cons of Walking
Thinking about incorporating walking into your fitness routine?
Walking is a versatile and accessible exercise that offers numerous health benefits, including improved cardiovascular health, enhanced mood, and increased overall fitness. However, it’s important to also consider its limitations.
Advantages
Here are just a few of the many benefits of walking as a form of exercise3:
- Improved cardiovascular health – Walking regularly helps strengthen the heart, improve circulation, and lower blood pressure, which can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
- Enhanced mood and mental well-being – Engaging in a brisk walk triggers the release of endorphins, which can alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression, leading to improved overall mental health.
- Weight management – Walking is an effective, low-impact way to burn calories and maintain a healthy weight, particularly when combined with a balanced diet.
- Increased muscular strength and endurance – Regular walking helps tone and strengthen muscles, particularly in the legs and core, and can improve endurance over time.
Disadvantages
All that said, there are some potential risks to walking, such as:
- Space limitations – If you don’t have a walking pad at home, you’ll need to find a place where you can walk freely, such as a track, which isn’t always convenient.
- Risk of injury – Walking, especially at higher intensities or on uneven surfaces, can lead to injuries such as sprains or strains. Proper footwear and technique are essential to minimize this risk.
- Repetitiveness – Walking can become monotonous over time, potentially leading to decreased motivation and adherence. Incorporating variety or combining walking with other exercises might help maintain interest.
Health Benefits Comparison: What Does Research Tell Us?
Extensive research highlights the health benefits of both vibration therapy and walking. Here are some key findings:
- Cardiovascular health – Regular vibration sessions and walking both have the capacity to decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease, although the research on walking is more extensive.4,5
- Muscle strength and endurance – Walking and vibration therapy have both been shown to boost muscular strength in the lower body.6
- Bone health – In one study, both walking and vibration increased the levels of a bone-strengthening protein in the body.1 When it comes to how to improve bone density naturally, both options are beneficial.
Choosing the Right Exercise for You
Walking, vibration therapy, or both—which routine should you choose?
The right regimen depends on your current health, future fitness goals, and which options are more practical for your current lifestyle.
Personal Fitness Goals
A recent study found that although walking and vibration have some similar benefits, they also target different areas of fitness.6
Over an eight-month period, those who engaged in walking demonstrated a greater improvement in their walking speed. The vibration group, on the other hand, had a larger increase in their performance on the vertical jump test, showing that vibration exercise may be more beneficial for building muscle power and joint strength.
Health Conditions and Limitations
If you have mobility challenges that make it hard to walk or stand for long periods of time, whole-body vibration machines can help you stay active without putting pressure on your joints.
That said, whole-body vibration therapy may not be safe if you’re currently pregnant or have a medical implant, a blood clotting disorder, or a recent fracture. In that case, walking may be the best way to incorporate movement into your day.7
Lifestyle and Preferences
You may have heard before that the best kind of exercise is the one you’ll actually do regularly. Finding a physical activity that you enjoy and fits in with your lifestyle is the first step toward building a consistent fitness routine.
If your lifestyle makes it hard to get out of the house or fit in a long walk, a vibration machine could be a great alternative. If you enjoy walking, whether it’s outdoors or on an indoor walking pad while watching TV, it may be a better choice for you.
Discover Walking Pads & Vibration Plates with Lifepro
Whether you prefer old-fashioned walks or low-impact vibration sessions, activating your muscles and getting your heart pumping is an effective way to maintain your overall health. Spending time on a walking pad, a vibration plate—or a combination of both—can be a powerful foundation for your fitness routine.
Lifepro offers both.
Our vibration plates, walking pads, and at-home treadmills are equipped with different speeds, settings, and weight capacities so that you can find an option that works for you.
Shop our collections today!
Sources:
- Augusta University. Whole body vibration has same health benefits as walking. https://jagwire.augusta.edu/whole-body-vibration-has-same-health-benefits-as-walking/
- National Library of Medicine. Whole body vibration therapy and cognitive functions: a systematic review. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10323263/
- Mayo Clinic. Walking: Trim your waistline, improve your health. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/walking/art-20046261
- National Library of Medicine. Effect of whole-body vibration for 3 months on arterial stiffness in the middle-aged and elderly. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4026558/
- National Library of Medicine. Walking – the first steps in cardiovascular disease prevention. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3098122/
- National Library of Medicine. Fitness efficacy of vibratory exercise compared to walking in postmenopausal women. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19434420/
- Royal Osteoporosis Society. Vibration therapy and osteoporosis. https://theros.org.uk/media/uvsdna2v/vibration-therapy-fact-sheet-august-2017.pdf
Author
Joel Gottehrer is the Co-Founder of Lifepro Fitness and has dedicated his life to helping people transform theirs. With over 12 years of experience in the fitness industry as a personal trainer and owner of two personal training studios, Joel has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to helping transform lives. After suffering from physical injuries, Joel and his business partner, Abraham Brach, came together with a common goal to alleviate the pain caused by their injuries.
They continued to find themselves disappointed with the results stemming from various products promising to relieve their pain, and with that – Lifepro Fitness was born. Joel's mission is to have a positive impact on millions of lives with the Lifepro brand. Whether it's finding new and innovative ways to help people recover from injuries or developing products to improve overall wellness, Joel is always looking for ways to push the boundaries. Thanks to his commitment to help people live their lives free of pain, Lifepro has been able to do this for thousands of people since its founding in 2017.
