Whole Body Vibration for Longevity in Women 40+

Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I have a little sleep secret I want to tell you about. Look, sleep is crucial for your fitness, but it's crucial for just plain old everyday life and function. And I find I sleep great unless I have a migraine. And I've had more than my fair share since perimenopause all the way through postmenopause. My secret weapon was Blue Sky CBD sleep gels. Each gel contains 25mg of CBD and 25mg CBN for deep restorative sleep. Something about it helps to reduce inflammation, which I believe for me was key in helping me get to sleep. But the biggest thing is so many of the over-the-counter solutions, whether for sleep or migraines, can ruin gut health, and liver health. Neither one of those did I want to be problematic for me. So this option is recommended by healthcare providers worldwide and backed by thousands of happy customers, many of whom come from our Flipping 50 community. There is zero THC, so it's non-habit-forming. It's made by a trusted family-owned company that we all can feel good about. Third-party tested for purity and potency. And if you're interested, you too can try a sample for just $6. But even better, you can get 30% off forever with discount code FLIPPING50. That's FLIPPING50. Just go to flipping50.com/blueskycbd. We'll put that link in the show notes and you'll find it everywhere on Flipping 50 at My Favorites. What are you waiting for? Good night. Did you know whole body vibration was first used by astronauts to essentially add protection of bones while in space? Because inevitably, astronauts in an anti-gravity place would come back from outer space and missions and have lost bone density because they've got no ground forces. They're not quote-unquote walking or weight-bearing exercise or doing weight resistance exercise while in space. Well, it worked so well that it began to be something that others started looking at. Where else can we use this? Who else would benefit from this? And whole body vibration and brands promoting it or using it, using the science, were born. The brand I use, Power Plate, has been available for 20 years, and that means something even more exciting, I think, to you and I, and that is that The science about Power Plate and whole body vibration has been around for over 20 years. For the ultimate tips on longevity in women 40 and over, we're diving into specifically whole body vibration in this episode with a spokesperson and brand ambassador for Power Plate. My guest is Caroline Pearce. But first, I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50, where I address your top struggles and concerns, but most of all, we hope to inspire you. I share what to eat, how to move, and how to change your mindset so you can have the energy and the vitality that you want, need, and deserve in this second and better half. And my guest, Carolyn Pearce, she's a former international heptathlete and bobsledder for Great Britain, and she seamlessly transitioned into a successful career as a TV presenter, reporter, commentator, and host, holding a first-class honors degree in sports science and master's degree in nutrition and exercise physiology from Loughborough University. She's a published author and a go-to fitness and nutrition consultant. During a leading host— or currently a leading host and reporter for TNT Sports UK, Caroline presents pre and post fight shows and interviews on the Ultimate Fighting Championships and boxing. She's also served as a host for ESPN, Fox Sports, and NBC Sports. As a fitness and health expert with over 15 years of experience. She is an author, produced an award-winning DVD fitness series, and content contributor. She's here because of her 20 years as a master trainer specializing in Power Plate whole body vibration education. Her extensive athletic career includes— listen to this— achievements as a national heptathlon champion and silver medalist in the long jump. Caroline presented or represented Great Britain in the European Cup heptathlon— well, that's a tongue twister— heptathlon team and later joined the Great Britain bobsled team, completing at the World Championships. As Ice on the revival of Gladiators, she became a fan favorite, showcasing her prowess in sports entertainment. By the way, if you've watched that and you know who ICE is, I want to know and hear from you. Let's dive into this episode, and I think you are gonna learn a lot about whole body vibration if this is a new concept for you. Let's do this. Caroline, thank you so much for joining me. I cannot wait to dive into this.

No, thank you so much for having me, Debra. I'm looking forward to it.

All right, but right off the bat, I'm gonna ask something that my mother told me never ever to ask: how old are you? Ooh, the question.

Do you know what? I'm feeling more comfortable nowadays with saying my age than I was once upon a time. I am 42 years old.

Fantastic. And here's why I ask that, because to every one of our listeners, it is very relevant. And I think in part, it's very hard to be feeling like somebody gets me, you know, if they're 22, you know, and, and in defense of all 22-year-olds who may be out there who are personal trainers or health coaches, you know, there are wise old souls, but the one thing we can accelerate is your life experience. And that is something that really lends to, you know, a woman in her early 40s already experiences probably a bit of— I understand what the difference is maybe with early stage of perimenopause and just has a little bit more wisdom. And I think that makes it easier to relate to. So it is so very relevant, and actually it's a qualification anymore today, you know, if you have that piece to add. So I do appreciate you sharing that. Okay, and everyone just heard your bio, and I don't know about them, but I am very impressed. And we're just letting them all listen to my conversation with you. So first, how do you go from a long jump medalist to a spokesperson for Power Plate? I mean, pun intended, that is quite a jump, right? That is quite a leap in itself. What's the relationship there, and how did, how did that transpire?

Yeah, no, thank you. It's a good question. And, um, so I was competing for Great Britain in, in track and field, in athletics. I was also a bobsledder, so I transitioned from doing track and field into bobsled, pushing sleds down at 80 miles an hour. I think just the crazy ones agreed to do it. But I got injured, as a lot of athletes do, and I had bone on bone in my left knee, and I was going through so much rehabilitation. Can I stop you right there?

How old were you? Bone on bone.

How old? Oh, not even mid-twenties. So I was sort of at the pinnacle of my athletic career, best shape of my life. But just biomechanics had meant that over the years I'd worn away that cartilage in my knee. And I was at the same time I was studying my sports science degree and my master's degree in exercise physiology. And I got introduced to this very large vibration platform called Power Plate. And this was back in the UK where I grew up and it was actually in the Harrods store where a former colleague of mine from some other work I'd done was demonstrating this machine. He said, come along, I found something that you're going to think is absolutely amazing. I know you love sports science. I love, you know, how the body works. Come and try it. I think it could really help with your injury. So I went along and at that point it was like, look, if anything can get me back to competing or even just training at the level that I was used to doing, I'm willing to give it a try. And then in learning about the science and just replicating all of my rehabilitation exercises, the single leg balances, the step up to balance, all the monotonous, boring boring stuff you do when you're injured with vibration. One, it just was switching on the muscles. I could feel that muscles that were wasting, had been wasting away from just not sort of connecting, you know, with the injury. I could feel this deep contraction. And then I learned about the science very briefly, and I was like, wow, that all just aligns with everything I'm learning, all the research and work that I'm doing at university. So I said, I want to know more about this. So I was turning up every weekend, trying this machine, talking to them, and before I knew it, I'm, I'm working with the company involved in the training and education.. And it's been 20 years. So it was my own personal experience that made me just go, wow, this is, this is something that when I feel something has made such a difference for me, what can it do for other people? So that was really my inroads into Power Plate. And like I say, sort of 20 years later, I've gone on to work with people with disabilities, people that want to get fit, lose weight, lose fat, and then high-end elite athletes that are looking for that sort of minute percent difference and advantage when it comes to their sport.

Which I think all of that just gave so much relativity to every listener here. And, you know, I mean, bone on bone, and you were at a very young age, but I mean, a lot of our listeners are dealing with bone on bone because of just wear and tear, arthritis, as well as their biomechanics. Because anybody else listening out there, I don't want you to, to accept that you, you too will experience wear and tear. We don't go there here, by the way. You know, it's good. Yeah, yeah. But I think, you know, now it's like, okay, this can change things and this is going to improve things. But I think one detail I want to pull out, and that is that you said, you know, I was taking the exercises that I was doing anyway and combining them with the Power Plate and, and that, you know, kind of amplifying my results by doing that.

Yeah, that's the key factor here because a lot of people would, you know, if you can, if you haven't seen you're able to picture it, it's a large platform that vibrates at different frequencies. And I know we're talking about that, but essentially lots of people ask me, well, what do I do on it? That, you know, it's not necessarily intuitive. You look at a treadmill, you know you're going to walk or you run. You look at a bike, I'm going to cycle. What do I do on this platform? So the simplest and easiest way to explain it is anything you do ground-based, which in my case was those rehabilitation exercises. For someone else, it might be circuit training, weightlifting. Stretching, whatever it is, if you then do it on the platform, on the vibration platform, so using whole body vibration, you're upgrading and accelerating all the results that you get at a much faster rate. So that the science behind it is that that vibration is causing these reflex contractions in the muscle to make them contract and relax automatically and at a much faster rate. And the best way to understand it is if you put your hand on a burning hot plate, you don't look at it and go, Yeah, it's hot. I think I'll move my hand. It's a reflex contraction, right? The brain isn't even involved. Those reflexes send a message to the muscle to contract and move very, very quickly. Otherwise you burn your hand. So whenever you get on a Power Plate and you don't just stand there willy-nilly doing nothing, you have to engage in a position, squat, lunge, single leg balance, whatever it is, your muscles are responding to that vibration. And there's a message being sent through that central nervous system to the muscles to vibrate. Anywhere between 25 and 50 times per second. So that just— we can't even clap that fast. That gives us an understanding as to how quickly our muscles are responding. So I just did all of those rehab exercises with the addition of vibration. And not only that, the movement's so small you don't see it when you're exercising on Power Plate. People looking on from afar are probably thinking, I can't really see what it's doing. You know, it's such a smooth vibration. But you put your hand on that platform or you look closely, you'll see that tiny 1 or 2 millimeter movement. It's a very smooth vibration, but it's actually also moving in 3 directions. So it's multi— it's triplanar. It's up and down primarily, but it moves front and back and side to side as well. So immediately we think of stability, right? That benefit that we're going to get for our stability and our proprioception. So that's why it was such an incredible tool for me for developing the strength and the stability back in my knee. And you talk about women as we get older that, you know, the joints do suffer. So mine, mine are still— I'm not cured. I'm not suddenly regrown that cartilage. There's still not a method in which to do that, but I've been able to manage it so effectively to the point that 20 years later I'm still training at a very high level and I'm still able to, to monitor and, and control that and, and reduce the pain that would be associated with it if I wasn't.

You know what, and I don't want to overlook this, I want to mention that again. You've said it twice, but I think to listeners this is really something that for a science girl, you know, which means, you know, I'm a prove it to me girl, and I know of our listeners are too. And you've said this, and this was 20 years ago that you began it. You had the injury and you've worked for them. A lot of people listening, first of all, are maybe new to the whole idea of whole body vibration and the Power Plate and what that is, but a level of them are familiar with it, have heard about it, but did not know it's been out there for 20 years.

Yeah.

So we've got now 20 years of cumulative research. Had it been disproven, false, made up, you know, it would have gone away. But that's not what's happening. What we're experiencing is it's getting stronger. The research database is getting bigger, growing. I mean, and proof is even, you know, more evident than ever, especially as our population ages. I mean, that's going to make you feel really good, like I made a really good decision back then.

Yeah. Well, yeah, that's interesting because it was relatively unknown 20 years ago. I mean, right. Those, those people listening might find it interesting. The very first use of vibration training was with the Russian cosmonauts way back in the '50s, and it was used specifically to improve their bone density and their muscle mass prior to being in that weightlessness environment where you rapidly lose bone and muscle mass, similar to as we get older, we start to lose bone and muscle mass. The Russian cosmonauts that came back had maintained and improved a significant amount more of their muscle and bone than those American counterparts that hadn't used it. So that was the origin, really, is in a medical capacity, bone density, muscle mass improvements. And all those studies you're referencing, you're right, they're independent peer-reviewed studies, multiple numbers of them that have found through all different protocols, subject ages and types, benefits regarding the bone density, the muscle mass, and many other things that we talk about. And I think that's really powerful. Not only that, PowerPlate is actually considered a medical device product as opposed to a fitness piece of equipment, which again, I think goes a long way to show the science and the backing and the proof behind it. So because I sometimes think a fitness product can be misinterpreted as, as gimmicky or gadgety and in some sense sometimes, you know, not all. But I think when you come at it from, no, this is medically backed research proven independently, I think then we start to say, okay, this makes sense to me now. And that's for me. I come from a sports science background. That was the important part to me. First of all, I felt the difference. I think anecdotally that's so important. Secondly, the research was intriguing and interesting to me. And then when you actually look into the science of how and why it's doing these things, then it's, well, it all, it all comes together and makes sense. And I think when you can explain that to people, but most importantly, people can try it for themselves. That's when the light bulb goes off because I can sit and stand and talk about these benefits. But I always encourage if you can get to a Power Plate, whether it's in a studio or in a gym or buy one for home, whatever it might be, you feel it. And when you feel that vibration, the soothing effect, the activation effect, the energizing effect of that vibration.

Yeah, it's powerful. Extremely powerful. And we've mentioned this just very briefly, but I think we should come back to it. So for anybody who's newer to whole body Vibration. Let's talk about the two things you discussed, you know, a little bit in terms of, you know, it moving up and down primarily, but also, you know, multiplanar and moving right and left and around. Talk about these two things, the hertz and the amplitude settings, what those are. And, and maybe as we go down, we can talk a little bit about when are they best applied to certain goals someone might have.

Yeah, great question. So the two variables we have, the main variables we have, are the frequency and the amplitude. And similar way to your treadmill, you've got your speed and you've got your gradient. So think of it like that. There are two settings that we can manipulate to determine the intensity of what we do on Power Plate. So if we start with the frequency, this is essentially how fast that vibration is moving up and down. On a Power Plate, it depends on the model, but the lowest setting will be 25 Hz, which means that platform is moving up and down 25 times per second. Second. Then we have 30, 35, 40, and 50 Hz. Some of the smaller machines range from 30 to 40, so that's smaller window. And at 50 Hz, it's vibrating up and down 50 times per second. Now, the principle is when you stand on the platform in a pretense position, so just picture yourself in a squat position, you don't even have to move, just hold that squat, that vibration is sending a message to your muscles to contract and relax at roughly the same speed. Now, at 50 Hz, it's too much for most people's muscles to respond at that speed. So 40 Hz is usually our upper limit for active use, that squats, for example, on Power Plate. We use the higher setting for the passive use, which is massage, which I'll come on to. So think about one setting being your frequency, how fast that platform's vibrating. Then the second setting is our amplitude, and that's how far that vibration, that wave of that vibration is moving. So we have just two settings for amplitude, the low and the high. And on the low setting, it's only moving up and down 1 millimeter. Now that's tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny. On the high amplitude, it's moving 2 millimeters, still tiny, but it's doubling the distance. So essentially we're creating these— it's leaving your body and coming back to it. So it's creating those ground reaction forces that stimulate the contraction. So imagine you're standing on the platform, it leaves your body and then it comes back to it very rapidly, 25 to 50 times per second. Either 1 or 2 millimeters. So they're the variables that we're manipulating, and we tend to advise what settings to use according to whether you're stretching on it, doing a workout, a strength-based program on it, or whether you're massaging and using it passively for your recovery. And it's a pretty simple rule that we have for that, and obviously it varies depending on the individual's familiarity with Power Plate and of course fitness and how accustomed they are to it. But that's, that's the general gist of it.

I love that. Okay, and let's, let's do this. So I'm gonna suppose, and I know for so many of our listeners, bone density is probably the number one priority and reason why they would invest. And I'm gonna dare say, use the word indulge, just transparent. Yeah, I mean, this is not like buying a weighted vest. It's, it's an investment. You think about, am I going to use this? Where am I going to put this? Because don't, don't put this in your dark, dingy basement. Mine is splat in the middle of my kitchen. I'm not I'm not kidding you. Now, I like the color red, but I don't know about you.

But, you know, you've got silver and black as well.

This is true, this is true. You know, so you want to put it, I think, somewhere where you're inclined to want to be and use it and see it. I mean, this is really an important piece. But if someone were to say, um, I'm using this, I'm inclined to use this for bone density, where are optimal hertz and amplitude based on the research existing on benefits, because some of the research studies have blown me away.

So when it comes to using Power Plate for improving your bone density, you're essentially wanting to do strength-based training on Power Plate. So the settings that we use for strength training are anywhere from 30 to 40 Hz of frequency. And again, if you're new to it, start on 30. You might move up to 35, very sometimes 40. I still work predominantly on 35 Hz, and typically the low amplitude for most people. So it's not a case of more is better, it's suiting the settings to what you're trying to achieve. Now, the reason it's so effective with bone density— so let's think about how we improve our bone density in general. You need to create enough stress, like tensile and compressive loading on the bones, in order for them to go through this deformation reformation process and get stronger. Now, the problem is the amount of intensity required to elicit that response can be too much, not practical, not achievable for people as they get older. You know, the amount of loading that you'll need to put on your skeletal system and your muscle is too much. You know, my grandmother who used it, my mum that used it, they can't put a heavy barbell on their, on their back or do the amount of weight needed to create that deformation reformation process. But what Power Plate's doing is creating that same stress on the muscle and on the bones to create— to lead to that deformation reformation process. That's much less impact and much less stress on the body as a whole. So like I said, holding that squat position, that forward lunge position, any of those strength-based exercises will elicit that response, which will lead to improvements in bone density. So it's actually making it more doable for more people to get the benefits of strength training. And then you combine with the fact vibration has a beneficial effect on our hormones as well and all manner of other things, the blood flow, the lymph flow, you're massively helping to increase bone density. And this is something that's been studied for a very long time. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research back in 2004, they did a study where they looked at whole body vibration training in combination with 30-minute sessions 3 times a week. They compared that to regular strength training. 60 minutes, 3 times a week, because vibration training shortens the workout because your muscles work faster. And then they had, they had a control group. And what they found is significant increase in bone density in the whole body vibration group. So such as Power Plate. And then they found actually a decline in the bone density of the regular training group, which was a surprising result because you would expect still to see benefits. But that comes back to what I spoke about. They couldn't achieve the intensity required to get the response. And then of course the control group saw a more rapid, rapid decline. So it really goes to show, and that's just one study, it's been a lot done on bone density, that the benefits of vibration are really crucial. And don't wait till you get older, you know, we can sort of backload and improve. You know, I've been doing this now for 20 years, and in the back of my mind, in the beginning it wasn't about bone density. I was an athlete, I just wanted to be faster and stronger. But I know now, having put that work in, when I was younger, it's going to put me in good stead now. But it's never too late as well. We've got, we've got clients, we've got patients from 60 years old and beyond that are— they managed to improve their bone density and improve their T-scores.

Yeah, exactly. And I, I love a couple of things that you said in there. Number one is like insurance. If you can't achieve the amount of intensity because you've got, you know, arthritis, osteoarthritis, or, or something else, fibromyalgia, not allowing you to lift as heavy with the loads that we know are actually contributing to reversing bone density and/or to increasing it. But you said something else, said not a case of more is better. And, and I want to ask you a little bit more about that and about, you know, there is a threshold where certain studies are actually saying, you know, that modeling/remodeling state, you know, that occurs between bone, that apparently bone also needs a rest. So if you were going to work out for bone density, you might be, you know, holding your squat or doing movement in the squat either way for a minute and then be off for a minute. So in that way, you've got rest. But I've got a lot of overachievers listening here, and you know who you are, who've just gotten their Power Plant. They're in love, they're in the honeymoon stage, and there's— I want to use it morning, noon, and night, you know. Talk to me or talk to them about where is there, you know, a threshold of no more returns and/or even a threshold where maybe you may be getting lesser returns if you're on it too much in the same period of time.

Yeah, good question. And you're— I'm one of those overachievers as well. Yeah, right. More is better. I've always been the case. But that's— but we know that rest is so important when it comes to actually allowing the hard work to pay off. So for example, when you think about training for bone density, it's very similar to how you think about weight training. If you just weight trained every day, you'd continue to break down, break down the muscle. You wouldn't be giving it that time period in order to repair. Same with the bone, that the remodeling process.

I probably need you Caroline, I probably need you to repeat what you just said just because there are a lot of people who think, shouldn't I work out every day? So I just want to call the attention to that. Did you hear what she just said? She reinforced the fact that exercise or fitness does not occur while you're lifting the weight. Exercise pre— creates the opportunity for fitness, and the fitness occurs in the recovery period between the adequate exercise session. So just want to drive that in. Sorry for the enormity.

No, normally we're telling people you've got to work out, you've got to exercise, but I love that you— your audience are already on it and looking to do more. But, um, but it's what type of exercise you do. I'm not saying you can't do something every day because there's a lot of very effective recovery sessions and just general movement that, that, you know, we almost say don't just sit down on your bottom all day to recover, you know, like active movement more effective for recovery, active recovery on Power Plate. But, but just take it back to the bone density. Yes, think of it like weight training. And if you're doing a total body Power Plate strength-based session, you know, you're looking about 3 times a week, similar— and again, depends on the individual— similar to what we'd recommend with weight training. And I'll throw another curveball out there: you can actually add weights on Power Plate to get even greater responses, even greater sort of force production, if you like, and results. But it's during that recovery that the remodeling takes place, as you say. Now, if you're doing body part split training— so I know some people like to do that. I'm more of a total body type of girl, but I know some people like to split lower body.

We actually preach total body here so that we're allowing the recovery time in between. Yeah. And not throwing adrenals under the bus.

Yeah, exactly. But what I was going to say, if you do split body parts, it's slightly different with Power Plate because you're actually also getting a sort of neural fatigue. So think about what I said earlier, your muscles, that your, um, the vibration sending message through the muscle to contract 30 to 40 times per second, 25 to 50 times per second, whatever range you're working in, that's neurally fatiguing. So that's something, especially when you're new to Power Plate, sometimes you'll finish a session. I'll say to people, how do you feel the next day? And it's sort of like, yeah, my muscles are fatigued as I expect, but I just feel kind of like, the only way to describe it, like a like a neural fatigue. So you have to adapt neurally as well. So even if you're splitting up body parts, neurally you're still fatiguing your body every day as well. So I definitely have the rest days, but that doesn't mean that rest day can't be a yoga-based stretching recovery session on Power Plate, using the Power Plate for stretching and for massage. So when people say to me, can I use my Power Plate every day? Like, absolutely, but let's change what you do on it every day. One day you might just be using it for a bit of morning activation. First thing I love to do when I get up is just do a few exercises, awakens my mind and my body. Another day you might do a full-on strength training on Power Plate. Another day you might combine it with weights. Another day you might be off doing something else, going for a power walk or doing some more conventional cardio using our Power Plate Rev, our new vibration-based cycling device and product. So think about what you're doing on Power Plate. And again, the principles are just the same as they are with regular training. If you're weight training, you need the recovery. If you're vibration strength training, you need the recovery. So we're not, we're not teaching anything new here. It's just you've got the vibration factor to consider slightly as well.

Yeah, love that. Great discussion. And I'm just going to back us way up, and this is just for any listener who is still thinking maybe I know they're saying neurally, and I think I know what that means, but can we just come way back, Caroline, and define, you know, there is a strong neural connection, meaning that actually is what happens first when a person begins a new activity or goes through a new motor pattern. You're learning pickleball for the first time, there's a neural component where your brain is learning to send a stronger signal recruiting more muscle fibers or a stronger signal, like stronger Wi-Fi to the muscles. So when you use the word NeuralA, do you want to embellish on anything I've just said to help a listener make sure I've got it?

There's a good analogy that I use, and think about as a child, or maybe as an adult, the first time you learn to ride a bike. You're wobbly, you're all over the place, you know, you're a parent or someone's trying to help you sort of cycle straight. It takes a certain number of repetitions in order to develop what we call a motor program for that movement pattern. And once you've established that, that's where the saying comes from, it's like riding a bike. In the future, you get on a bike, you know how to ride a bike. You already have a motor program that runs in order for that movement pattern to take place. So it's very similar on Power Plate. You know, the first time you do it, you can feel your— because that 3-dimensional triplanar movement, you can really feel thrown off, like, wow, holding a V stick crunch is wobbly. Holding a squat, I feel like I'm gonna fall off a little bit. Not massively, but you just sort of feel that little bit of extra instability. But then neurally you adapt, you develop the motor program for the movement pattern, your body becomes more used to that stimulus, which is vibration, and you become more accustomed to it. It becomes easier, your balance becomes better, those muscle fibers are switching on in the right pattern and more effectively. So it's like when you do anything something that's new, it takes a little bit of an adaptation period. And then neurally, we learn in the same way in terms of muscle, we learn, bone learns in terms of what stimulus is being given.

Very cool. Very, very good. Thank you for taking that step back with me. But I want now to talk about something very important. So as we record, it is of course January. And as you know, having been in health and fitness for a long period of time, either as an athlete yourself or further now helping people. This is a big month, you know, for people and recommitments and health habits. And a lot of people's thoughts are, of course, turned to weight loss, maybe based on, you know, I'm not where I wanted to be, you know, at the beginning of last year. How am I going to make this year different? But there is a connection here, and there's some exciting research on Power Plates and/or whole body vibration and weight loss, particularly visceral belly fat, which is a plague for many, many of our listeners here. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah. I mean, firstly, I find the whole idea of January being the month to get in shape has always been fascinating to me because I don't think we always need to wait for January. We can make these changes any time of the year. But, but if it, if it takes you that Christmas period, that holiday period, in order to say, right, I've had some fun, I've been drinking, I've been enjoying food. Now it's time to reassess my fitness goals. And then I'm all for that, obviously. But in terms of research and new research, the conversation around visceral fat has always been an important one for us because that's that visceral fat, that visceral abdominal tissue, or VAT, is the area between the organs and the muscle around the, around the stomach there. And it's the dangerous fat. It's the fat that's linked with cardio vascular disease, heart disease, all of those things. So it's really the area that, I mean, I know a lot of people may want to lose weight on their thighs and whatever it might be, but this is the dangerous fat. This is the fat that you should be concerned with. Now, Power Plate has been shown through studies to have a significant impact and improvement on reducing our visceral fat. And a big part of that is through developing skeletal muscle. So with Power Plate, they've talked about the effects it can have on building our muscle mass. You know, as we build that skeletal muscle, that muscle mass, it has a real direct relationship and correspondence with our metabolism and in boosting our metabolism. So this idea that in order to boost your metabolism, it's cardio exercise, it's running, helps, yes. But strength training a muscle is the biggest thing we can do to boost our metabolism and help to reduce that visceral fat. And there's also a hormone— I don't know if I pronounce it right—

irisin.

It's a hormone called irisin that's excreted in response to intense exercise. The most intense exercise you can do is weight-bearing or vibration-based training. And this essentially helps to bring down that visceral adipose tissue and increase the brown fat in our body, which is the fat that is linked to a higher metabolism. So we found these results that essentially show that intense exercise with Power Plate, with vibration, has this effect of bringing down the visceral fat and increasing the brown fat. Leading to better metabolic results and a reduction in that visceral fat. Now, the studies were in combination with a caloric reduction as well, which is obviously always important, but it just shows the benefit that vibration can have on long— not only just the initial results, but the long-term sustained reduction in that visceral fat as well.

Yeah, great point. And, and to anybody who's listening, I do think caloric reduction important if you need it. We also, we also have to take into consideration some of you may be eating too little, and that also can have a negating effect, you know, a negative effect on your metabolism. So we've got to be careful with that one. I think when we're talking to a group of women who may have been chronic dieters—

well, actually, I'll just say on that note as well, and I was having this discussion with some friends recently as well who were looking to try and increase increase their muscle mass. And I said, you're just not eating enough. Yeah, you're not eating enough. You can't build muscle, particularly if you're not getting enough protein. And if you can't build muscle, you can't accelerate and build on your metabolism, which means you can't get all these benefits that we're talking about. So I think it's a really good point because I think we're always so concerned with helping people reduce their calories. Most people tend to be overeaters, but there's a big proportion of people, especially today, that— and as we get older, it impacts us even more— that have just been sort of told or trained to, well, less is more when it comes to the calories that we're putting in our body. And of course, the type of calories massively matters, but you have to fuel your workouts and you have to feed your muscles. And if you're wanting to grow the muscles and develop that muscle mass, we're not talking bulky muscle mass that women can get scared of. We're talking lean tissue that's going to help us. Basically, it's one of the best anti-aging tools that we can we can work on.

Yeah, amen. Yep. And strength training, it's been said— is this a quote-unquote from a prior podcast guest— but strength training is one of the only ways to accelerate metabolism without aging. Many of the other means that we use to increase metabolism actually can accelerate aging. So we're kind of like, you know, one foot forward, two steps back, and nobody wants to go there. So we have to think not just short-term and and fitting into the back of the closet clothes that we want, but we have to think about what is the means that we're using to get the goal we've got going to do to me in 10 and 20 and 30 years.

Yeah, and I think the type that you can really get more bang for your buck with, the type of exercises you'll do on Power Plate as well. Think about our glutes and our quads are the largest muscles in the body. Yeah, so exercises based around increasing the muscle mass and strength in those muscles is going to give you that greater return in terms of metabolism as well. So of course we've talked about total body, and I'm a big proponent of total body training, but I would probably— I probably err towards doing even greater load on my lower body because I know the results are going to give me more for what I've put in. So that's just something to consider as well.

I think that was a great comment, and I think, you know, a lot of people here— what's the number one obstacle that anybody that you've worked with has when it comes to exercise?

The number one obstacle, time. Yeah, yeah, absolutely right.

I mean, and for women in this age group, it also might be energy, but time is like number one for almost anybody. And so if you are short on time and you're trying to fit in a short workout, you know, it's— please don't go to your bicep curls, right? I mean, squats, lunges, let's focus on the right thing.

But that was such a great comment. Yeah, and that's why Power Plate's so effective. A typical Power Plate session, it can be anywhere go from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. We're not talking about an hour spent walking around the gym lifting different weights. And I do that as well. There's a place for that, of course, and some people it's desirable. But if you can in 30 minutes or less create the same effect or more on your muscles than an hour of lifting weights, I mean, it's, it's a no-brainer for a lot of us, especially like you say, time deprived, sometimes energy deprived. And I think it's a mental thing as well. The thought sometimes of doing an hour in the gym or an hour's home workout, whatever it might be, Mentally, it sounds like a lot. I don't have time for that. That seems too much to try and handle. But I think once you say to someone, that class is 30 minutes, whether you follow a class on our free app, whether you go to a class, whether you've got one at home, you make up your own sessions, anyone can do anything for 30 minutes. So I think it then makes it sound more achievable and the results just follow. So, and even if you don't have 30 minutes, 10 minutes, add some weights. Work a bit into deeper, deeper positions, do more of a HIIT style training if you're so inclined. But I think the shorter workouts or bite-size fitness as well is something I like to talk about. Maybe you accumulate a couple of 10-minute sessions through the day. You've got one in your living room and like you said, it's in a place that's, well, you know, it's not hidden away. It's there. 10 minutes. You don't even need your full workout clothes on, just something comfortable and let the vibration do the rest.

Yeah, beautiful. Yeah, I want to ask you something that's a little bit more vanity-based, but I think, you know, feeling good about yourself is a piece of confidence. I think when we all feel more confident, we tend to make better health decisions for ourselves. It's, it's an interesting concept, and you might think, okay, well, that's not where I would have started with my health change, but sometimes that is what ends up working. Talk a little bit about the appearance of cellulite. And the effect of whole body vibration. Because, you know, at midlife and, you know, as hormonal changes kick into high gear, some women more than others experience this. I will say to everybody listening out here, 20-year-olds have cellulite. So I think you may never have noticed it when, when you were 20, but you probably had it. And now it's just— we've got thinner skin, we're experiencing a little bit more are maybe losing a little bit of muscle mass. So what we're not seeing, the tone and shape of our body designated quite so much by muscle. And so we're aware of it, that becomes a pain point. Talk a little bit about cellulite and Power Plate.

Absolutely. And I do like to talk about this because in the past people said, well, you know, what's, what's wrong with having cellulite? It's normal, women have it. Yeah, of course it is. But you don't meet many women that wouldn't, if you can do something to reduce that appearance wouldn't sign up for that. So I think it's good for us to talk about it and give people options. And cellulite doesn't, doesn't discriminate, you know, like you said, young people have cellulite, skinny people have cellulite. You don't have to be overweight people. Yeah, there's a genetic component, of course, and then through aging, through diet, through lifestyle factors, we get toxins within those cells, the fluid retention builds up, the connective tissue starts to lose its firmness, and it can actually be quite painful. So we're actually talking about something that not only for a lot of us who don't like the look of That just doesn't feel good either. So, when we came across, or involved in some anecdotal research as well, or found some anecdotal research that Power Plate can reduce the appearance of cellulite, this has been very powerful with a lot of women looking to do so. Now essentially, think, it's twofold. Think of it like this. You can go for an hour-long run. You can be sweating. You can be so hot. But I guarantee for most women, if you put your hands on your thighs around that area that's problematic, it's probably still cold. And a reason for that is we don't get blood flow into the area where we have that restricted connective tissue and all those toxins built up. It can still be cold, which means we're not getting the blood flow in to help flush out or increase the lymph flow to flush out those toxins that can cause that lumpy, bumpy appearance. But when we use Power Plate in a passive way, which is that vibration, that high setting, we got to the 50 Hz, the 40 Hz, the high setting here to directly lay our outer thigh on the vibration on the platform, the intensity of that vibration will massively increase the blood flow to that area. And then as a result of that, you get an increased lymph flow to that area, which flushes those toxins out. So with just a very short period of use, you can see a smoothing effect to that area of your body. Combine that with doing strength training on Power Plate, helping to remodel the connective tissue, and then use like the fascia— the fascia that surrounds our muscle, it loves vibration.. It responds to vibration. Then you start to see a strengthening or an improvement in that connective tissue as well. And it was a Sandham study, professional clinic for skin disease and, um, allergology, that found in just a 6-month study— and I'll give you the stats here— with just whole body vibration, it was a 25.7% improvement in the appearance of cellulite. Excuse me?

Yeah, that's pretty phenomenal.

It gets better, it gets better if you add some cardiovascular training as well. And and that doesn't necessarily mean running, that could be doing more circuit-based exercise on Power Plate, it went up to a 32.3% improvement in the appearance of cellulite. So that's pretty powerful stuff. Yeah, yeah. But the stats aside, I mean, I know my mom was using her Power Plate for a while and then, and then, you know, as you do, you go through phases and she stopped using it for a while. She said, my cellulite's come back again. She said it was looking a lot better. So it's that sort of just The visual as well. People were starting— when you start to feel and look better, you make better choices all around with your diet, with your exercise choices and so forth. So that's pretty powerful stuff as well. And I think it's quite difficult. You can strengthen your body, improve your metabolism, metabolism, do all those good things with regular training. But we always talk about you can't spot reduce, you can't spot reduce and necessarily determine where you lose weight or that cellulite disappears. But with vibration, we have a way to get as close as you can really. To directly targeting the areas that are problematic to you.

And in most cases for women, it's that outer thigh area, the glutes, the buttocks for sure. And, you know, I want to come back to something that you said as you were speaking into this and speaking into the cellulite, but you also kind of glimpsed over something that might be very important to some of our listeners here, which is like lymphatic stimulation and circulation. And we've got listeners here who may have gone through, uh, radiation, chemotherapy, you know, they may or may not have gone through mastectomies and may be limited in terms of what they can do as far as lifting because of any of those. But this can be also very beneficial for the lymph. I mean, is there much research out there on that?

Yeah, I mean, when you think about anything that increases blood flow, it's going to have a knock-on effect to increasing our lymph flow. And Power Plate massively increases our blood circulation. And the way it works is with the muscle pump action. So your heart rate increasing and increasing your blood flow in that manner really depends on what you do, how fast you're moving, the type of exercise you do. But when you're using Power Plate, even if you're just holding a position, you're not able to do an intense training session, but you can hold that squat position or that plank position that's causing an increase in that muscle pump action. In your extremities. And when those muscles contract, the blood flow restricts. And when they relax, the blood flow releases. And when that muscle contraction is occurring, as I, as I keep saying, between 25, 30, 40 times per second, you're massively increasing that blood flow around your extremities. And then the direct result of that is the increase in lymph flow. And the lymph system is the only one-way system. So it just flushes the crap out, basically. So the lactic acid, other byproducts, fatiguing products, toxins that accumulate in our body from environment, detergents, foods that we eat, things that we don't know are in foods nowadays that are, you know, having a toxic effect on our body, which is becoming more and more. It massively increases your lymph flow. So if you're somebody that, you know, you can't do much of the strength-based training, the Beachbody Power Plate— you don't even have to move. You can hold positions, you can do a massage exercise, you can do some stretching exercises to improve the mobility and just that feeling of ease around the joints as well, that just release of tightness around the joints. That can just make you feel so much better. And linked to that as well is the— and I'm sort of moving us on a tiny bit, if you will— but the impact of vibration on our hormones. Now, Power Plate will massively increase your endorphins, your happy hormones. Now, we all release these when we exercise, but again, you've got to do a decent amount of exercise in order to feel that. Sometimes you just need to go for a walk and you get a sense of that, you get a touch of that. But Power Plate, like it does with everything else, is accelerating the release and the production of these endorphins. These feel-good hormones. It's also helping to increase our testosterone and our human growth hormone, important as we get older as well. And the part that I like the most is the fact that Power Plate's been found to actually reduce our cortisol response as well, which is our stress hormone. And obviously the higher your cortisol, the higher your stress hormone, the more negative impact that has for disease, for inflammation, for all sorts of things. And I think in life, most of us are pretty stressed, especially if you've gone through something. So anything we can do to bring our cortisol levels down is important as well. So I think Power Plates affect blood flow, lymph flow. That helps get those, those hormones and everything through the body a lot faster or transport around the body a lot faster. But just the increase in the production of certain hormones and reduction of others, I think, has a really positive effect on our body as well.

I love this. And I, I think we've actually created— and this is not necessarily our intention, so it's all about you having information that you need want in order to make the best informed decision for yourself about whether this is, this is the right step or it's the right step right now for you. But I want to say one more thing that just makes this, I think, such a household gift, and that is that many, many of you listening have other people living in your household, whether it's, you know, younger sons and daughters maybe in and out of your home and/or a partner who may or may not be able to exercise themselves, experience all the benefits we've talked about, but also, you know, those who can exercise. I think, you know, some of you have shared, you know, there are limits with what they can do. There may be some neural diseases, you know, that they're dealing with— balance, proprioception is dissipating, and/or circulation You know, so at the end of a long day, you know, feet need a little stimulation. What if we pull up a chair and you, you are putting your feet on it? I think there are lots of different ways that we may be also overlooking that others in the household could use. You want to add anything to that, Caroline?

Yeah, it's a great point. I mean, one thing that I loved about Power Plate from the beginning is I've worked, as I said at the beginning, with everyone from elite athletes to the elderly, people recovering from injuries, people that just want to get fit. It has an application for everybody. And I can, and I've touched on a lot of it here, but usually when I'm talking to someone about Power Plate, if I'm talking to a, I don't know, 60-year-old, I'm probably not telling them about how they can improve their jump height and their ground reaction speed and all the rest of it. But I am talking about bone density, I am talking about muscle mass. So it really has so many benefits for different people. So within that family, yes, maybe your elder relatives can use it like my grandmother did, would put it— we had the personal plate, which is the smaller one— we put it under her feet and just helping to get that blood circulation in an area that she's not— wasn't doing enough walking to achieve herself. And then my auntie in the same household that was in her 50s, relatively fit, was actually doing a small circuit training session on it. And then her son, who was a rugby player back in the UK, was using it to recover after his games and his training. So that's just an example within one household close to me of the different ways you can use it. But it's still— it's all the whole body vibration, but what you do on it determines the result you get. If you stretch on it, you'll improve your flexibility and your mobility. If you work out on it, you'll improve your bone density, your muscle mass. If you massage on it, you'll help with that circulation even greater and that lymph flow, as well as helping cellulite, getting rid of tight tissues and aches and pains. So the beauty is it serves pre-workout or stretching, workout, and post-workout recovery. It's sort of a whole spectrum of use really, and different people will use it in different ways.

And that's the beauty of it. Absolutely love that. Caroline, thank you. It's been such a pleasure to have you here. Thank you for sharing your experience. Yeah. And your expertise, um, in really diving into the science. We've got a whole group of Prove It to Me girls out there. And I think, you know, and I love that too. Right? We're all, okay, do I want to do this? And, and here's what I want to know if I'm going to do it, because I think we're all looking for that. We don't just want to be told what to do, we want to be told why, we want to be told how is this helping me, and to make that connection and really commit. So to our listeners, if you have a question you wish I would have asked Caroline Pearce— I think we covered a lot of ground, but if you in case want to ask a question, you can leave it at the show notes, and that'll be at looping50.com/longevityinwomen. And Caroline, if they want to follow you and learn a little bit more from you and just get inspired, where can they do that?

Yeah, absolutely. I think the best place is to follow me on Instagram at Caroline Pearce. Um, I share a lot of workouts, a lot of Power Plate workouts, um, as well as sort of fit facts and snippets of fitness and health information. So that's the best place to find me and to follow me.

Fantastic. Okay, listeners. So once more, the show notes will be at flipping50.com/longevityinwomen. And if you are thinking, okay, I missed out and is it too late? It is not. So if you're listening in January, there's a special month going on at Power Plate, but only for our community members. So the link to do that, take advantage of it, will be in the show notes. So we will see you on the flip side. And what are you waiting for? Let's start flipping 50 today.