Passive Gym

Is there any such thing as “passive exercise”, or activity that burns calories without you having to do much, if anything at all? If you’ve ever seen one of those old belt-driven machines that jiggled your body, then you’ve got a good idea of what passive exercise is all about. Popular as they were, those old machines didn’t do much of anything, but today there are a variety of new and tested passive exercise equipment available that claim to help you lose weight passively.

Does Whole Body Vibration Exercise help?

This one is a modern take on those old belt-driven machines. Whole Body Vibration (WBV) is a type of workout routine that requires participants to do nothing more than stand on a special platform.

Bend your knees, then turn on the machine, which vibrates 30 times per second. Because your body thinks it could be falling while you balance on the platform, this is supposed to contract your muscles and result in muscle strengthening, faster muscle recovery, improved range of muscle contractions, enhanced flexibility, and core conditioning.

According to the experts, vibration therapy really does work – especially in regards to increasing bone density and circulation. In fact, whole-body vibration also helps stimulate collagen production, while also enabling the stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system.

But it doesn’t necessarily help you lose weight. Moreover, the health claims of WBV are inflated. It’s a good adjunct to a regular exercise routine and could benefit elderly people who have a difficult time exercising more strenuously, but not so much for weight reduction per see.