Episode Overview

If you’ve ever looked at a wellness gadget and thought, “Is this really going to help me?”—you’re not alone. In this episode of The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach Podcast, we explore the science behind a popular wellness tool: vibration plates, also known as whole-body vibration therapy (WBV).

Whether you’re in recovery from breast cancer, managing post-treatment fatigue, experiencing bone loss, or dealing with sluggish digestion, you’ll discover how this gentle, low-impact tool could support your healing journey.

We’ll dive into clinical research, explain how vibration plates work, and walk through the many potential benefits—from muscle strength and bone density to circulation, lymphatic drainage, and yes—even bowel regularity.

You’ll also hear practical guidance on how often and how long to use a vibration plate safely and effectively—without overdoing it.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How vibration therapy works and why it's gaining popularity in recovery and wellness spaces
• The surprising science-backed benefits for bone density, muscle tone, circulation, and digestive support
• Realistic guidelines for how often to use a vibration plate for optimal results
• Why this low-impact tool may be perfect for post-treatment recovery or energy conservation

Chapters:

• 00:00 Introduction to Whole Body Vibration
• 02:52 Understanding Vibration Plates
• 06:05 Scientific Insights on Vibration Therapy
• 09:04 Benefits for Bone Density and Circulation
• 11:48 Vibration Plates and Weight Management
• 15:08 Practical Usage and Safety Tips

Resources Mentioned:

• Work with Laura
• Vibration Plate Platform
  
• Muscle Strength & WBV Study
• Bone Density & Vibration Research
• Circulation & Nitric Oxide Production
• Balance & Flexibility Study
• Weight Management & WBV Review

Want More Support?
If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who might benefit. You can also explore more resources and connect with me at TheBreastCancerRecoveryCoach.com.

And don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode filled with insights, encouragement, and evidence-based support for healing your body and creating a life you love after breast cancer.

Connect with Laura Lummer:

💌 Join my email list for weekly wellness tips & podcast updates → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Instagram for daily inspiration → @thebreastcancerrecoverycoach

👩‍💻 Follow me on Facebook → The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎙 Subscribe & leave a review on Apple Podcasts → Better Than Before Breast Cancer with The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach

🎥 Watch on YouTube → @BetterThanBeforeBreastCancer

Keywords for SEO:
Breast cancer, vibration plate benefits, whole body vibration therapy, vibration plate after breast cancer, improve bone density naturally, support digestion after cancer, muscle strength post-treatment, lymphatic drainage, cancer recovery tools, low-impact fitness for cancer survivors, fatigue recovery after cancer

Read the full transcript:

0:00
You're listening to better than before breast cancer with the breast cancer recovery coach, I'm your host, Laura Lummer. I'm a certified life coach, and I'm a breast cancer thriver. In this podcast, I will give you the skills on the insides and the tools to move past the emotional and physical trauma of a breast cancer diagnosis if you're looking for a way to create a life that's even better than before breast cancer, you've come to the right place. Let's get started.

0:33
Hey there, friends. Welcome back to Episode 413

0:36
of better than before breast cancer, with the breast cancer recovery coach. I'm your host, Laura Lummer, and this show today is some really good stuff. I actually wrote the outline to this podcast months ago when I got a new toy that I wanted, that I was really enjoying, and wanted to share some information on with you. And I don't know what happened, something else inspired me, and I moved on to a different podcast topic, but last week, in a group call with some of my better than before breast cancer members, we started to talk about this device, and I remembered, wow, I wrote an outline for a podcast on this. I'm going to come back and dig that out of the archives, and we're going to talk about whole body vibration. So think about this is a really interesting topic. I kind of laugh because when I first heard about it, and I'll go into more detail in a minute here, I just kind of thought, like, this is, this is kind of a joke, right? Like, I'm sure you've looked at wellness gadgets, or heard about wellness devices, and God knows, when we get a cancer diagnosis, everything comes out of the woodwork, right? We hear from everybody and their brother and their mother about all the things that are supposed to work with us and work for us and heal us. And how many times do we ask ourselves, is this real? Is this just hype? Can this thing really be valuable, and when we're tired, which is just whether you're in treatment or not, right? Just life in general, when we're prioritizing our health and our healing, it takes time, it takes money, it takes care, it takes research, right? We want to be cautious about what we invest our limited resources in, and those limited and precious resources are time and money. So when I saw vibration plates over whatever the course of time, I never really gave them a lot of attention. I never really looked into them. So it reminded me kind of something my mom had when we were kids. It was like, this little board you stood on, and it was a twister thing, right? And you were just standing twist back and forth, and I'm supposed to, like, slim the waist and make people lose all this weight. And I remember playing with them. Remember my mom had it? And then there were these vibration belts. I don't know it's kind of like a treadmill thing, and you put the belt on and it would vibrate you. So when I heard about vibration plates, those were the things that came to my mind. And I just felt like there were much bigger things to look at and invest my time and money on. So I'm not a big fan of just jumping on wellness trends. I like the science, and I know if you come to this podcast, you like to know that you're informed and that we are doing the research that helps to keep us safe and that makes our time and money worth the investment that we understand that something that we're going to invest in brings some value to our health and to our healing. So I want to talk to you today about what a vibration plate is and what it does, how often to use it, how it might support you, and especially if you're managing fatigue, you have concerns about lymphedema, you're just looking for gentle way to reconnect with your body. And we're also going to talk about how it might help you with bowel movements, because when something helps in that department, is very valuable. It's gut health, right? And we want to keep things moving through the tube, the digestive tube, all right? So let's, let's just start with the basics. What is a vibration plate? So it's a machine with a flat platform, and it vibrates at specific frequencies. So when you stand or sit or even do gentle exercise on it, like you can do push ups on it, you can do squats on it, you can do multiple different types of exercises. The vibrations cause your muscles to contract and relax rapidly, really rapidly, sometimes up to 50 times a second, little tiny contractions in the muscle. And that sounds odd, I know, but these little micro movements actually can stimulate muscle fibers in improved circulation, and they can even support your lymphatic system without putting stress on your joints, which is really important for those of us dealing with postmenopausal treatment, joint pain, limited mobility, it's a big deal. So I got this vibration plate. It's funny because one of my sisters got it. She turned on another sister to it. But I had been kind of dabbling in it, looking at them, but as I said, Never put much time into doing research. And both of my sisters started talking to me about the benefits that they were noticing. One sister in particular, who had been struggling with low back and hip pain, and she said it's literally completely gone. And so I thought, okay, I mean, I have issues with lymphedema, of lymphedema in my right arm. And I thought, well, let me check this thing out. And I definitely have different aches and pains and tightness in my hips and in my spine my back due to cancer and radiation treatment. So I thought, all right, let me look into this. Let me try this thing out. So I did. I got one, and I gotta tell you, I got this thing, and I was like, Huh? And how hard can this be? And I turned it on, like, full blast, and stepped on it, and it was super intense. It was so intense that I thought, Oh, my God, this is exhausting. And I had to turn down the frequency on it. So it's pretty amazing. And I'll tell you, my husband, who I'm sure he'll appreciate me sharing this information. When he struggles with constipation, I tell him, get on the vibrating plate, because it's those little, tiny muscular contractions can really help to stimulate bowel movements. So let's, let's look deeper into this. Let's talk about what is the actual science behind this thing that's just like shaking your body. So there was a randomized control trial that was conducted by research researchers in and let's hope I don't hack this name the Catholic University, Leuven. So I don't know where that's at, but they examined the effects of whole body vibration on 89 postmenopausal women. So small study, and they these women were aged between 58 and 74 so what these participants did is they performed static and dynamic knee extensor exercises on a vibration platform three times a week for 24 weeks. And the study found there were significant improvements in knee extension strength movement and speed. And the researcher said that whole body vibration is as effective as conventional resistance training in enhancing knee extension strength and speed of movement in older women. That's pretty impressive. What it was of note in that study is that improvements in movement and speed were most pronounced at low resistance levels. So it doesn't take a lot of intensity on these vibration plates to show some kind of improvement. And as always, I'll put the links to the studies in the show notes for this episode, which you can find if you scroll down where you're watching this on YouTube or listening to it on your favorite podcast platform. Or you can just go to my website, the breast cancer recovery coach, com, forward, slash, 413, and find all the links. Alright? So even if you're not doing a quote, unquote, real workout, when you're on these whole body vibration plates, your muscles are still responding. And so that's pretty cool for maintaining independence and preventing falls if you're really weak or really tired or really out of shape, and just starting wanting a little bit of support. So this could be a gentle way to start and build confidence. Let's talk about the importance of and this is where it came up. In my group call with my members, we were talking about things that support bone density. So if you are postmenopausal or you're on medications like aromatase inhibitors, keeping your bones strong is definitely a real priority, real concern. And there was a study that was published in the Journal of bone and mineral research, where they followed 40 postmenopausal women between three to eight years past menopause. Now these women stood on a low magnitude high frequency vibration platform for less than 20 minutes a day, and their high frequency was 30 hertz. What they found is that the women who followed through with the routine, saw significantly less bone loss in the spine and femur compared to those in the placebo group. And the study found that just a short daily standing session on these platforms could help inhibit postmenopausal bone loss, especially for those with low body weight. Super interesting. So another effect of vibration training is improved circulation. And there was a study that was published in diabetes technology and therapeutics that looked at the impact of low frequency, low amplitude, whole body on skin, blood flow. And it showed, just as a short session significantly boosted blood circulation, likely because it increased nitric oxide production, which is a natural compound in your body that helps to dilate blood vessels, and so that means more oxygen and nutrients get delivered to your tissues, and your body clears out waste more efficiently. So. So this can also support your lymphatic system, which gives you that lighter, more energized feeling that many people who get on these vibration platforms report. And I can tell you, I definitely had that experience. So something that happens as we age or as we lose fitness, right? If we're not very conscious about maintaining a level of fitness exercise is very important for so many reasons, but one of the things is to maintain our balance and our proprioception, our our perception of where our body is in space. Okay, so if you start to feel unsteady, you're off balance. You're not alone. And what we can see is that these whole body vibration systems could offer some gentle support here in balance and flexibility. So there was a systematic review in gait and posture, and it examined the effects of side alternating whole body vibration on the postural control in older adults, and it found that this type of vibration can actually improve dynamic balance, flexibility and coordination. So this could be very meaningful and a safe addition. And we're going to come back to that word to your routine if you're trying to regain that confidence and stability, right? If you feel a little, I don't know, a little wobbly, a little weak, so little bit of time each day on a vibration platform might be able to help. So when I started talking about this, I told you it reminded me of things when I was a kid that I would see on infomercials, or my mom tried for weight loss. So let's be really frank about this. Vibration. Plates are not a miracle solution for fat loss, but if you combine which remembers whole life lifestyle, if we combine the use of these with a balanced diet, they could support your efforts. So there was a review in The Journal of musculoskeletal and neuronal interactions, and it showed that whole body vibration combined with a calorie restricted diet led to greater reductions in visceral body fat than just diet on its own. And that's encouraging, because visceral fat, which is fat around your abdomen, can be really stubborn and often linked to higher health risks, which we don't want to have. So let's come back and talk about the one thing that nobody likes to talk about, but everybody needs help and needs to pay attention to, and that is digest digestion, bowel movements and vibration plates can stimulate bowel movements so these rapid little muscle contractions and improve circulation, actually can help to wake up the digestive tract, and that means more regularity, less bloating, fewer days of feeling backed up. So if you are dealing with sluggish digestion during or after treatment, this might be a way to kind of give you a little helpful nudge. So let's talk about how often you should use a vibration plate and how long. So the recommendation is two to three times a week. That's a great place to start. And remember, I'm going to put a link to the vibration plate that I use here in the show notes. Remember, these things can be powerful. I mean, as I told you, when I first got on it and I had it, you know, I think it automatically turned on a level one. And mine has, like a Bluetooth in it, and it comes with these little resistance bands, so you can kind of do bicep curls while you're standing on it. It's pretty cool, actually. And so I started on loan. I was like, This is no big deal. And turned it up, you know, full volume, and went, Oh my God, and I had to turn it back down. So it can be pretty intense. So two or three times a week is a great starting point, and 10 to 15 minutes a session. Now, if that's too intense, start with five minutes, start with two minutes, and work your way up. Start slow as always. We don't have to be like I just described, which was a silly way of doing things. So start in at the top level, but let your body ease into it. And as you get stronger, you can increase it. If you're brand new to just standing on it, maybe you want to hold on to something. Hold on to a support bar. I have a sister who likes to just sit on it over time. You can add to it. Stand without the support. Add in squats. Try balance movements. Use the little resistance bands, or have your dumbbells and do some upper body movements. It's interesting. A lot of times you'll see videos on it on YouTube of people doing exercises on vibration plates, and they'll put their hands on the plate and do core work, or they're just doing planks, or they're doing push ups. So it can actually be used in lots of different ways. Now you want to be safe. So as always, check with your doctor, especially, especially if you have conditions like blood clots, pacemakers or any kind of orthopedic injury, make sure it's safe for you to use something like that. So the bottom line, is it hype, or is it worth it? I. Well, I don't think that a vibration plate is a replacement for movement. It's not a replacement for strength training, but it is an addition to your self care routine, and it can be a helpful addition. It can support circulation, balance, digestion, lymphatic flow and and strength, and that's a lot of value for an easy, 10 minute session on a little plate that can slide under the bed, slide under the couch. I leave mine out where the TV is, so I can just stand on it when I'm watching TV or chatting with my husband. It's just an easy, simple thing to do. So put it in a place where it's in front of you and top of mind, and it could maybe help you just feel a little bit more at home in your body again. Maybe it's a safe place for you to start, right? So if you're thinking about getting a vibration plate, look into these studies, look into the information behind it and see if it's worth it for you. And I'll put a link to the one I use. When you go to that link, it's on Amazon. You'll see other ones, so you can check out different ones and find something that might work for you or resonates with you, and see if it can be a nice addition to your overall health routine, right? And I'd love to hear what you notice. So if you use a whole body vibration plate, or you get one and you try it. I love to hear what you notice, so come and find me on Instagram or Facebook at the breast cancer recovery coach. I think it's Laura Lummer, the breast cancer recovery coach on Facebook and and DM me. Let me know what you think about it. And if you're looking for other wellness support, please go to my website, the breast cancer recovery coach.com, you can find on there some free downloads that can help you with mindset, with stress reduction, with learning how to eat from a place of self compassion for your body, you can find some standalone programs which will help you with everything from understanding your body's relationship with sugar to just a full on 90 day programs of Wellness and understanding how to nourish your body, and what blocks you have about doing that in the way that works for you, right? To just kind of clear up confusion. And then, of course, there's my better than before breast cancer membership, which is the whole everything, everything that I offer, it's all in there. It's amazing in the community of women, is absolutely spectacular. So go to my website, the breast cancer recovery coach.com check it out. And if you found this episode helpful, this information helpful or interesting, share it with another survivor who could maybe benefit from this information, or someone else you don't have to have had cancer for improving all of the areas we talked about to be of benefit for you. So let's just keep that healing conversation going and keep talking about metabolic health and small, simple things we can do to be kind to ourself and support our wellness. Alright,

17:53
friends, until next time, be good to yourself, and I'll talk to you soon.