Personal Power Plate Review: A Celebrity Trainer's Secret Weapon

• Key Details: The Personal Power Plate vibrates at 25 to 50 beats per second while you stand on it or use it for support, activating more muscles in a given maneuver and providing a more thorough workout. 
• Competitors: Severalcompetitorsonline come in at a much cheaper price point (think the $200 range), but the strength of the vibration in the Personal Power Plate makes it the premier product in the category. If you are looking for a cheaper alternative, be sure to read the online reviews.
• Price: $1,995
• Why It’s Worth It: Doing normal exercises—such as a push-up or a Bulgarian squat—while standing on the Personal Power Plate increases its effectiveness. The instability of the platform activates more muscles throughout the body and intensifies the workout for the target area by forcing it to constantly correct and adjust. 

(Bloomberg) -- Years before I worked at Bloomberg, I wrote for a gossip column for the New York Daily News. I would interview celebrities on red carpets, asking endless infuriating questions such as, "Who are you wearing?" or "What's your hair secret?" (Celebrity hair, it turns out, is full of secrets.)

Occasionally, if an actor or actress had gone through a radical physical transformation for a role, I'd have to ask how they'd pulled it off. Lots of them would have tales of training with marines or carrying around bags of grilled chicken breasts wherever they went so they could be constantly eating protein.

I knew I could never do that myself. (Carrying bags of meat is the kind of thing that gets you arrested on the subway in New York.) But often, the stars would make reference to a particular tool that helped them get results faster than when they normally worked out: a vibrating platform that they stood on, or balanced on, while doing normal moves. They said it deepened their workouts and toned their bodies at a startling rate. 

They were talking about Power Plates.

A lot of gyms have them, it turned out—they look a little like a StairMaster with a platform instead of pedals. You stand on it and do your normal squats, or use it for support as you do a push-up or plank or other ground-based maneuver. It vibrates powerfully, forcing more muscles in your body to activate, especially your core, to keep yourself in position. Also, the plate creates an unstable platform that causes the target muscles constantly to adjust to compensate—increasing the effectiveness of the move.

"Instead of using maybe 60 percent of your muscles working at that load, 85 percent of those muscles are really activated and working," explains Brian Nguyen of Brik Fitness, who trains such celebrities as the Rock, Michael Bay, Anthony Mackie, and Amy Adams. "One of my clients is Mark Walhberg, for almost 12 years now. We don’t go anywhere without a Power Plate."

I've never had one in a gym where I work out, but recently the company came out with the Personal Power Plate, which is a portable version. I freaked. I'd always wanted to try one, so I arranged to get a loaner so I could test it out. I used it for several weeks, keeping it in my apartment and carrying it downstairs to my building's simple gym. (It weighs about 40 pounds and comes in a convenient bag with handles.)

The Personal Power Plate vibrates at 25 to 50 times a second (about the same rate as a massage chair you'd test out at Brookstone and then not buy) for either 30 or 60 seconds, which is just enough time to do 15 or 30 squats, pushups, deadlifts, or what have you. It's big enough to stand on with a wide stance, and it easily plugs into the wall. It doesn't have a vertical stand like the original Power Plate, which makes it more portable but also slightly less flexible.

I routinely work out with weights four or five days a week, and I run two or three days a week. I know how my body responds to lots of different routines, and I can tell you that, definitively, the Personal Power Plate made my workouts more effective. I did push-ups on it, and squats, and one-leg dumbbell deadlifts. I did calf raises, and planks, and even dumbbell bicep curls.

Doing a given exercise, I felt more thoroughly exhausted more quickly than normal and was sorer a day later than I'd normally be. (This is a good thing.) I was training for a half marathon at the time, and my leg workouts definitely made me stronger and, I think, faster.

According to Nguyen, who says he uses the Power Plate with nearly all his celebrity clients, it is good for both building muscle and for weight loss. (According to the brand, Power Plate users drop twice as much fat over six months than people using fitness and diet alone.)

"I put every one of my weight-loss clients on there," he told me. "I put every athlete on there. I put muscle gainers on there. Every single NFL team pretty much has a Power Plate in the locker room." I believe it.

The Personal Power Plate is available at powerplate.com for $1,995.

To contact the author of this story: Chris Rovzar in New York at crovzar@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Justin Ocean at jocean1@bloomberg.net.