Fitness vibrations trendy, perhaps risky

Carpe, carpe. Seize the seizing! Harness the awesome power of the Epileptomatic! Yeah!

Forget the "possible injuries ranging from back pain to cartilage damage. One even warns that the high-powered jiggling might harm the brain..."

Let's move on to the really cool stuff - proving once again that the experts are really the misunderstanders of fitness.

The Power Plate vibrates 20 to 50 times a second in three directions, increasing g-forces on the body, and according to the Northbrook, Ill.-based company of the same name. The company says that raises the effectiveness of lunges, squats and other exercises done while standing on it.

Here is a device intentionally designed to have you lift weights on an unstable surface moving 20 to 50 times per second in three axes.

"Possible injuries..."?

Can anyone spell "significant injuries"?

Oh, to be a plaintiff's attorney.

You would think that if unstable strength training techniques were so superior, then the world's Navies would have a demonstrable monopoly on the strongest fighting forces this planet has seen and the best strength pros would have trained on oil rigs in the middle of the ocean.

Clinton Rubin, a biomedical engineering professor at State University of New York at Stony Brook, said he has asked Power Plate to stop citing his research in its promotional materials. His work has led to a vibration device before the Food and Drug Administration approval for prevention and reversal of bone loss from osteoporosis, but that device uses much gentler vibrations than Power Plate, Rubin said.

He believes the Power Plate's vibration levels could cause low back pain, cartilage damage, blurred vision, hearing loss and even brain damage.

"I think they are cavalier in dismissing the dangers of chronic exposure," he said. "I'm a scientist. I worry that people are going to use this device based on a misrepresentation of science."

One of the better things I've heard a Clinton say.