Marodyne Vibration Plate

[ItsColdinMinnesota]

Does anyone know of a less-costly alternative to the Marodyne? Of course, it would need to work the same way with the same results. Very likely, the technology is protected and this is a silly question.

[Weightrun]

I have the Power Plate brand of vibration plate. Mine is the Move which allows 9 minutes of continuous workout before you need to turn the motor on again. It is, I believe a little less expensive than Marodyne and the platform appears to be larger. They have frequent sales of 20% discount. I got mine in November for 25% off due to November sale. They also make a much less expensive unit that weighs ~ 35 lbs versus the 85 lbs that mine weighs. The downside is that you need to continuously hit a remote to keep the motor restarting every 30-60 seconds. They have a very useful app that you might be able to download to see the videos or look on YouTube for some of them. My husband has been using it also. This unit is very solidly built. It is too soon to assess my bone density, but I do like the workouts they provide which run the gamut from beginner to advanced.

An email I received several weeks ago from Power Plate indicated that a 65 year old woman had the bone density of a 30-year old, through using her Power Plate. It included DEXA scan comparisons between age 54 and 65. As I recall, she had osteopenia at age 54, and phenomenal bone density by age 65. There were no intervening scans provided over those 11 years. It was done at a facility in Tulsa that I recognize, but I can’t otherwise attest that the scans are legitimate.

Hope it’s starting to warm up in Minnesota and that my response was somewhat helpful. I’m hoping to be a success story eventually due to using the machine 3x/week along with walking, hiking, running, and the more occasional kettlebell and free weight workouts. I have drastically cut back on weights and kettlebell unless they’re used in conjunction with the app videos. FYI, I have osteopenia in the spine and femur of -1.3 and barely osteoporosis in the femoral neck at -2.5. The femoral neck reading is irritating and perhaps questionable as I’ve weight trained and run for 44 and 47 years, respectively. I am 67.

[ItsColdinMinnesota in reply to Weightrun]

Thank you. Your info was very helpful. My osteopenia was diagnosed at age 40. At age 64 my scans just keep getting worse and worse. Unfortunately, I have spine issues that keep me from doing much vigorous exercise. I can still walk, but not far enough (without pain) to make a difference in bone density. I found hope in the Marodyne as there is a great deal of data to show that it really works. The price tag is around $3,500. My mother had osteoporosis and passed with broken bones. I don't want to look forward to that kind of suffering. I will totally check out Power Plate for studies and stats. The weather in MN has gone from a snow storm last week to 88 degrees today. You never know here.

[Met00]

A word of caution. In the UK the Marodyne is the only one that's approved as a medical device. That's not to say others aren't safe, but they do come with all sorts of warnings about risks of fracture and retina detachment. As I understand it, the Marodyne is the only low intensity plate currently available, the others all being high intensity, even when set at their lowest settings.

[ItsColdinMinnesota in reply to Met00]

I'm thinking that in the US it's the same thing. As far as I can tell, Marodyne is the only device with FDA approval. My guess is that the low intensity vibration makes all the difference for improving bone health w/o risk. I need to understand exactly what that means before I search for a generic option. It would make sense that there probably is no generic option.

[Golfforfun]

LifePro makes a less expensive vibration plate, but it needs to be at a .46 magnitude and a frequency of 30 roughly. They have several that they offer so make sure its for bone health.