I’ve worked at Vibra-Train Head Office and Studio for over two years now and previous to that, over another two years, I spent a lot of time there; both doing my own vibration training sessions and while I was training as an instructor. I’ve watched the industry ups and down, seen brands and branded studios come and go. I’ve even seen court cases to ensure that this industry in New Zealand (and the world) is presented with the utmost integrity so that customers (that’s any and every person) get the best experience – fitness training or physical therapy session. And of course, I’ve seen the benefits that vibration training, on real machines, has given me personally.

It’s so much more than a job for me, I’m so involved and integrated into the company and now there’s a way I can be even more involved. I’ve bought a share of one of the machines and can now offer it for lease.

To explain how it works: Vibra-Train firstly has Licenced Studios but machines are also available on a Lease arrangement, a great way of obtaining a machine for your gym, fitness studio or team.

Just so you know, these are NOT home machines - they are 180Kg plus and are heavy steel, high energy, lineal Vibration Machines.

I have one available now that I’d like to place in the Auckland region and there are others available too. They can go just about anywhere in New Zealand with expressions of interest welcome from Australia and elsewhere also.

The machine/s are available under an arrangement from Vibra-Train and are delivered to you. Of course you must meet a few requirements – have a suitable place to put the machine, attend a training session so you know how to follow the Safety Program and, well, it would all be discussed when you call. Training to use the machine and how to instruct clients can be done at the Vibra-Train head office studio in Auckland Central or if you are local we will come you and show you how; also spending some time with your clients as you instruct them so its all done correctly.  Vibra-Train are very strict on this.

I’ve been asked by a quite a few people if they can have a machine in their home - it’s not usually the way to go, in fact we joke that you can have one if you can lift it (read above where I said they are over 180Kg!).  There are times however when having a full commercial machine in your home is possible. This is how some people start out their studio. They lease a machine, learn to use it for themselves and they MUST have it available to their neighbourhood as well, so they train up as an instructor and start off their small business. Note: There are strict requirements about placement of the machine – if you live in an apartment forget it, your neighbours will not allow it. If you’ve used a machine in a Vibra-Train studio you will understand what I mean.

Some Sports teams have machines in their Training Centres. These machines are hard-out, not toys so there must be someone who can supervise the sessions but that’s not a problem as Vibra-Train ensure you have the necessary skills and follow up.

If you’re interested or just want more information phone or email, Lloyd at Vibra-Train (contact details at bottom of page on the Vibra-Train website) or email me direct by copying the email address from the image below.

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It’s 2.30am New Zealand Daylight Savings Time so 2011 has arrived in New Zealand and Australia and soon to be in all the world. For me personally 2010 was a very mixed bag. I’ve absolutely loved my work at Vibra-Train and have been amazed over and over at the results I’ve seen in customers who come in regularly to train. Also in those who are therapy clients; I’ve been astounded seeing so many changes in people’s lives and seeing some move from very simple therapy on to full vibration training over a period of just a few weeks or months.

In my own training I’ve gone from strength to strength despite having a very bad time during a surgical operation in May and then a repair operation in June and again mid December, which I am slowly recovering from now. I’ve ended 2010 on a high note, December 31st being the first day I’ve felt well for almost three weeks. My strength is down and activity is tiring just now but I’ve been thinking over how hard the past six months has been and the recent past three weeks of being very unwell while taking antibiotics. I’m thankful that I’ve stayed strong, even increased in muscle strength this year simply by using the same machines and doing the same program as the Vibra-Train studio customers I’m privileged to instruct.

Auckland, New Zealand saw in the New Year with a double lot of fireworks, both off our Sky Tower and off the harbour. Here are a few pics:

It was a busy Monday morning at Vibra-Train, Auckland City, with lots of customers coming into the studio for their training sessions.  Many regular customers can put themselves through the Safety Program and we also have lots of new people; who need help to get into and maintain the positions on the machines and newcomers who are just starting out.  All customers are fully supervised by the instructors at Vibra-Train, of which I am one.

A few things happened today that made me once again appreciate my role in this industry; the part I have to play. This website is just a small part of this, being a way to educate about Vibration Training; the various machines available and the brands, and to encourage people to “give it a go”.  I’ve also written in more depth for other websites and publications.  On a daily basis my job involves actively training people, from top athletes, “film stars”, workers, sports teams, moms, and well, every type of person including an elderly priest and a 13 year old netball player who just loves her sessions so much.  I also work with people who do Vibration Therapy.  Then there’s all sorts of other tasks involved in managing my shift.  I’m always busy but I still find time to check on social media sites, twitter and facebook, and New Zealand’s, TradeMe auction site to keep up with “what’s happening”.

I love what I do and there’s a real satisfaction in seeing the results people get. The past five or six years have been a huge learning curve for me, moving from being a full time mom selling a few collectible soft toys and being involved in my home community events to returning to study (not that I ever really stopped, always loved learning), training as a fitness instructor; finding Vibration Training early in this and meeting Lloyd Shaw of Vibra-Train, who encouraged me and taught me about life (by challenging almost every belief I held), helped me in my studies, growled at me often (quite often!), and took a chance on me by training me as a Vibra-Train Instructor.

What was the greatest thing I learnt over this time? It was simply confirming what I already new – that some people are leaders who have a purpose in their hearts and they will change the world for good. Some others are followers which is good if they are following a true leader. Then there are the competitors, those who challenge for leadership but continually fall short and really are challenging other competitors. These people are often marketers promoting their product and trying to make as much money as they can often with little regard to the truth or otherwise of their marketing claims.

Leadership is about passion – this was the thing that I saw in Lloyd Shaw on my first Vibra-Train visit.  He wasn’t in business to simply market a product, to make a lot of money; his passion was to cure obesity and he told just about every person who walked in the door.  Many just smiled, others wanted to know more and believed that the seeming impossible could become reality and today for many Vibra-Train customers and others worldwide who have been helped by Vibration Training, it has!

There’s been a lot of work to get to where we are today and the future is very exciting. True Vibration Training has surpassed the field of exercise, like what gyms deliver.  It definitely is exercise but it’s also a health product, as well as enhancing muscle strength and fitness in healthy people it’s a lifesaver for many who cannot do regular training.

Vibra-Train and Lloyd Shaw – Leading the world in Vibration Training

Another leader, another man of passion to change the world, recently wrote in his blog,

“The main goal of the competitors is to win the market and and win the other competitors, leaders instead they have a purpose, they live to make this world a better one.”
- Gianpaolo Grazioli  www.giapo.com

My job as a Vibration Training Instructor requires me to have mettle.  It’s very different to my previous job at the Gym where I worked on reception, greeting members and helping with their needs plus some membership and product sales, computer entry of memberships and training appointments. It was important for me to be super friendly and encouraging.  And ss a Fitness Consultant I took some members through training programs.  I would use humour and gentle encouragement to spur members on to achieve their goals.

Now, as a Vibra-Train Instructor, I need chutzpah!

There’s a certain way to help people cope with the demands that the 60 second positions impose on their mind and body. They often think they can’t handle the poses and moan that “it hurts” but

The fact is, they can do it! With some of the positions especially the Super Squat at the end of the Safety Program that short 60 seconds can feel like it’s never going to end.  When I instruct new people I tell them that position is demanding, that they will probably feel an intense tightness in their quad muscles for the last 20 seconds and that on their second minute it will be worse as they are already somewhat fatigued. It can feel like you really can’t do it any longer; it’s such hard work.

I started writing this blog about 18 months ago and I now can’t remember why I entitled it “Integrity, Honesty, and Assertiveness”.  I’ve written about assertiveness, pushing customers so they get the best workout possible and the best results that come with that.  I’ve said I tell them honestly that it’s hard work; and why would I lie? If I did they wouldn’t come back.  It’s especially important that customers with any form of muscular problem like M.S. know that the tightness or burning pain they are feeling in their muscles while on the Vibration Machine is exactly the same as everyone else feels.  Vibration Therapy and Training is a great equalizer – I have customers ranging from children through every age, size and shape, right through to elite athletes.

Now, the word “Integrity” – that’s been the number 1 essential in this industry. To be transparent as a person and in business matters.  Please read other articles ( like  unethical-and-blatently-dishonest-retailers )   and watch this space there’s more to come.

Okay, my last few posts have been a bit negative but it is really important that the people are educated about Vibration Machines – the types, the brands (including relabelling), how to use one safely and what results you can expect to get.

So, now a post full of good news – I’m seeing some amazing results in customers who come in regularly to the Vibra-Train Studio where I work and who carefully work through the Safety Program.  I’ll list some examples:

• A very slim young woman who had never done exercise and didn’t like the idea of going to a gym decided (I have no idea who encouraged her) to enter a Body Sculpting competion.  My boss became her trainer and after just a few weeks, maybe six, she’s now looking slim with well formed, small muscles showing in her arms, legs, abdomen.  She’s entering the beauty section so she doesn’t need extra weight just the “look”.  She told me at a function last week a guy she’d know all her life came up to her and commented on how great she looked.  He asked what training she was doing to look so good.  Her competition is in a few weeks so it will be exciting for her.

• Another young lady who was the unfortunate victim of being run over as she crossed the road (by a speeding, drunk driver).  She has plates in her legs and other parts of her body and spent three months in hospital.  She has previously been a body sculpting competetor also but now uses a stick to help her walk.  It took a while, through a friend who is a personal trainer, to convince her that we could help her with muscle activation and strengthening and with increased blood circulation to carry nutrients to areas for healing.  Also Vibration Training on the right choice of machine (with the right training or re-hab program) helps by breaking up scar tissue around wounds so giving easier movement and flexibility.

• A guy who’s a boxing athlete has been coming in recently.  Vibra-Train is now sponsoring him so he doesn’t pay for his sessions but he has to do as he’s told, come in regularly, and work hard.  He can see the extra muscle strength he’s gained and has competitions coming up.  We’ve seen athletes move from third or forth placing to first or second when they add Vibration Training to their already heavy training schedules.

• Now someone who’s not athletic and not training for anything at all – a young lady who’s a regular office worker came in just three weeks ago. She wanted to increase her fitness and look good by summer (it’s Springtime in New Zealand now).  In just three weeks, coming in three times a week, which is about every second day, she’s very happy with how much fitter she’s feeling. She holds the positions so well that she’s already about to add in some advanced work and has chosen to do so.

• I’ve written before about a guy who’s a university student.  He’s studying law so probably spends long hours hunched over a computer.  His ethnicity has provided him with more muscle than most men his age and he’s very tall but he stooped and didn’t walk upright and seemed “flabby”.  It took a lot of hard work on the part of the trainer to get him to maintain perfect position on the machines and to be able to work through the Vibra-Train Safety Program with the dedication required to see results.  I wondered if he’d stop coming as he found it all so hard but  he kept coming and now he looks so good – will look great on the beach this summer. He stands up straight, has huge well formed biceps (his ethnicity adds to the size), triceps, and great looking shoulders.  His legs are strong with good looking muscle. I’ve never seen his abs but under a TShirt it appears that’s the area still to improve and it will happen.  He’s a student, as I said, and I suspect he eats junk food; fix that and he could enter any “Looking Good” competition.

• The student’s young sister has been coming in with him most this year.  Only 13 years  but she’s an accomplished netballer and wanted to gain arm strength.  I explained to her that our program was designed to give strength and toning to her whole body and that we would do a few extra arm positions at the end IF she could work through the program competently.  She’s another that I misjudged – 13 years old and she actually wants to exercise! No one makes her come and she has to get up very early, eat breakfast as we don’t allow training unless a person has eaten some food, and then come with her brother right across towm twice a week to the Vibra-Train studio. She’s gained so much strength and I’ve also seen toning and fat-loss as she’s at the age of changing from a child into a young woman.  We’ve been able to chat about beauty, her weight, and her diet as she’s felt comfortable to ask me questions and at 7am when she comes in most times the other customers I’m responsible for are able to do the program unaided. I can still supervise them yet give her a lot of attention.  One of her questions is very important  – many 13 year olds check out fashion magazines and read about what weight they “should” be.  We’ve been able to kill and bury that lie.  She’s a beautiful girl with an ethnicity, as her brother, that means she would be dangerously ill if she ever tried to be the tiny weight that the magazine charts tell her to become.  Her diet will become very important in the next few years especially as on extended family occaisions there’s an abundance of heavy foods, lots of meats and breads, and alcohol.  She has to learn to chose wisely; meat is good but add in salad or vegetables without too much taro or sweet potato which are heavy in carbohydrates.  Her weight will never be the small amount that magazines suggest and the reason is simple – she has muscle, strong muscle in her arms, legs and abs and muscle weighs heavy.  It’s a good thing, it’s giving her all the power and strength she needs for nteball competition and later to support her bones and help prevent osteoporosis. I’ve encouraged her to always do some exercise and she knows of family members who haven’t and are still young but carry a lot of excess fat bringing with it the health problems of diabetes and heart disease. I hope what we’ve discussed and what she’s learning about health at school will keep her well informed, strong and well.

There’s so many other clients I could write about.  The successes  see on a daily basis are so exciting. More to come!

The Gymform Vibromax Vibration Machine. A quick search shows people are asking questions like, “does it work?”, “will I lose weight if I use the Gymform Vibromax?”, “will I get muscle from the Gymform Vibromax?”

The title of this blog post gives my answer – the advertorials for this vibration machine are, in my opinion, a scam. There are so many inacuracies and downright lies in the text and on the websites that offer this machine for sale.

Things like -

• The Gymform Vibromax is the ONLY massager which tones up muscles, firms up your figure and massages the whole body
• 10 minutes a day on our new Gymform Vibromax correspond to:  2 hours of tennis or an hour of swimming
• it promotes Strength and Power Conditioning, Fat Burning, Advanced Aerobic and Anaerobic Training

The machine works with a see-saw/pivotal action – when you stand on the machine one foot goes up while the other goes down; up/down, up/down. Watching a person on this type of machine you can see their body shake and it looks quite funny or even quite attractive if the model on the machine has a good figure or a well build muscular body BUT don’t mistake this shakey wobble for true muscle contraction – it isn’t!

The advertisers claim that the machine platform frequency is 30Hz – that’s 30 movements a second – It’s been independently tested and found to run at 9Hz which is a huge difference.  The advertorial that showed on Television New Zealand’s Good Morning Show in May and June 2010 showed an Auckland personal trainer on the machine and it was clearly running at about 9Hz. It was so slow that you could count the Up/Down movement.

And then there’s the Price – well someone has to pay for the TV adverts and that someone is, of course, the buyer. Television is an expensive yet effective method of advertising a product – it’s on TV so it must be good, right? Wrong!  There’s nothing about expensive advertising that guarantees a product will be good for you. And, the price is around three times that of the same machine bought elsewhere.

Then there’s the Shame. The consumer buys a product, uses it just like the advert tells them to and they don’t get the results promised. They don’t get amazing, firm, toned muscles, they don’t lose lots of fat, and they certainly don’t feel like they’ve been playing tennis for two hours, in fact there’s no fatigue at all.

What then? They quite often blame themselves, thinking they are doing something wrong – the Personal Trainer on the infomercial looks great and she/he said they use that machine to look the way they do, to get their firm and toned  “beach body”. The poor consumer then blames their parents for giving them non-responsive  genes or they rue their lack of willpower.

It’s the machine that’s at fault, not the consumer – although I have little sympathy for the person who buys a product without checking it out first. Google is like a lifesaver on a calm beach, pointing out the rips -

And to help you – check this out: Vibration-Training-Advice.com for Vibration Machine reviews and many articles about Vibration Machines to help you choose the right one for your needs and to get the results you want.

So, is the Gymform Vibromax good for anything? I’m tempted to say it makes a very good Clothes Hanger like many others of the ‘As seen on TV” fitness products but Yes, it does have an excellent use – it’s a low speed, pivotal, Vibration Massage and Therapy machine. It gently improves circulation and helps a little with mobility. It can also enhance mood and help with relaxation. These benefits are great for the very unfit, the very obese, or older person who will gain from them but for most of us – there’s simply no way that standing upright on this machine for twenty minutes while watching television is going to give  the body that the person in the Advert has. For those results you need a High Energy, lineal machine, an excellent Safety Program, and you need to be prepared to work hard!

My previous post was about Customers – the Good, the Bad, and those whose who don’t really want to follow the Vibration Training Safety Program but instead think they can choose to make up their own program or copy a position  they see other people doing.

That last part is funny because when they copy another person they are very often copying a Therapy Position, given to a person who is unable to do the full program due to injury or long-term disability.  It’s funny to watch and when I question or, as more often happens, I turn the machine off, the customers gets mildly annoyed as they think they are missing out on some special position that will help them train harder and faster.

I totally applaud their dedication but Nope, No, the program alone is all that’s needed when it’s done with that same strong dedication and effort.

It’s essential to follow the program exactly for Safety and Excellent Results.

Only when a person can show that they’ve mastered the full Safety Program can they add in some extra work and even then it’s optional and not needed for many people.  Some add in an extra position, like the one they find the hardest, or the pelvic stability position followed by the stretch are popular additions.  Some, especially the guys, do extra upper body work, a pull-up position or a full body tri-ceps dip, using the Vibra-Train “Vibra”, handlebar machine.  See the videos here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNaEcOqG-oU

The ONLY Optional work is what’s added at the end IF the customer can show that they’ve mastered the program and can get into and remain in Perfect Position throughout. And then, the extra positions come with very strict instructions how to do them.

No one ever makes up their own positions or program at Vibra-Train.

The program, as I’ve said before, is specifically designed for Safety and Excellent Results and happy customers are proof of that.

I was going to title this post - “Difficult Customers” but really if we didn’t have customers we wouldn’t have a studio and I wouldn’t have this job that I enjoy so much.

So customers – the ones who carefully follow the program; the cheerful ones; the ones who seem to question everything; the ones who always have some new little ache or pain that they worry over; the ones I need to instruct every time even though they might be expected to know what to do by now; and yes, even the “difficult” ones – are why I am here at Vibra-Train every weekday morning.

So, who are they and why would I even suggest a customer seems “difficult”?

The customers who appear difficult are the ones who will not accept instruction and think they know better about how to do the positions than the instructor who works with these specific vibration machines every day.  I’m not talking about customers asking questions or getting the pose a little wrong but about the few customers who bring their gym based positions or what they’ve read in the latest fitness magazine and that’s how they insist they are going to do the positions.

The Vibra-Train Safety Program was specifically designed to work-out the whole body.  Everything about how the positions are done; how to get into position and how to maintain it; and even the exact order of the positions is “set in concrete” and must not be changed.  There are alternatives for cases where a person has limited movement.  Also  if a customer really excels in holding positions there are some advanced positions and higher level machines but no one (customer nor instructor) is allowed to “do it differently” just because they do a similar position elsewhere in a gym or another brand of Vibration Studio.  Instructors at Vibra-train are trained to teach the Safety Program and the few allowable alternatives, they will lose their job if customers are seen to be doing whatever they want to do instead of the program.

So, there’s no choice involved. In Vibra-Train studios and now in many other Vibration Training Studios worldwide we use the Vibra-Train Safety Program following the step-by-step instructions on every visit.  Those who argue about it are reminded that they have a huge amount of force coming up at them from the machine platform (or handlebars) and they’d be wise to do as they are told.  There’s always the Exit Door if they refuse.

For more information there’s a series of short videos on YouTube that show each position in detail with instructions and explanation by Lloyd Shaw, designer of both the Vibra-Train brand Vibration Machines and The Safety Program. Starting from The Basic Squat the series is for instructors and anyone who wants to view it.