I Fell For The Vibration-Plate Craze — Here’s What I Learned

If summer is the season of thriving and late nights, spring is the moment for preparation. This April, my search for holistic wellness treatments started where any reputable journalist would investigate: TikTok.

In our hunt for the top beauty products in the world (more on that soon), it felt like I saw more tools than normal. There were red-light masks for entire bodies, compression wraps, cryo chambers, and massage tools intended for medieval torture. I even tested out an Ammortal Chamber at the Proper hotel in Santa Monica, which promised a laundry list of improvements if used on a weekly basis (and at roughly $200,000, that wasn’t happening). What from this seemingly endless amount of body work could work for me at home?

I landed on the vibration plate, literally and figuratively. There are several articles detailing its anti-inflammatory benefits, promoting lymphatic drainage, increasing circulation, and delivering a “wake-up” to the body first thing in the morning. I duly set the machine up in my apartment, much to the amusement of my boyfriend and friends who I shared the process with. What was I doing, and what was I gaining from it?

One of my inspirations was a skincare guru and licensed esthetician based in New York, Gillian Milberg. Her 360-degree approach to skincare is featured through her content, where she promotes the benefits of daily adaptogens and is brutally honest on the latest health fads of the moment. She posted a video of her boyfriend using a vibration plate, which to me served as confirmation that I should give it a whirl. “As an esthetician, I’m always interested in modalities that support circulation and lymphatic movement, because the skin does not exist in isolation from the rest of the body. I became especially interested in vibration plates during a period when I was personally dealing with elevated inflammation markers and wanted to support my body more holistically rather than taking a prescription,” Milberg tells me. “Alongside a few other minor lifestyle changes, I incorporated a vibration plate into my routine and noticed a real difference in how I felt: less stagnancy, more energy, improved puffiness, and better circulation to my hands and feet.”

I don’t know if it was placebo effect, but after a few shakes, I also noticed a bit more energy in the mornings after stepping off the plate. My feet run famously cold thanks to subpar circulation, and the plate brought color and life to my usually purple toes. After a particularly hellacious weekend for my body (read: I attended a music festival), the vibration plate soothed my sore feet and legs after just ten minutes, combined with an Epsom salt bath and a Theragun. But, as Milberg says, the benefits are not just muscular; they can show up on our skin, too. As someone who prides themselves on a fastidious skincare regimen, I also cannot avoid the fact that a party-filled weekend can throw that all out the window. If the vibration plate didn’t act as a great eraser of my late-night French fries and beers, perhaps it could at least level me out— an equalizer of sorts.

I can’t speak directly to empirical evidence (this isn’t WebMD, after all) but I can speak to the moments spent on the plate. Kicking off the day with forced and static movement wasn’t going to save my skin (or me for that matter), but adding something into my routine that wasn’t a new gizmo or $200 cream while delivering benefits to my entire body was something I could get behind. “We’re moving into a more body-focused era of beauty, where people understand that skin health is deeply connected to movement, fascia, blood flow, nervous system regulation, and lymphatic function,” Millberg says. “At this point, even though my vibration plate is admittedly a bit of an eyesore in my living room, it’s earned a permanent place in my wellness device line-up.” So next time I have guests over, I will not apologize for the awkward gray retro-looking device not-so discreetly hit under my bed. Instead, I’ll give my amateur-level take on how 10 minutes of vibrating in the morning have rewired my body little by little. It’s not a miracle drug, and it’s something I never thought would be a part of my “skincare” routine, but I’m all the way in.