“We combine Power Plate and red light therapy in all our small group classes,” says Natt Summers, founder and owner of Accomplish Fitness in Hungerford, Berkshire.

“Power Plate is an incredible tool for people of all levels. Our clients are male and female, aged between 11 to 84 years and range from Ironman champions to beginners, but I can adjust the vibration to challenge everyone just the right amount, all within the same class.

“Meanwhile, red light therapy strengthens our mitochondria – our energy cells – and the stronger these cells are, the longer we live.

“You’ll often hear about red light in the context of enhancing collagen and making skin look better, and it does do that. In fact, you get all the benefits of sunshine without the UV, so it also boosts mood.

“However, getting close to the red light also speeds muscle recovery and tissue repair, reduces inflammation and pain – it can help with arthritis, for example – and supports the function of internal organs.

“We’re achieving remarkable results by using Power Plate and red light therapy together, accelerating recovery and fitness gains and benefiting people’s bodies and minds in so many different ways.”

From 60 minutes to 30, with Power Plate

Let’s backtrack to understand how Summers came to this style of training.

It was 20 years ago that she became a PT, inspired by a perceived lack of trainers “who actually liked people”.

She had, she explains, looked for help post-partum – a pregnancy during which gestational diabetes had led to significant weight gain – but found nothing but “judgement and fattism”. And so she took matters into her own hands, training as a PT during her maternity leave and handing in her notice at her old job.

Fast-forward a few years and Summers opened her own studio – “a safe place for women and men, all about the customer and their journey”. Accomplish Fitness was born.

When four of her clients got Power Plates at home, Summers realised she needed to put herself through the instructor training course. She also purchased a Power Plate for her own studio and soon had a waitlist of 30+ people.

“I started out doing the traditional 60-minute, one-to-one PT sessions, but a moment came when I needed to split a session between two clients, creating two 30-minute sessions.

“Their results went through the roof, so I restructured my approach for all clients. All of a sudden, I was doing 16 sessions a day rather than eight, I could tackle my waitlist, and my clients were getting great results.”

Summers soon invested in additional Power Plates for her studio and added small group training (SGT) to the timetable, with clients alternating between plate and mat. And this was the status quo for a number of years, until lockdown.

Enhancing results with red light therapy

She explains: “My mum had been diagnosed with cancer and I was researching ways to reduce inflammation in the body. I also had a number of clients with long COVID, so I was trying to help them too.

“I came across red light therapy and purchased three panels that deliver near-infrared- and red light. I began to use them in conjunction with Power Plate for anyone suffering from chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, menopause symptoms, gut issues and inflammation – and the results were unbelievable.

“People’s blood tests were showing marked improvements, menopausal hot sweats disappeared, body composition changed, muscle strength and endurance improved, sleep quality was enhanced, stress was reduced.

“I found I was able to manage my own Bell’s palsy and sciatica, while one older client was seeing a consultant about a shoulder issue and was asked for her training programme because her bone density was so good.”

Power Plate and red light are inextricably linked in achieving such results, says Summers, to the point that Accomplish Fitness now combines Power Plate with red light therapy in every small group training session. Even customers with long COVID are slowly seeing their HRV – heart rate variability – climbing.

“More than anything, though, people’s energy levels have been transformed,” confirms Summers. “We call our approach ‘biostacking’ and I can confidently say we’ve changed 90 per cent of our clients’ lives.”

‘Biostacking’ in every class

Fast-forward to 2024 and Accomplish Fitness now has eight Power Plates – including three personal Power Plates that Summers rents out to clients – as well as a Power Plate REV bike and a selection of targeted vibration devices.

It means classes now cater for a maximum of 10 people, alongside continued availability of one-to-one training and AF All-In six-week accountability programmes.

The classes “keep things simple, combining functional Power Plate training with red light therapy, as that’s what works,” says Summers.

There’s Train with Natt for an athletic workout, AF Fit 30 for functional training with Hex bells, Supple Strength for a strong yoga class, Boxing, Barbells and Kettlebells – all on the Power Plate.

Members are encouraged to expose as much skin to the red light as possible, and start every session just 1.5 inches from the panels. For three minutes, they put their hands, faces, even heads next to the light – wherever they want to focus its healing benefits. For the next 24 minutes, they work out on the Power Plate – still no more than 50cm from the red light for a mood boost – with a final three minutes right next to the panels again.

Meanwhile, cycling on the Power Plate REV for four to eight minutes is “a biohack that gives people all the cardio they need in a maximum of eight minutes”. And there’s evidence to prove it.

Every Accomplish Fitness member uses WHOOP to track their HRV and Strain Scores, and the REV training “sends HRV through the roof”, says Summers.

She is now experimenting with a new format consisting of eight minutes’ Power Plate, eight minutes’ REV and eight minutes close to the red light panels.

The proof is in the WHOOP

Summers also uses HRV and WHOOP Strain Scores to establish how recovered and ready members are to exercise.

She explains: “If you’re in the red zone on WHOOP and you keep exercising, you’ll never give yourself a chance to recover. And you can be in the red even if you’re really fit – for example, if your stress levels are high.

“So, I keep an eye on clients and sometimes tell people to have a Power Plate massage in the red light rather than working out. I also added red light to my All-In programme, making 20 minutes’ stretching and/or meditating under the red lights – three times a week – non-negotiable. Recovery has dramatically improved across the board.”

She adds: “Using WHOOP data, I can also prescribe the optimum effort level for everyone in every class – 40, 70, 80, 100 per cent – so they get the most out of the workout and can still come back the next day. Most people come to Accomplish Fitness three to five times a week, with Power Plate and red light further helping by reducing inflammation and cortisol to speed up recovery.”

But the ultimate evidence of the impact of Power Plate with red light therapy?

“In addition to the 10 people in the studio, we also live stream our small group training, interacting with a maximum of 10 people online. Those who don’t have a Power Plate at home take around twice as long to get the same results, and even those who do have a Power Plate take a bit longer because they don’t have red light.

“As I say, Power Plate and red light are inextricably linked in what we do, and the results are so good I genuinely don’t understand why everyone isn’t doing it!”

Speaking of which, Summers is now gearing up to launch her concept as a franchise at the end of 2024.

“There are so many PTs out there who want a plug-and-play solution,” she says. “I’m excited to make our approach more widely available, bringing the benefits of functional Power Plate training and red light therapy to many more people.”