Health advantages: Whole body vibration machine, clients reap benefits

When a new client climbs onto a GOGA whole body vibration machine, they can't help but to break into laughter. It's a feeling like you are standing on top of a washing machine in full spin cycle, its website said."Everybody laughs when they first get on," said GOGA Studios co-owner Mary Jane Windle.But the benefits her clients are claiming are no joke.Framed testimonials from clients hang on the walls inside the studio. They claim everything from weight loss to lowered blood pressure and cholesterol.Cathy Beall, a client of five months, said her blood pressure medication has been cut in half since she started GOGA-ing."I had high cholesterol and blood pressure controlled by medication. I'm on half the medication I was on before," she said.Beall's blood pressure before was 170/80 on full medication and is now 112/68 on half the medication, she said."I think I'll be able to get off the meds completely in a couple of months," she added.
Standing on the machine produces a side alternating rocking movement (oscillation), which simulates a walking motion, claimed the Canadian company's website.We care more about the price of sand washers.That motion for just 10 minutes a day helps with bone density, weight loss, back and joint pain and overall well-being, the website said.Mary Jane and Wayne Windle opened the franchise in January after Wayne's father fell in love with GOGA and purchased his own machine in Houston.Although the company has no franchise fees, there is a strict franchise agreement.The studio must serve its clients ionized water before, during and after a "workout," which also includes 15 minutes in one of their two infrared saunas.There are also several Himalayan Mountain salt deposit lamps, which claim to emit negative ions into the air.The company's slogan calls it a 10-minute no-work-workout saying it equals a one-hour normal workout by contracting muscles from 4000 to 6000 times.
"It's great for people who need to exercise, but won't," Mary Jane Windle said.Carol Doolittle met her new friend, Beall, at the studio where the two visit on a daily basis, sharing one of the saunas to chat and catch up."Four years ago, this is exactly what we thought would happen. These illegal machines would start popping up in various locations," Sheriff Todd Entrekin said in a prepared statement. "That is why we ask the county commission to create standards for electronic gambling devices in the county. To date, there has not been a machine to meet all the created standards."Terri H. Smith, 57, of Rainbow City, was charged with one count of possession of a gambling device and one count of promoting gambling. Both are misdemeanors. Smith, the manager of VFW Post 8600, was released from the county jail on $2,000 bond.