Total Body Enhancement at Planet Fitness: My Session + How to Use It
Does anybody else wonder what the tall, red tube is at the gym?
I work out there, so I wanted to know, “What is the Total Body Enhancement at Planet Fitness?”
I took some pictures of my session.
What is the Planet Fitness Total Body Enhancement?
The Total Body Enhancement machine at Planet Fitness is a full-body red light therapy and vibration machine.
This happens to be the exact combination Nushape (one of my favorite red light therapy vendors) advises for weight loss.
You use red light therapy to loosen fat from the cells and vibration to push the fat to the lymph system for removal.
Also known as “the red light room at Planet Fitness” and “Beauty Angel” (that’s the machine’s brand name), the red light is in the booth, not the whole room.
But being red light therapy, expect positive results for acne, wrinkles, cellulite, and muscle recovery after exercise.
Total Body Enhancement Benefits
You can probably benefit from the Total Body Enhancement machine if you have skin or muscle issues.
List of Red Light Therapy Benefits
You should expect improvements in all of these areas with regular use of the machine:
- Reduces cellulite
- Reduces stretch marks
- Reduces scars
- Reduces acne
- Reduces wrinkles
- Rejuvenates skin
- Enhances skin tone
- Increases collagen
- Increases elastin
- Reduces pain
- Speeds exercise recovery
- Speeds soft tissue injury recovery
- Improves circulation
- Reduces oxidative stress
You should expect these results from any red light therapy machine with good specifications. Learn more about how the science of red light therapy works in my article What Everyone Should Know About Red Light Therapy
List of Vibration Plate Benefits
You should expect to see benefits from vibration as well. These include:
- Increases muscle strength and power
- Improves flexibility and range of motion
- Enhances balance and stability
- Promotes weight loss and fat-burning
- Boosts circulation and lymphatic drainage
- Reduces the appearance of cellulite
- It improves bone density and enhances bone health.
- Low-impact and suitable for all fitness levels
- It can be used for both strength and cardio workouts.
- Saves time compared to traditional workouts due to the accelerated muscle contractions.
It’s a way to do clinical-level therapy or therapy you’d pay for at a salon for a tiny fraction of the price elsewhere.
If you’re tired of feeling like you’re not reaching your fitness or skin health goals, you can improve your skin and muscles without spending a fortune on expensive treatments.
Why Do Red Light Therapy with Vibration?
The skin and muscles are where red light therapy shines, and that’s what you get with the Total Body Enhancement machine.
The vibration part of the session is to remove fat from the intracellular space and is a passive exercise for the muscles.
The machine is also known as the Beauty Angel. They’re moving to “Total Body Enhancement” because it’s a health and beauty treatment.
On the “beauty” side, Total Body Enhancement (Beauty Angel) helps reduce stretch marks, scars, cellulite, acne, and wrinkles, speeds up muscle recovery, and provides pain relief.
On the “health” side, Total Body Enhancement reduces pain and oxidative stress and speeds up muscle recovery.
How Does the Total Body Enhancement Work?
Let’s start with the basics – what is the technology behind Total Body Enhancement, and how does it work?
This machine combines red light therapy and whole-body vibration therapy, which have been extensively researched for their benefits.
Red light therapy penetrates the mitochondria. Since our bodies have trillions of mitochondria, there is a giant universe of targets that red light therapy can absorb.
This is why this therapy has so many practical uses.
That’s the “total body” in Total Body Enhancement.
Red light therapy uses specific wavelengths of low-level light to penetrate beneath the skin’s surface. The light is absorbed in the cells, specifically in organelles called the mitochondria.
Red light therapy stimulates the mitochondria to make more biological batteries the body uses for repair and recovery. These biological batteries (called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP) power the improvement of cell function, and the process also lowers oxidative stress.
So the Planet Fitness machine gives the body energy in the form of light, which the body uses to repair itself!
This means quicker healing times for muscles post-exercise since more oxygen can reach muscle cells with increased blood flow. For skin, it means improved tone and texture and reduced fine lines/wrinkles.
The science behind red-light therapy indicates that it can also help reduce muscle inflammation.
This is because this type of light helps improve mitochondrial function, which allows cells to produce more energy to repair themselves faster.
Many people use red light therapy at home because of these vast mitochondrial benefits.
It is truly an anti-aging therapy that restores the electron transport chain, which helps create the biological batteries you use at the gym.
To learn more about the scientific studies of red light therapy on mitochondria, see my article: Red Light Therapy Scam Alert! What Do 9,188 Studies Say?
When to Use the Total Body Enhancement
Planet Fitness recommends using the machine two to three times per week for 90 days and then one to two times per week after that.
This is consistent with the studies on photobiomodulation (red light therapy science), which show that spending too much time in red light is counterproductive. You lose the gains if you do too much.
Many people ask if they should use their red light therapy face mask when doing full-body therapy at Planet Fitness. You can use your face mask while in the Planet Fitness booth. But if you want to do the booth and then the mask, wait 12 hours between sessions. You don’t want two facial doses of light right in a row.
Also, this might help you, and it’s my article: How Often Should You Use Red Light Therapy on Your Face?
If you are considering getting a mask, you should see 5 Best Red Light Therapies for Face Skin in 2024: New!
Why Use Planet Fitness Vibration Therapy?
The red light therapy at Planet Fitness includes a simultaneous vibration session.
This helps the body detoxify by pushing unwanted material to the lymphatic (garbage disposal system).
Vibration therapy is a rapid shaking motion that stimulates muscle fibers while forcing blood throughout the body, and this is how vibration helps the muscles.
The increased circulatory function from vibration therapy helps remove toxins from your system while promoting healing by delivering vital nutrition to damaged muscles.
Vibration is a form of passive exercise that has also been shown to improve flexibility and strength because vibrations at an ideal frequency have been found to stimulate the production of the proteins that make up skeletal muscles (myofibrillar actin and myosin proteins).
So, the vibration activity helps with both fat loss and muscle growth.
How Long Does a Total Body Transformation Take?
Red light therapy is quick and even immediate at times, but the range varies depending on the person and the goal.
Suppose the fat loss works for you (it doesn’t always work, and it’s unclear why). It will show in a day or two. You should see your zipper zipping easier within two days.
For skin issues, give it one to four weeks to see improvements. In studies on acne and wrinkles, subjects saw significant improvements in four weeks and even more improvements at eight weeks.
You can take a picture before you start and then take another in the same light each week. That will tell you more than the mirror.
Who Should Avoid the Total Body Enhancement at Planet Fitness?
Although red light therapy and vibration technically have no side effects, there might be some depending on how you define the term.
- For example, you should not do the Total Body Enhancement if you are on a photosensitive medication. Ask your pharmacist if you’re not sure.
- It’s never been tested on pregnant women
- The lights flicker, so people with epilepsy should not use the machine.
- Planet Fitness asks that people with limited mental and physical capacity avoid the machine.
- They advise you not to use the machine if you have vertigo or are easily disoriented.
- If you’ve had a chemical skin treatment in the previous 24 hours.
- If you have thermal, ultraviolet light, or chemical skin burns.
- If you have had invasive surgery in the previous 48 hours.
As far as I know, there are no reasons not to do vibration.
You should consult a healthcare professional to resolve any doubts.
Eye Protection
You should wear goggles in the Total Body Enhancement machine as the lights are very bright.
I have strong opinions about this topic because I truly value my eyesight and by extension, your eyesight too.
If you have doubts about the danger of bright light on the eyes, please see my article, Red Light Therapy for the Eyes: Open or Closed (Read This).
Planet Fitness advises wearing eye protection “if your eyes are sensitive to bright light.”
Everyone’s eyes are sensitive to bright light. You don’t necessarily get a signal (pain) when you’re damaging your eyes.
You might have heard that red light therapy helps conditions like macular degeneration and vision in the elderly.
That’s true, it does, but that doesn’t mean that bright lights are safe for the eyes.
I will say this repeatedly because it’s essential: Bright light can permanently damage the retinas and cause partial blindness.
Cost of Red Light Therapy at Planet Fitness vs. a Salon
The cost of red light therapy at Planet Fitness is a no-brainer.
Salons charge $35 to $75 per treatment. Planet Fitness charges $25 per month.
Say you did red light therapy every day for a month.
This would cost $25 at Planet Fitness. But at a salon, using an average fee of $50, the cost would be about $1500.
Should You Use Total Body Enhancement Before or After Tanning?
They also recommend using the machine before tanning, which I found surprising. Red light therapy is protective against UV rays.
I know I’m not preaching to the choir if you’re asking about tanning, but you know that tanning is dangerous, right?
Can you get a tan from red light therapy? I’m afraid not. Only ultraviolet light can add pigment to the skin.
Why are the Total Body Enhancement Bulbs Pink and White and Not Red?
Many people (including myself) have observed that the bulbs in the machine don’t look red. Although they output red and infrared light, the human eye sees it as white and pink.
The brain sees white light because the bulbs also emit blue and green light. When it sees white and red combined, it sees pink.
They are all based on interpretations of the eye and brain. The actual wavelengths are mainly red and infrared.
You can test this for yourself with any Android phone, take a video and you will see the lights are red.
The human brain is notoriously bad at detecting light and color variations in some situations. This is one of them.
How to Use the Planet Fitness Total Body Enhancement Machine
- You do need to be naked to get the benefits of the machine (or any red light therapy, for that matter).
- The machine is in a room with a door that you can lock. There are no windows, so you have the place completely to yourself.
- With goggles in hand and ready to put on your eyes, approach the control panel on the machine’s wall. If you didn’t bring your pair, use Planet Fitness’s tanning goggles, as they sell them for the tanning booths.
- Press the “start button” at the bottom of the control panel.
- Put your goggles on and go for the ride.
- After a few minutes of red light therapy, the plate will vibrate. Your goal is to stand tall while it gently throws you about. The arrows allow you to increase the intensity of the vibration plate.
Conclusion
The Total Body Enhancement (Beauty Angel or Red Light Room) at Planet Fitness is a red light therapy and vibration therapy machine.
It helps you with beauty and health issues.
The major effects of red light therapy are skin and muscle health. For vibration plates, the effects help with fat loss and muscle health.
The program is 12 minutes per session, and the recommended treatment time is 1 to 4 times per week.
