What is the Total Body Enhancement at Planet Fitness?
I workout at Planet Fitness, so I had to try the Total Body Enhancement machine. Of course, I wanted to know, “What is the Total Body Enhancement at Planet Fitness?” After researching, this is what I found.
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 fat 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 brand name of the machine), 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.
What are the Benefits of Using the Total Body Enhancement Machine at Planet Fitness?
You can probably benefit from using 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
- Improves bone density and enhances bone health
- Low-impact and suitable for all fitness levels
- 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 shine, 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. I think they’re moving to “Total Body Enhancement” because it’s a health as well as a beauty treatment.
On the “beauty” side, Total Body Enhancement (Beauty Angel) does help with reducing stretch marks, scars, cellulite, acne, and wrinkles, speeding muscle recovery, and providing 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 is a combination of red light therapy and whole-body vibration therapy, both of which have been extensively researched for their benefits.
Red light therapy penetrates into the mitochondria. Since our bodies have trillions upon trillions of mitochondria, there is a giant universe of targets that red light therapy can absorb.
This is why this therapy has so many effective 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 absorbs in the cells, specifically in organelles called the mitochondria.
Red light therapy stimulates the mitochondria to make more biological batteries that 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!
For muscles, this means quicker healing times 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 inflammation in muscles. This is because this type of light helps improve mitochondrial function which helps cells produce more energy in order to repair themselves faster.
Many people use red light therapy at home because of these huge mitochondrial benefits. It is truly an anti-aging therapy that restores something called the electron transport chain that 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 Is Red Light Therapy a Scam? What Do 9,188 Studies Say?
When to Use the Total Body Enhancement
Planet Fitness recommends using the machine two to 3 times per week for 90 days and then 1-2 times per week thereafter.
This is consistent with the studies on photobiomodulation (red light therapy science) showing that 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, it’s my article How Often Should You Use Red Light Therapy on the Face? (Expert Advice). If you were thinking about getting a mask, then you should see How to Shop for a Red Light Therapy Face Mask (for Acne and Wrinkles)
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).
The vibration also helps the muscles, and this is how. Vibration therapy is essentially a rapid shaking motion that stimulates muscle fibers while forcing blood throughout your body.
The increase in 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 along with 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.
If the fat loss works for you (it doesn’t always work, and it’s not yet clear 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 8 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.
- To learn more about using red light therapy for acne, read my article 13 Ways Red Light Therapy for Acne Works, Based on Studies
- To learn more about using red light therapy for wrinkles, read my article How Effective is Red Light Therapy for Wrinkles?
- I wrote a third one! This one is about hyperpigmentation: Will Red Light Therapy Help Melasma? (It’s Perfect for Hyperpigmentation)
- This is how it helps with post-exercise recovery and soreness: Red Light Therapy for Muscle Pain: Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
Who Should Avoid the Total Body Enhancement at Planet Fitness?
Although red light therapy and vibration technically have no side effects, there kind of are 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
- 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 not using 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.
Do You Need Eye Protection for the Total Body Enhancement Red Light Therapy?
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 any doubts about the danger of bright light on the eyes, please see my article Is Red Light Good for the Eyes? Read This Before You Try It
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 over and over because it’s important: 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. At Planet Fitness, this would cost $25. But at a salon, using an average fee of $50, the cost would come out to 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 your tan from red light therapy? I’m afraid that you cannot get a tan from red light therapy. 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. They are outputting red and infrared light, but it looks white and pink to the human eye.
The brain sees white light because there is also some blue and green coming from the bulbs. And when it sees white and red combined, it sees pink.
There are all based on eye and brain interpretations. 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.
In some situations, the human brain is notoriously bad at detecting light and color variations. 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. Use tanning goggles if you didn’t bring your own pair as Planet Fitness sells them for the tanning booths.
- You literally just 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 just red light therapy, the vibration plate will start to, you know, vibrate. Your goal is to simply 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.
