What is Planet Fitness Total Body Enhancement Red Light Therapy?
Have you ever wondered about that tall, red tube at your gym? As a regular gym-goer, I was curious. As a red light therapy fanatic, I had to know more. Here’s what you should know about the Total Body Enhancement (TBE) at Planet Fitness. Bring your goggles, this sucker is bright.
Total Enhancement helps reduce stretch marks, scars, cellulite, acne, and wrinkles; it speeds up muscle recovery and relieves pain. It reduces pain and oxidative stress and speeds up muscle recovery.
The booth provides clinical and salon therapy for a tiny fraction of the price. If you’re tired of feeling like you’re not reaching your fitness or skin health goals, you can use the TBE to improve your skin and muscles without spending a fortune on expensive treatments.
What is Total Body Enhancement? Red Light Therapy!
The Total Body Enhancement machine at Planet Fitness uses red light therapy and vibration for your whole body. It looks like a vertical tanning booth, but no ultraviolet (dangerous) light exists. The vibration plate is for fat loss and muscle conditioning; It’s unnecessary for the benefits of wrinkle, acne, and pain relief.
Total Body Enhancement Red Light Therapy Benefits
Total Body Enhancement is a red light therapy machine that uses red and infrared light to stimulate healthy cell responses. This translates to a truly enormous set of benefits for skin, hair, and weight.
Red Light Therapy Benefits
Red light therapy is proven to replace wrinkles with collagen, sagging with elastin, and acne with reduced redness and cell turnover. It pokes holes in fat cells and relieves delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) from heavy lifting.
- Prevents and relieves delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
- Speeds soft tissue injury recovery
- Reduces cellulite
- Reduces stretch marks and scars
- Reduces acne
- Reduces wrinkles
- Rejuvenates skin
- Enhances skin tone
- Reduces pain
- Speeds exercise recovery
- Increases collagen and elastin
- Improves circulation and oxidative stress
Vibration Plate Benefits
The vibration plate assists with the machine’s fat loss function. The Beauty Angel’s wavelengths poke holes in the fat cells that then let go of their contents. Vibration maneuvers the fat to the lymph system for drainage; otherwise, cells can reabsorb the fat.
- 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.
How Does the Total Body Enhancement Work?
Red light therapy reaches the mitochondria, tiny parts in our cells. Our bodies have trillions of mitochondria, so the red light has many places to help. 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. The light helps the mitochondria make more energy, which the body uses to fix and heal itself. 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 muscles heal faster after exercise because more oxygen reaches them with better blood circulation.. For skin, it means improved tone and texture and reduced fine lines/wrinkles.
Science shows that red light treatment can also help reduce muscle swelling. 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 mitochondrial benefits. It is truly an anti-aging therapy that restores the electron transport chain, which helps create the biological batteries for tissue repair.
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 weekly.
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. While you can use your mask, there’s not much point. You’re substituting the booth’s light with your mask’s. 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 Best 3 Red Light Therapy for Face Devices in 2024 (for Wrinkles, Acne & Eczema)
Why Use The Vibration Plate?
Total Enhancement includes a vibration plate you use while exposing yourself to the light. 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.
Vibration therapy improves blood flow, helps remove waste from the body, and brings important nutrients to damaged muscles to help them heal.
Vibration is a gentle exercise that can also improve your flexibility and strength. At the right speed, vibrations help make the proteins that build your muscles, helping you lose fat and grow muscles.
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 Red Light Therapy?
Although red light therapy and vibration technically have no side effects, depending on how you define the term, there might be some.
- You should not use the Total Body Enhancement if you take medicine that makes you sensitive to light.
- 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.
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. 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 entirely 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.
My Experience with the Total Body Enhancement
I tried the TBE red light therapy, and this is what happened. I was not in a good place physically that day. My back hurt, and one of the significant triggers of that pain is standing in one spot. So, it might not have been the best time to try a therapy that requires me to stand up for 12 minutes.
I liked the booth in a private room with a lockable door. Even with that assurance, I still found getting naked “at the gym” to be a weird experience. I wore the flip-flops I also use in the shower to protect my feet.
The controls were straightforward. I was surprised when the vibration plate didn’t start right away. It wasn’t broken; it just had a delay.
I didn’t realize I needed eye protection. The light was bright and uncomfortable. Having used only at-home red light therapy, I hadn’t experienced a machine this bright. Wear eye goggles in this booth! Holy cow, it is bright!
After five minutes of standing, my back and hip pain threatened to kick in. This is an excellent time to point out that the pain relief benefit of red light therapy is not instant. If you are doing something that causes pain, red light therapy is not going to prevent it. I didn’t set myself up for success; standing when I needed to sit is an excellent example.
The constant standing is a deal breaker for my spondylolisthesis. I need to walk or sit because standing is too much of a pain trigger. This is what I learned:
- Wear flip-flops to protect your feet.
- Don’t bother with the TBE if standing is too uncomfortable.
- Wear eye goggles!
Planet Fitness Red Light Therapy Pros and Cons
One of the reasons I like the Total Body Fitness red light therapy at Planet Fitness is that it’s bringing red light therapy to the masses. You’ve gotten this far in the article; you now know more about red light therapy than 99% of the planet. Here’s what I like and dislike about the TBE Booth and how Planet Fitness implements it.
Pros
Cons
Conclusion
The Total Body Enhancement (Beauty Angel or Red Light Room) at Planet Fitness is a red light and vibration therapy machine that helps with beauty and health issues. The significant 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.
