Fitness buffs are taking their workouts to astronomical heights with an exercise machine originally designed to help Russian cosmonauts avoid muscular atrophy while in space. The machine vibrates at up to 50 times per second, which causes your muscles to contract while you exercise on the plate.

Sting, Hillary Swank and Clint Eastwood have all used the Power Plate—and so has our web editor Kat Tancock, who gave it a whirl at the Flex RX Studio in Toronto. "At first it seems weird—after all, you're working out on a vibrating platform. But you feel the vibrations through the whole body, and especially on the muscles you're working. It's a fun and different way to do strength training," she says.

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