Mind Over Matter?

Power Balance Bracelets and other similar products were the new phenomenon that hit this past year. This newly purported performance enhancing technology is contained in a bracelet or pendant that is to be worn on a person’s wrist or around their neck. The bracelet and pendants contains a hologram device that uses Mylar technology. It is designed to positively react with the body’s energy flow and improve performance. In doing this, it is claimed that it helps your body focus to become more balanced, more flexible, and stronger. Having better balance and stability while becoming stronger and more flexible would Surely improve performance for all athletes. Though it is noted that the bracelet "does not make a person stronger than they already are, but rather help make the person be as strong as they should be by positively interacting with the body’s natural energy flow" (Power Balance).

The big question that everyone asks is: Do Power Balance Bands really work? Since this is a new product line, there are not any extensive research and scientific evidence to back up the effectiveness of these bands. However, there have been demonstrations, conducted by the company who produced these bands, that display the bands positively changing a person’s balance and flexibility the moment they put a bracelet on. People who have bought these bands for their own personal uses have mixed reactions toward the bands. Some people believe that it does work and they are performing better than they did before getting a power band bracelet and others reported that it was a waste of money because they did not notice a difference in their performance at all.

One explanation that could cause people to believe that these bands are in fact effective is called the placebo effect. The placebo effect occurs when people believe that they are feeling better or performing better due to a treatment or physical object, and in this case, the power band, when in actuality, the treatment or physical object that was purported to be beneficial was fake. When people believe that the power band is effective, they will be more confident and subconsciously focused and thus perform better in order to prove that their perception on the power band is true. When they see the positive results, they believe that it was the power band that helped them perform better and that they would not be able to do as well without it. Whether the power bands are really effective or not, we do not know for we do not have scientific evidence that proves these claims to be true. Despite the lack of evidence of the effectiveness, these bands pose no harm so it would not hurt to give them a try and see for yourself if they actually work or not.