USA Today reports about a mysterious flexibility devices that helps athletes (particularly figure skaters) improve their flexibility.
About the size of a shoebox, with a domed lid and covered in gray vinyl, the device doesn't do anything except vibrate at a particular frequency when it's plugged in.
But when athletes from swimmers to skaters put an ankle, a thigh or a hip to it — or use an adapted rod version that can be rested on a shoulder — amazing things happen to their flexibility.
The device was said to have helped Kimmie Meissner lift her skate over her head (I am guessing they mean doing a Bielmann spiral or spin). Additionally, a test group of male pairs skaters found that although two men could do splits before using the device, after using the device for just one session, ten men could then do splits.
The article is a bit vague about what the device is (it doesn't seem to have a technical name) and does not say where you can get your hands on one if you are in training.