According to the New York Times, the hot new exercise trend is... standing on a jiggling platform. Apparently standing on a specially-designed vibrating platform may increase strength and stamina for short periods of times. From the Times:

But if there is an effect, the researchers said, it seems to be short-lived. People seem to be slightly faster sprinters immediately after standing on a platform. They also seem to be able to jump a bit higher. Vibrations also seem to help people warm up before more strenuous exercise.

"The effect wears off very quickly," Dr. Brown said. "We are not talking about using this to play a 90-minute soccer match. One sprint and the effect would be gone. You'd play for one minute and still have 89 minutes to go."

It's a given that this is the stupidest thing ever, right? The main questions: How did someone come up with this phenomenally dumb idea? Was some exercise freak caught in an earthquake, realized he was able to sprint a tiny bit faster for a minute after, and decided to make a machine based on this? Do you think if you stood on a jiggling platform while caught in an earthquake you would be able to run a little bit faster for two minutes? Maybe the next big exercise trend could be standing on a jiggling platform which rests on a different jiggling platform.