Power plate. The name alone conjures up notions of tectonic shifts and seismic reactions. So could it be a life-changing piece of machinery?

Knowing the Scottish rugby management's constant pursuit of anything that can give them a competitive edge, the news that Frank Hadden, Scotland's head coach, and Mike Blair, the national team captain, were among those endorsing the product, got my attention.

It has become fashionable in gyms, and while the science does not yet appear to have been fully proven, the basic theory is that by exercising on a platform set to vibrate at a constant rate, the effects of the workout are greatly intensified.

It would be a cheap shot to suggest Scotland's recent results are not the greatest of marketing aids, since every major national side will have access to the same technology.

Hadden says the SRU has used them extensively for some time to aid strength, flexibility and rehabilitation work. Other advocates include Ali Paton, the TV presenter and, in this context more relevantly, the former Gladiator. She says a 25-minute workout - a standard session - leaves her feeling the next day as if she has worked out for an hour and a half in the gym.

Many gyms now have the machines, but those with expertise reckon the vast majority of people have little or no idea how to use them to best effect.

So I was persuaded by the folks at StudioEH1 in Edinburgh - who have just opened their second centre in the capital after a year in business - to see whether an out-of-shape hack in his mid-40s would see significant benefits.

Asked for a goal, I suggested getting back to and maybe even improving upon my PB at our running group's monthly time trial. The day after we started, I ran the 3.6-mile course and was a full three minutes off the pace of last May's best effort.

After around 20 sessions under the "encouragement" of Andy Hamilton - a right good lad, in spite of being someone who grew up in the rugby heartland of the Borders, yet chooses to play football for Hawick Albion - it was time to get out there again.

Still quite well off the PB, achieved it must be said in warm sunshine on a lovely spring evening as opposed to a freezing cold morning in late January, my improved conditioning got me round some 80 seconds quicker than when we started the Power Plate sessions.

As I have never been a gym monkey, it is more difficult to draw comparison, but the rate of improvement in all the exercises undertaken was striking. What they call "core strength", which has an impact on all sorts of aspects of everyday life, not least in improving posture, genuinely felt greatly enhanced.

Of course, in the end the basic message remains that you get out what you put in, but the length and nature of the sessions was a much more attractive proposition than boring myself to tears for hours in a gym.

Even so, it is all very well looking for an edge, but you still have to get the basics right. More Power Plate sessions may help maintain form when tired, but improving the PB will be all about pounding out the miles on the road.

Which brings us back to Scotland's rugby team and the realisation that any edge they may find physiologically or tactically can only ever be temporary since better resourced countries will quickly identify what they are doing and counter or replicate it.

The basics of making the right decisions, on and off the pitch and being able to execute them by being fit enough, strong enough, fast enough and aware enough, are what will give them a chance of improving on a run that has brought just three wins in the last 13 Tests.

The fitness and, now they have picked the right backs, the speed, seem to be there. As for strength and awareness, improvements can be made, mainly in selection meetings.

Rugby is a sport for specialists. Sometimes less athletic footballers make better props and locks because they stick to a limited range of tasks and perform them well. This season, too many Scotland forwards have been asked to do jobs with which they are unfamiliar. That in turn means having to think too much about the basics, making it less likely that they can respond instinctively to what is happening around them.

In selecting Ally Hogg at blindside flanker, Jason White at lock, Ally Dickinson at tighthead prop and asking Simon Taylor to cover lock, it has looked like Scotland's selectors are seeking an edge.

Yet had the basics been right in the scrums last Saturday, we might have witnessed what would, for every player afield, have been an international PB with an away win in Paris.