585

REVIEW

Whole body vibration exercise: are vibrations good for you?
M Cardinale, J Wakeling
............................................................................................................................... Br J Sports Med 2005;39:585–589. doi: 10.1136/bjsm.2005.016857

Whole body vibration has been recently proposed as an exercise intervention because of its potential for increasing force generating capacity in the lower limbs. Its recent popularity is due to the combined effects on the neuromuscular and neuroendocrine systems. Preliminary results seem to recommend vibration exercise as a therapeutic approach for sarcopenia and possibly osteoporosis. This review analyses state of the art whole body vibration exercise techniques, suggesting reasons why vibration may be an effective stimulus for human muscles and providing the rationale for future studies.
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fitness and rehabilitation centres are using vibration in their exercise programmes, but current knowledge on appropriate safe and effective exercise protocols is very limited, and claims made by companies and pseudo-experts can be misleading. The purpose of this review is to analyse the potential mechanisms by which muscles respond to vibration and to summarise current knowledge of the effects of vibration on human strength and power performance.

IS VIBRATION A NATURAL STIMULUS?
During all sporting activities our bodies interact with the external environment and experience externally applied forces. These forces induce vibrations and oscillations within the tissues of the body. Tissue vibrations can be induced from impact related events where either a part of the body or sporting equipment in contact with the body collides with an object. Examples of this are the impact shocks that are experienced through the leg when the heel strikes the ground during each running stride or the impact shock that occurs