The Effects of Whole Body Vibration on Muscle Recovery and Performance

Facilitating muscle recovery in trained individuals is essential, as it allows for a quicker return to activity without reduction in performance. Many proposed modalities have been studied but have not shown consistent effectiveness. A relatively new modality, whole-body vibration (WBV) has been shown to increase strength and power outcomes and recently has been shown to decrease perceived pain associated with muscle soreness. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of WBV following exercise induced muscle damage over a period of 72 hours in recreationally trained females. Participants were randomly selected into either the control group or the WBV group. There were three familiarization visits and four testing visits lasting about 45mins each. During every testing visit, all dependent variables were assessed 3 times (pre, post1, post2) in the following order: vertical jump, maximal voluntary isometric strength, interpolated-twitch, muscle activity, pressure pain threshold (PPT), range of motion (ROM), thigh circumference, and pain on movement. On visit 4, pre assessments were taken folloby 4, 40% front loaded, sets to repetition failure during split squats to induce muscle damage. This was folloimmediately by WBV or control (rest) and the measurement of dependent variables. Following a 10 minute rest, measurements were reassessed. Visits 5-7 were replications of visit 4 with the exclusion of the damage protocol. Each dependent variable was measured by a 2x12 (group x time) mixed factor ANOVA. Significant (p\u3c0.05) main effects for group were found for twitch torque up to 24hr post, with control being greater than WBV. No significant main effects for group were found for all other variables. There were significant main effects for time from 0Pre to 24Pre and 48Pre in all PPT measures, active ROM, and muscle pain on movement. Significant (p\u3c0.05) main effects for time were found for vertical jumping variables, indicating jumping performance declined following muscle damage. A significant (p\u3c0.05) main effect for group was found for normalized peak EMG during jumping, indicating the control group exhibited greater muscle activity than the WBV group. Significant (p\u3c0.05) main effects for time were found for muscle contractile properties, indicating a change in muscle contractile properties following muscle damage. These results indicate that WBV does not aid in alleviating muscle pain or symptoms, vertical jump performance and voluntary muscle contractile properties following exercise induced muscle damage with further research needed in clinical and/or athletic populations