Neuromuscular Activation By Means Of Vibrations

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Neuromuscular Activation By Means Of Vibrations

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/108527.php

A researcher from the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid has

collaborated with the University of Granada in the development of a

research study on the possible effects of vibrations as a mean of

neuromuscular activation to improve jumping performance. The results

suggest that the effect could be dependant on the level of training.

Lately, new technologies applied to improving performance and health

have experienced a booming rise. One of those has been the use of

vibrating platforms to improve athletic performance in general and

muscular strength in particular.

The application of mechanical vibrations through technologies like

vibrating platforms has been proposed by many recent studies as tool

capable of increasing muscular performance. Nevertheless, the results

offered are contradictory. This has motivated the group EFFECTS-262

of the Universidad de Granada, in collaboration with the Facultad de

Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte at the Universidad

Politécnica de Madrid, to try to clear this situation by evaluating

the possible effects of a short vibration on the jumping abilities of

young adults of both sexes.

A group of 114 university students, 37 of them male and 77 female,

with an average of 19.6 years of age has been used as test subjects

for an experiment to evaluate the height reached by the subjects when

jumping, and compare the results with the height reached after a

short stimulation by the vibration platform (Fig 1.)

The main parameters to be controlled, since they accurately represent

the characteristics of the vibration training, are: the frequency of

the vibrations (number of vibration cycles per second, measured in

hertz Hz), the time duration of the training measured in seconds or

minutes, the amplitude of movement of the vibration source measured

in millimeters and the vibration charge that is generated (g)

The results of the study indicate that vibration stimuli ranging from

20 to 30 Hz and lasting from 90 to 120 seconds would generate a short

decrease in the jumping heights achieved immediately after the

application of the stimulation. However, such decrease seems to

completely disappear after a short resting period. The test subjects

recovered their normal jumping ability after a minute of recovery, as

shown in (fig 2.)

The researchers believe that vibration stimulation could cause a

local temporal muscular fatigue that would be the cause of the

decrease on the heights reached.

If the results from this study are compared with those presented by

experiments with a similar focus, it could be suggested that such

stimulation has stronger effects proportional to the level of the

training that the subjects are accustomed to. The inclusion of test

subjects with low training levels in this study* could account for

the decrease in jumping heights. The researchers involved concluded

that in subjects that are not actively training, it is convenient to

have resting periods of at least a minute after stimulation before

jumping to their full potential.