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Introduction
In recent years, vibration training has received attention from science and in practice as an interesting means of achieving progress in terms of strength and speed within a short time. In addition, it has been shown that vibration training is also capable of increasing flexibility and bone density. The studies involving vibration are not unambiguous, however, which also applies to the methods used in the various studies. Where vibration frequency, amplitude and acceleration alone are concerned, practically no study is the same. The objective of this literature study is to bring clarity to the scientific results on the effects of vibration. These
results are compared with current knowledge of the motor system. This method will expose the underlying mechanisms of the effects found, or the lack of these. There are still large gaps in the knowledge of the human motor system, which means that not all the mechanisms put forward in this report can avoid being hypothetical in nature. This deficiency in scientific knowledge emphasizes the importance of knowledge of vibration training gained in practice with day-to-day training. Science by no means has all the answers to questions based on practical experience and can neither confirm nor deny some practical findings. It is of major importance, therefore, to listen to the experiences of athletes and patients in rehabilitation, and to document these experiences in practice. The structure of this report is as follows. Chapter 2 provides a brief summary of present knowledge in the field of the motor system in general and spinal reflexes in particular. The latter are of particular importance in vibration training, which is presumed to have the greatest effect on this part of the motor system. Chapter 3 is a short introduction to the development of vibration training. The origins of vibration training are considered, its initial applications and recent developments. This is followed in chapter 4 by an overview of the potential of vibration
training. Vibration training engages at the level of spinal reflexes and these reflexes have a great potential for
increasing their efficiency. Chapter 5 is the most important section of this report. This chapter consists of an extensive review of the studies which have specifically researched the effects of vibration on force, power and flexibility, among other things. The effects on force and power are divided into acute effects and structural adaptations, because these two
effects are produced by different mechanisms.
Finally, chapter 6 contains a discussion of these results and their practical implications, while recommendations are also made for further research.
What is the Potential of Vibration Training?
Improvement of power and force is not only effected intramuscularly The most important potential of vibration training is in the improvement of muscular strength, and this is therefore the focus of most studies of vibration training. As reviewed in the previous chapters, vibration produces reflexive contraction. The improvement of muscular strength actually has two main components. In the first place, it is possible to bring about intramuscular changes through intensive weight training. The contractional properties of the muscle tissue improve as a result, so that a maximal contraction provides more force and more power (with the right training). But apart from intramuscular changes, neurological adaptations are also capable of improving muscular strength; the control of muscle fibers is far from optimum in untrained subjects in particular. On the one hand, the neural drive that originates in the higher regions of the central nervous system may be inadequate to make all muscle fibers contract. On the other hand, apart from this excitory volley, there are various inhibitory influences that prevent all muscle fibers from contracting during a maximal exertion. There are indications that this inhibition has a particularly significant effect during fatigue (Woods et al., 1987).
The consequence of these two factors is that not all motor units are recruited during maximal exertion. Magnetic resonance technology has shown, for example, that the whole muscle is not used during a maximal contraction; certain fibers remain unused. A striking illustration of this is that the force of contraction is increased by additional external stimulation during a maximal exertion (Gandevia, 2001). It has also been established that progression occurs in the contralateral leg or the contralateral arm when only one of the two limbs is trained (Enoka, 1997). A much-quoted study is that of Behm and Sale (1993A). They gave test subjects weight training for 16 weeks, during which training one leg made a rapid contraction (dynamic), while the other leg did the same but was blocked (isometric). Both legs had to be contracted quickly. At the end of 16 weeks, both legs had made progress on the contraction speed with which the auxotonic leg moved. The authors concluded that the intention of the movement is more important than the actual performance, a finding that endorses the importance of the neurological component of the trainability of muscle fibers. The bilateral deficit is another example. The bilateral deficit is the phenomenon that a maximal contraction with two limbs produces less force than the sum of the contractions of the
individual limbs. Inhibition between the control of motor units of both limbs probably plays a role in this effect. Imaginary training is another striking example of the room for improvement that exists in relation to the control
of motor units. Various studies discovered an increase in contraction force after imaginary training, which is to say movements made only in the mind. A clearer example of an increase in muscular power without intramuscular changes appears almost inconceivable (Gandevia, 2001). It should be noted that the above findings occur most emphatically in muscle groups that are infrequently used.
What Is Vibration Training
Vibration training was originally a modification of the tonic vibration reflex (TVR) produced by tendon vibration. The TVR is a reflexive contraction resulting from the very local stimulation of tendon or muscle (Bongiovanni et al., 1990 and other sources). The change in muscle length is detected by the muscle spindles in the muscle, which subsequently innervate the a efferents of the host muscle through Ia afferents, among other things. This activity is expressed in an increased EMG of the relevant muscle. The muscle is also able to supply some force in this way, without "higher" control. The generation of the TVR is used as a method of treatment in physiotherapy
(Issurin et al., 1994). Its application in sport required a more practical stimulation method, however. Nasarov, a Russian coach for athletes (gymnasts), was the first to apply vibration stimulation especially to help athletes. The vibration wave was
applied to distal muscles and thus transmitted to proximal muscles by the tissue. Nasarov used a special device
(see figure 9) to generate the vibration. The vibration frequency was 23 Hz. Nasarov discovered that the vibration produced a rapid increase in the range of motion (ROM) of the joint in question and speculated on a shift in the pain threshold (Nasarov, 1991: in KÃ1/4nnemeyer and Schmidtbleicher, 1997), a line of reasoning later used by Issurin et al. (1994) to explain the improvement of the ROM.
Furthermore, Nasarov hypothesized that vibration training improves blood circulation, among other things. Vibration as a means of training was later researched by various scientists. These studies did not usually focus on vibration training as a means of improving flexibility, but as a means of increasing muscular strength. Bosco's research team, for example, used a vibration platform on which the test subjects did the vibration training on their toes in a squat ( Bosco et al., 1999). Issurin et al. used vibration training during regular weight training. After several weeks of training in this manner, Issurin et al. discovered an increase in force during a maximal contraction in the movement also used during training (Issurin et al., 1994).
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