Good vibrations? – The use of vibration therapy for exercise recovery, injury prevention and rehabilitation

Abstract

Background: There has been a resurgence of vibration technology and the application of direct and indirect vibration therapy (VT) has found its way into medical, clinical, and rehabilitation fields. Direct (applied to the area) and indirect (transferred to the whole body or body part) VT have been reported to enhance muscle force, power, and flexibility, and raise intra-muscular temperature, which is fundamental to injury prevention and exercise-associated rehabilitation and may reduce pain.

Objectives: To provide a discussion on the scientific merit of the limited evidence for direct and indirect VT.

Major findings: Direct VT is supported for reducing pain. However, it is equivocal whether indirect VT has the same effect to reduce delayed onset of muscle soreness. Indirect VT has potential to alleviate muscle soreness symptoms and can improve static balance in the elderly and compromised health groups. It is unclear whether indirect VT increases reflex activity to increase joint stability and reduce possible muscle strains. Nevertheless, indirect VT increases intramuscular muscle temperature at a faster rate compared to conventional warm-up intervention, which would prove useful in exercise-associated rehabilitation. Indirect VT may have other additional benefits: it increases torque and range of motion in chronic lower back pain; maintains cartilage integrity when weight-bearing activities are difficult to achieve; increases knee extensor force and decreases sensory deficits in reconstructed ACL injury.

Conclusions: There is merit in using indirect VT as a rehabilitation device because no adverse effects have been associated with its use in research, clinical, or physical therapy. Vibration therapy has the potential to complement existing rehabilitation practices because of its ease and time efficient application. However, current research is limited and the comparison of VT protocols and study designs leaves the magnitude of adaptations and the mechanism of improvements in some VT studies uncertain. Therefore, additional studies are required to ascertain the optimal range for vibration frequency and duration, which will provide a better understanding of its mechanism and its contribution as a legitimate modality in the physical therapy field.

Keywords:

• Balance
• Muscle temperature
• Pain
• Proprioception
• Warm-up