What is the difference between a wobble board and a vibration plate

Changes in motor unit activity and respiratory oxygen uptake during 6 weeks of progressive whole-body vibration combined with progressive, high intensity resistance training.

Journal of Musculoskeletal and Neuronal Interactions. Accessed March 8, Karatrantou K, et al. Effects of whole-body vibration training frequency on neuromuscular performance: A randomized controlled study. Biology of Sport. Accessed March 18, Camacho-Cardenosa M, et al. Effects of whole-body vibration training combined with cyclic hypoxia on bone mineral density in elderly people. Frontiers in Physiology. Zago M, et al. Whole-body vibration training in obese subjects: A systematic review.

PLoS One. Pamukoff DN, et al. Whole-body and local muscle vibration immediately improve quadriceps function in individuals with anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Osteoarthritis of the hand or wrist. Mayo Clinic; Fischer M, et al. Long-term effects of whole-body vibration on human gait: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Frontiers in Neurology. Zeng Y-L, et al. Whole-body vibration exercise for low back pain. A meta-analysis protocol of randomized controlled trial. Accessed March 30, See also 10, steps 5K training schedule Exercise warm-up Aerobic exercise Air pollution and exercise Ankle weights for fitness walkers Barefoot running shoes Buying athletic shoes?

Check your arch Buying new workout shoes? Get the right fit Choose the right walking shoes Cycle your way to better health Do you need to warm up before you exercise?

If you have any known health concerns in addition to this list, consult your physician and advise them you wish to begin a sonic vibration exercise program which vibrates in a vertical plane between Hz vibrations per second and has an adjustable intensity rate at which the plate vibrates up and down.

Your body may endure between negative and positive 3 Gs of force for up to 10 minutes. This can be equivalent to 1 hour of cardio. Six weeks of whole-body vibration exercise improves pain and fatigue in women with fibromyalgia.

What are the benefits of whole-body vibration? Is it just for fitness? How often should I do whole-body vibration? Should I ease into WBV? How many calories can I burn in a 10 minute session?

Will WBV exercise help increase my flexibility? Further standing positions to test the postural balance were Romberg stance eyes closed and one-leg stance eyes open. For all 3 balance tests patients were instructed to stand as still as possible for 10 s. The best out of three attempts was used for analysis.

The balance tests were assessed using a ground reaction force platform Leonardo Mechanograph, Novotec Medical, Pforzheim, Germany with 8 integrated force sensors Hz each to calculate the center of force [ 18 ]. COPD Patient performing a semi-tandem stance balance test on a force measurement platform. Patient provided written informed consent for the use of this picture. To measure muscular power a countermovement jump was performed on the Leonardo platform [ 19 ].

Patients were asked to jump as high as possible with using arm-swing [ 20 ]. The best test out of three jumps was used for analysis. Peak Watt per kg body weight was used as outcome.

The minimal important difference in COPD is estimated to be 30 m [ 21 ]. A 4-m gait speed test has been performed according to Kon et al. The minimal important difference in COPD is estimated at 0. A five-repetition STST outcome: test duration in seconds [ 24 ] and a 1 min STST outcome: number of repetitions [ 25 ] were performed from a 46 cm height bench with arms crossed in front of the chest. Based on these assumptions, a sample size of 24 per group was necessary to achieve this power at this effect size.

Stratification for randomization was done according to balance performance using a threshold of mm absolute path length during the baseline semi-tandem stance. The investigator responsible for patient recruitment received group allocation by a third party picking a sealed envelope which contained group allocation.

Blinding of the study participants was not possible within the study setting due to the nature of the intervention. However, the outcome assessors and the statistician were blinded to the group allocation. For comparing pre to post PR effects, a two-tailed Wilcoxon rank-sum test was applied. The Mann—Whitney U-test was used to compare the between-group differences. Regression models with a forward variable selection algorithm were used to test for significant predictors of change following the intervention.

Fifty-seven out of eligible patients met the inclusion criteria and were randomized to the trial. Nine patients dropped out of the study for reasons see flow chart in Fig.

For more baseline measures see Table 2. Patients in the control group did not significantly improve in any balance test.

The 4 m gait speed test improved significantly only in the WBV group 0. It was not possible to set up a regression model, since no stable model could not be achieved, which might be related to the small number of patients. Changes in balance performance during Romberg stance, semi-tandem stance, and 1-leg stance following a whole-body vibration WBV balance training or conventional balance training BAL.

In our study, we found that WBV improved balance and neuromuscular performance significantly more compared to conventional balance training in COPD patients. It is known from former studies that in COPD patients postural control is impaired and gait parameters are altered compared to healthy age-matched controls [ 10 , 11 , 27 ].

These impairments are of clinically relevance because they are associated with a lower functional performance and independence in activities of daily living [ 10 ]. This magnitude of balance impairment was similar to the one reported earlier in COPD [ 9 ]. A recent meta-analysis has identified several independent risk factors like age, falls history, balance impairment, supplemental oxygen etc.

However, impaired balance performance was the only risk factor that has the potential to improve. Two recent systematic reviews concluded that general exercise training interventions during PR can improve balance performance in COPD [ 30 , 31 ]. Furthermore, PR including a specific balance training program seemed to have the largest effect on balance [ 31 ].

A randomized, controlled trial by Beauchamp et al. The authors concluded that the addition of a specific balance training program significantly improved balance performance and self-reported physical function in patients with moderate to severe COPD.

In contrast, patients in the conventional balance training group in our study did not improve balance performance only patients in the WBV group did.

This difference might be related to the different balance assessment methods clinical balance tests like Berg Balance Scale vs. Furthermore, the longer exercise duration 30 vs. There is some evidence that greater benefits in balance performance can be achieved by higher doses of exercise [ 33 ].

Also, our conventional balance training program was strictly limited to the same four exercises on the balance board and was not extended to other exercises or further unstable surfaces. However, this was chosen to keep the exercise content in the two groups as standardized as possible.

Furthermore, the combination of a conventional balance training program in addition to a general exercise training might have alleviated the balance outcomes since general exercise training itself has a very strong training effect [ 34 ]. However, interestingly balance training performed on a WBV platform was able to improve balance performance significantly even after such a short training period. Former studies in older adults have already shown that WBV improves objectively measured balance performance [ 35 ] as well as self-perceived balance confidence [ 36 ].

Furthermore, a randomized, controlled trial by Stolzenberg et al. It was concluded that combining strength training with WBV improved neuromuscular performance significantly more than strength training plus conventional balance training.

Also, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis 10 studies including subjects summarized that WBV significantly improved functional mobility in elderly subjects [ 37 ]. It was hypothesized that these improvements could be useful for the tasks of daily living [ 37 ]. Currently, the underlying mechanisms for the WBV benefits on neuromuscular function are not fully understood yet [ 38 , 39 ]. One of the most established explanations is that muscle contractions during WBV are induced by passive stretch reflexes [ 40 , 41 ].

The micro-movements during WBV facilitate the excitability of the spinal reflex [ 42 ] compared to voluntary muscle control during conventional exercise training. Beyond these significant benefits of WBV on neuromuscular performance, we did not find a significant difference in 6-MWD.

This might be related to the reason, that the 6-MWT is not a highly sensitive test to detect changes especially between two active training interventions that are very similar [ 34 , 44 ]. Interestingly, the 4-m gait speed test improved significantly only in the WBV group. This test is more suitable to reflect a patient's usual walking speed. Furthermore, the 4-m gait speed test is known as a surrogate marker of physical frailty [ 45 ].

Peak quadriceps force improved similarly in both groups what is in line with findings from former studies [ 9 , 46 ]. Since WBV is not inducing a heavy muscular load during exercise a difference in muscular force was not expected. Our study has some limitations that need to be discussed. However, we have chosen to do so because it is known that WBV has no additional effect on neuromuscular performance in well-trained athletes [ 47 ] and has only little effect in COPD patients with preserved exercise performance [ 9 ].

Therefore, WBV seems especially beneficial in subjects with impaired exercise and balance performance. A strength of our study is that balance and neuromuscular performance were objectively measured by a well-validated force measurement platform and standardized test procedures. To summarize, studies on the effects of exercise interventions on balance in COPD are still scarce, and more high-quality research is required [ 30 ].

In our study, we found that balance training performed on a WBV platform is superior to improve objectively measured balance performance and muscular power compared to conventional balance board training in patients with severe COPD and functional impairments.

Datasets are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The acute effect of whole-body vibration on the hoffmann reflex. J Strength Cond Res.

PubMed Article Google Scholar. Variation in neuromuscular responses during acute whole-body vibration exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc. Google Scholar. EMG activity during whole body vibration: motion artifacts or stretch reflexes? Eur J Appl Physiol. Efficacy of whole body vibration therapy on pain and functional ability in people with non-specific low back pain: a systematic review. Whole-body vibration training and bone health in postmenopausal women: a systematic review and meta-analysis.