Effects of different magnitudes of whole-body vibration on arm muscular performance.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of different vibration magnitudes via feet on the number of repetitions performed, mean velocity, and perceived exertion during a set of elbow-extension exercise to failure (70% 1 repetition maximum [1RM] load). Twenty recreationally active students (14 men and 6 women) performed, in 3 different days, 1 elbow-extension set applying randomly 1 of the 3 experimental conditions: high magnitude (HM; 50 Hz and 2.51 mmp-p; 98.55 mxs-2), low magnitude (LM; 30 Hz and 1.15 mmp-p; 20.44 m.s-2) or control (Control, without vibration stimulus). Results indicate that the vibration via feet provides superimposed stimuli for elbow-extensor performance, enhancing the total number of repetitions performed in the HM and LM conditions, which was significantly higher (p <or= 0.05) than that performed in the Control condition (21.5 and 18.1%, respectively). Moreover, there was a significant increase (p <or= 0.05) in the average velocity for the whole set in the HM condition in comparison to the LM and Control conditions. This study provides evidence that an HM of vibration generates more neuromuscular facilitation than an LM. These data suggest that a vibration stimulus applied to the feet can result in positive improvements in upper body resistance exercise performance.