Vibration Training in Elite Sport: Effective Training Solution or Just Another Fad?

Abstract

The use of vibration as a training intervention has been suggested for more than a decade. Following the initial promising studies, a large number of investigations have been conducted to understand the acute and chronic effects of this novel training modality mainly using special populations, sedentary, physically active, and aged individuals. There is a small number of studies involving athletes. For this reason it is at the moment very difficult to provide safe and effective training guidelines to athletes. We discuss the current findings related to the effectiveness on elite athletes and provide some guidance on practical applications. Vibration is without a doubt an interesting intervention; however, more needs to be done to understand the physiological mechanisms involved in the adaptive responses to vibration exercise. Furthermore, more studies are needed to establish a dose-response relationship to vibration training to provide indications on safe and effective vibration training prescriptions.