Whole-body vibration decreases delayed onset muscle soreness following eccentric exercise in elite hockey players: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common non-structural muscle injury which can disrupt training and impair performance in elite athletes. Vibration therapy reduces inflammation and improves neuromuscular efficiency, leading to reductions in pain and stiffness, and may be effective for the prevention or treatment of DOMS. However, the effect of whole-body vibration (WBV) used after sport in elite athletes has not been reported. Methods A randomised, controlled trial was performed. Participants were elite (national or international level) hockey players and underwent an eccentric exercise protocol previously shown to produce clinical DOMS. After exercise, one group underwent static stretching with WBV therapy, and the other performed stretching only. Baseline and serial post-exercise pain scores and measurements of quadriceps tightness were obtained. Results Eleven participants were recruited into each study arm. There were no significant differences in baseline group characteristics. Participants receiving WBV had significant reductions in both pain (p = 0.04) and quadriceps tightness (p = 0.02) compared with stretching only. Conclusions Post-exercise WBV is effective in elite hockey players to reduce DOMS after eccentric exercise. Elite athletes in multi-sprint sports are at risk of DOMS during training and competition, and its reduction could contribute to reduced injury risk and improved performance. This treatment modality is favourable because it can be incorporated with minimal disruption into the recovery section of existing training regimes. These findings may also be extrapolated to other multi-sprint sports.

The effect of vibration training on delayed muscle soreness: A meta-analysis

“…The literature screening process and results are shown in Figure 1 and Table 2. [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]…”

Return to play after treating acute muscle injuries in elite football players with radial extracorporeal shock wave therapy

“…Exercises involving the eccentric lengthening of muscles were also used as a component of the physiotherapy exercises integrated into the multimodal therapy approach used in this study. Furthermore, decreasing delayed onset muscle soreness by whole body vibration could also contribute to reduced muscle injury risk in elite football players, as recently shown in elite hockey players [ 31 ]. However, one cannot rule out that the integration of rESWT into a multimodal therapy approach for the treatment of acute muscle injuries as performed in this study may also contribute to the prevention of structural muscle injuries in athletes.…”

Effect of vertical vibration stimulation at different frequencies on delayed muscle soreness in athletes: A randomized trial

“…Notably, only highfrequency stimulation could significantly reduce the loss in knee extension muscle at 240 • /s PT at 24 h after vibration through a mechanism that may be related the increase in motor unit activation and muscle tension cause by vertical vibration stimulation (30,31). This study suggested that vibratory stimulation improves blood and lymphatic circulation at the DOMS site, accelerates recovery from inflammatory reactions, reduces muscle pain, induces athletes to mobilize additional muscle fibers during isometric muscle force and reduces the loss of muscle strength caused by DOMS (4,32).…”