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European Journal of Applied Physiology

, Volume 113, Issue 6, pp 1625–1634 | Cite as

Neuromuscular fatigue induced by whole-body vibration exercise

  • Nicola A. Maffiuletti
  • Jonas Saugy
  • Marco Cardinale
  • Jean-Paul Micallef
  • Nicolas Place
Original Article
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the magnitude and the origin of neuromuscular fatigue induced by half-squat static whole-body vibration (WBV) exercise, and to compare it to a non-WBV condition. Nine healthy volunteers completed two fatiguing protocols (WBV and non-WBV, randomly presented) consisting of five 1-min bouts of static half-squat exercise with a load corresponding to 50 % of their individual body mass. Neuromuscular fatigue of knee and ankle muscles was investigated before and immediately after each fatiguing protocol. The main outcomes were maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) torque, voluntary activation, and doublet peak torque. Knee extensor MVC torque decreased significantly (P < 0.01) and to the same extent after WBV (−23 %) and non-WBV (−25 %), while knee flexor, plantar flexor, and dorsiflexor MVC torque was not affected by the treatments. Voluntary activation of knee extensor and plantar flexor muscles was unaffected by the two fatiguing protocols. Doublet peak torque decreased significantly and to a similar extent following WBV and non-WBV exercise, for both knee extensors (−25 %; P < 0.01) and plantar flexors (−7 %; P < 0.05). WBV exercise with additional load did not accentuate fatigue and did not change its causative factors compared to non-WBV half-squat resistive exercise in recreationally active subjects.

Keywords

Quadriceps Triceps surae Maximal voluntary contraction Peripheral contractile failure 
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Notes

Conflict of interest

None.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Nicola A. Maffiuletti
    • 1
  • Jonas Saugy
    • 2
    • 3
  • Marco Cardinale
    • 4
    • 5
    • 6
  • Jean-Paul Micallef
    • 7
  • Nicolas Place
    • 8
  1. 1.Neuromuscular Research LaboratorySchulthess ClinicZurichSwitzerland
  2. 2.Institute of Sport SciencesUniversity of LausanneLausanneSwitzerland
  3. 3.Department of Physiology, Faculty of Biology and MedicineUniversity of LausanneLausanneSwitzerland
  4. 4.British Olympic Medical InstituteUniversity College LondonLondonUK
  5. 5.Institute of Sport Exercise and HealthUniversity College LondonLondonUK
  6. 6.School of Medical SciencesUniversity of AberdeenAberdeenScotland, UK
  7. 7.Movement to Health, Faculty of Sport SciencesUniversity of Montpellier 1MontpellierFrance
  8. 8.Institute of Movement Sciences and Sport MedicineUniversity of GenevaGenevaSwitzerland

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