Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of whole body vibration (WBV) on anaerobic performance and flexibility in physically trained men. Participants were twelve trained healthy males with the average age of 23.4 ± 2.1 years, body mass 71.16 ± 5.06 kg, height 178.2 ± 2.9 cm, and body fat 15 ± 5 percent. On one occasion, after a 15 min active warm up, the following performance tests was carried out; sit and reach, vertical jump, and Wingate test on a cycle ergo meter.  On a second occasion, at least one week apart, participants underwent 12 min of WBV at a frequency of 20 Hz and amplitude 10 mm, instead of the active warm up.  This was followed by exactly the same performance tests. Data was analyzed by paired sample T-test. Results indicated that WBV resulted in significant increases in vertical jump height (2.24%, p<0.05), relative anaerobic peak power (3.98%, p<0.05) and relative anaerobic average power (6%, (p<0.05) compared with active warm up. On the basis of these results we conclude that WBV is an effective warm up tool for optimizing subsequent anaerobic performance.