Cardiopulmonary effects of whole-body vibration in man

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Abstract
Supine whole-body x-axis sinusoidal vibration in 4 human volunteers was found to produce increases in mean arterial blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, O2 consumption, and minute volume of ventilation. These physiologic effects were more marked at 1.2 g peak acceleration than at 0.6 g and at 8 and 10 cycles/sec than at frequencies to either side of this range. The changes observed were shown to be similar to those produced either by passive movement of the relaxed extremities or by mild muscular exertion. It is postulated that whole-body vibration elicits these changes by reflex stimulation of muscular contraction, and that such a mechanism may play a role in producing the physiologic effects of active muscular exercise.