Whole Body Vibration stimulates the body’s natural stretch reflex and causes muscle contractions in much the same way that a doctor’s tapping below a patient’s patella with a reflex hammer elicits a knee-jerk response. The stretch reflex is controlled by stretch receptors called muscle spindles that are located in skeletal muscle. Muscle spindles are usually activated when a muscle is under a static stretch or is quickly stretched or overstretched, causing a reflex contraction of the muscle. With whole body vibration (WBV), this reflex action is continually stimulated, so a muscle continues to contract and relax until the vibration stops.  Studies have reported that activation of one muscle spindle will cause a reflex contraction and relaxation in many adjacent muscles.

WBV training contracts virtually 100% of the muscle fibers of any particular muscle, whereas weight resistance training only fires » Read more: Whole Body Vibration Activates Natural Stretch Reflex