Scientific Basis of Vibrations

The facilitation of the excitability of the spinal reflex has been elicited through vibration of the quadriceps muscle (Burke et al. 1996). Lebedev and Peliakov (1991) have also suggested the possibility that vibrations may elicit excitatory inflow through muscle spin dle-motoneurons connections in the overall motoneuron inflow.

It has been demonstrated that vibration drives alpha-motoneurons via the la loop producing force without decreasing motor drive (Rothmuller and Cafarelli, 1995). Although it has been suggested that the vibration reflex, like the tendon jerk reflex, operates predominantly or exclusively on alpha motoneurons and does not utilise the same cortical originating efferent pathways as are used when performing voluntary contractions (Burke et al. 1976). It cannot be excluded that vibration treatments can also affect voluntary movements. These suggestions are supported by the present findings. In fact the EMG recorded in the biceps brachii of the experimental group in the study conducted on boxers showed a significant enhancement (P<0.001).

One of the first and major scientists who became interested in the effects of vibrations on human performance was Prof. Carmelo Bosco. The interest that Bosco had since 1992 (Belli and Bosco, Acta Physiol Scand 144, 1992) for the muscular response to mechanical stimulation, coupled with the more recent studies on hormones, paved the way to his last research topic: vibration, a force which we are unconsciously constantly exposed to. "Running, hunting, fighting, playing the drums and dancing, navigating the oceans, cutting trees and giving life to the first villages or travelling in a high speed train, men since always have been exposed to thousand types of vibration".

The concept of Neuro-Muscular Mechanical Stimulation (NEMES) is based on this brilliant intuition on how to use existing natural forces to improve our condition. Today this is the name of one of our innovative product lines based on the use of mechanical vibrations. Quickly a number of researches demonstrated the extraordinary effectiveness of this method bringing though also to light the importance of dosing the stimulation and the protocols on the base of highly individually characterized responses (Bosco et al., Biology of Sport, 15, 1998) (Bosco et al., Eur J Appl Physiol 79, 1999(Bosco et al., Clincal Physiol, 19, 1999) (Bosco et al., Eur J Appl Physiol, 81, 2000)And it is through these last researches that the patent that differentiates the NEMES products originates. The NEMES products are the only machines in the world equipped with an advanced system able to detect the muscular response to vibration through electromyography (EMG) and to identify the optimal vibration frequency for each subject.

From the studies on vibration emerges also the great stimulation that this method induces on bone tissue making it an optimal candidate for the prevention and cure of pathologies like osteoporosis. These studies open the road to a definition of new methodologies of training based on deep physiological knowledge.