Cardiopulmonary responses during dynamic squatting exercise with and without whole-body vibration in adolescents

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Whole-body vibration (WBV) has been widely used as a therapeutic resource in pediatric rehabilitation. However, the cardiopulmonary responses are still unknown. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the intensity of dynamic squatting exercise with and without WBV in healthy adolescents in order to characterize cardiorespiratory responses. METHODS: This was a quasi-experimental study. Twenty-five adolescents (14.1 ± 1.7 years), 10 girls and 15 boys, underwent to oxygen consumption (VO₂) and heart rate (HR) assessments during a protocol of squatting with and without vibration. Inclusion criteria were age between 12 and 18 years old of both sexes, have normal weight according to BMI. Exclusion criteria were to present chronic or acute, neurological, orthopedic, respiratory, cardiac and endocrine disease and no self-reported contraindication for WBV (i.e. deep vein thrombosis, metal implants, pacemaker, epilepsy, tumors, arterial aneurysm, or arrhythmia). RESULTS: WBV was able to significantly increase VO₂, HR and perceived exertion during squatting exercise when compared to rest and squatting without-WBV. WBV associated with squatting reached 24.7% of the VO2max and 56% of the HRmax predicted for age. Subjects during WBV reported a perceived exertion score between somewhat hard and hard compared to between very light and light in the Without-WBV protocol. CONCLUSION: Squatting associated to WBV was considered a light intensity exercise that can be tolerated by healthy adolescents. This study provided valid results of this training modality and could be used as a tool to define the energy consumption spent in this training modality.