Acute effect of whole body vibration on balance in blind vs. no-blind athletes: a preliminary study

Purpose: Aim of this preliminary study was to explore the acute effects of whole body vibration (WBV) on balance and stabilometric parameters, in blind and sighted athletes, during the 20-min post-intervention. Methods: Eleven congenitally adult blind athletes (Experimental Group; EG), and ten coetaneous normally sighted soccer athletes (Control Groups; CG) volunteered for this study. Postural sways of all the participants were assessed with a stabilometric platform before and after WBV exposure. The CG was assessed both with closed and open eyes (CGc and CGo, respectively). Four stabilometric parameters relative to the center of pressure displacement were considered for the analysis: AREA, LENGTH, AV-DIST, SPEED-VAR. Results: The multivariate analysis showed that all the four stabilometric parameters significantly differed between EG, and CG (p = 0.0005), but not significant differences were found between the pre- vs. post-WBV exposure assessments (p = 0.377). Conclusions: The results suggested that WBV does not produce significant acute perturbation or alteration of posture, both in sighted and blind athlete. Consequently, WBV can be safely used by blind athletes as well as in sighted due the absence of acute side effects.