The new frontier in training: the link between neurophysiology and sport

Edited by Prof. Guido M. Filippi

Such methods, as we can see, however, are indirect as they act on the nervous system by proposing to it the execution of particular exercises, they also require a lot of time and concentration on the part of the athlete and fatigue, which undermine the ability to perform the exercise correctly.
If with these techniques the movement improves, the motor execution, therefore the athletic gesture, is optimized, two notable limits sometimes suggest the shortcuts of chemistry. The first limit lies in the commitment of the subject: the greater the concentration of the subject to this. it is doing, the greater the result. It is difficult to maintain high concentration for a long time. The second limit is even greater: using this technique to optimize a leg extension movement does not imply an "optimization of this act in any motor execution, but only in that particular movement, in those particular conditions. Exemplifying, an" optimization of the Leg extension movement will have very modest effects on the press, or practicing shooting penalties does not imply a similar improvement in taking free kicks.
The ideal is therefore to try to act directly on the Central Nervous System, as on a computer where you change a software with a faster and more powerful one.

You can act directly on the Central Nervous System?
The answer is absolutely yes. The ability to change the way our nervous system works is the basis of learning, whatever it is: learning and using a new phone number or learning and implementing an athletic gesture both involve a modification of the nerve networks that they will have to memorize and use. what he has learned. Man, with his nerve networks, is able to learn, therefore his nerve networks can be modified.
If we go up a ladder and a step is a few millimeters higher than the others, we stumble, with the few initial steps the Nervous System has learned the exact height and acts accordingly: the motor control system can learn and also in an extraordinarily fast way. .
Neurophysiology began to focus on such possibilities and processes around 1920 with Pavlov. Many techniques have been identified capable of modifying, enhancing, selected neural networks, in order to enhance some functions. The scientific literature publishes thousands of articles on these topics every year.

PART II

A NEW FRONTIER.

In fact, neurophysiology has a series of methods to act directly on the nervous system.
The best known, and moreover widely used in sport, is based on "operational conditioning". The subject is provided with a greater flow of information intended to correct errors in motor performance. The use of mirrors in gyms has this purpose. The Nervous System receives a more extensive and complete visual information and can therefore better understand the error and correct it. The subject learns by "operating" and improves his movement, the technique, offering a greater flow of information, turns to the Central Nervous System "conditioning" it. Hence the expression “operational conditioning”. The same advice, the correction implemented by the coach on the athlete, constitute a supplementary information flow and are forms of “operational conditioning”.

However, for decades neurophysiology has been aiming at identifying methodologies that allow a real direct modification of the nervous circuits, enhancing their "effectiveness of" action.
Mechanical vibration has been considered a potential method for decades, as the vibratory stimulus constitutes an adequate signal for the proprioceptors, therefore an elective stimulus to "enter" the motor control circuits.
For many years, periodically, scientific articles on the use of mechanical vibration in the clinical and / or sports field have appeared periodically, often in waves. In the last 5-6 years, the attention of research has again turned on this theme; it therefore appears important to fix the fundamentals, from a strictly physiological point of view, basing on the basic acquisitions to orient oneself on a potentially important but confusing issue.
As always, it is advisable to start by clarifying the terminology. Vibration is a way of propagation of energy, be it electromagnetic, electric, magnetic, thermal or mechanical. A vibration is simply an "oscillation of amplitude, often periodic" of the energy. In our case it is a propagation of energy mechanics.

Given this premise, it is quite evident that a mechanical vibration can be extraordinarily varied in its magnitudes of intensity (which are generally expressed, in the biological field, in millimeters of displacement but, more correctly, with units of force, Newton or grams. or kilos), frequency, duration of cycles (delivery time or application of the vibration). It is equally evident that in our daily life we are exposed to a huge number of mechanical vibrations, on means of transport, often in the workplace, holding a vibrating mobile phone, etc. usually if they have damage.
In the "field of biological experimentation, two types of mechanical vibration are essentially distinguished:

Whole Body Vibration, (WBV), the mechanical vibration which, starting for example from the feet or hands, has the ability to invade the whole body (Figure 9)
Focal vibration, which applies to a single muscle group.