I apologize for not getting back to you sooner regarding spinal cord injury and vibration. Please see the following points regarding this:

Our company has been dealing with several hospitals, therapists and research universities regarding spinal cord injury and assessing such outcomes as bone density, decrease spasticity, central effects of vibration, etc.

I have a therapists in Michigan that will be starting a center of excellence for vibratoin training and spinal cord injury and will soon be providing educational seminars on this topic. If you want his contact information, just let me know. We believe that developing these type of centers and disseminating the right information through experience and research is the way to go. Apart from that, most of what you will find out there is the experience of other therapists and doctors that have used vibration in their practices.

I will also provide you the following references for recent articles on spinal cord injury and vibration. Hope this also helps. It’s an exciting field in treating patients that may not engage in conventional exercise or those that need an early adoption of exercise:

Whole-body vibration improves walking function in individuals with spinal cord injury: a pilot study.

Ness LL, Field-Fote EC.

Gait Posture. 2009 Nov;30(4):436-40. Epub 2009 Aug 3.

Increases in muscle activity produced by vibration of the thigh muscles during locomotion in chronic human spinal cord injury.

Cotey D, Hornby TG, Gordon KE, Schmit BD.

Exp Brain Res. 2009 Jul;196(3):361-74. Epub 2009 May 29.

vibration exercise is good for all body parts because at the end of the day, it’s an effective exercise device. In order to target the hip, it’s really about utilizing various positions on the platform to target the hip.

For the hip, it depends on what you are trying to achieve. If it’s strengthening, then various strengthening exercises can be incorporated. We have also developed some protocols on mobilizing the hip joint in addition to stretching out some of the muscles around the area.

The benefits with vibration is that its’ much easier and faster to perform. For a lot of patients that may be limited in their ability to perform some of these exercises, utilizing the vibration platform may be more appropriate. If you have any more specific questions about how it can be used within the practice, you can email me at jsidhu@wavexercise.com and I will be happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Your question brings up many variables that must be looked at before making a decision to use vibration exercise for your MCL and ACL. In order to assess the efficacy of using vibration exercise, one has to know whether there is pain upon movement, if there is swelling present and if any form of exercise if painful. Also, we need to understand what your goals of vibration exercise will be. Vibration exercise will not heal your MCL. What it can do is provide you with an effective strengthening program prior to surgery, which may lead to better outcomes after surgery. If you do decide to pursue with vibration exercise, always make sure you pay attention to any increasing symptoms such as pain or swelling. If this does not happen, then vibration exercise can be effective in getting you prepared for your surgery. I hope this answers your question, but make sure you discuss this with the health professional that is helping you with your rehabilitation.