Evidence library · Muscle mass

Does whole-body vibration affect muscle mass in menopause? What 7 studies found

Studies of whole-body vibration in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women that measured muscle mass. 1 reported an improvement and 6 found no difference against the comparison group.

  1. A meta-analysis of 5 trials in 112 postmenopausal women found whole-body vibration training alone did not significantly improve lean mass compared with control.

    No difference foundMeta-analysis · 112 participants pooled · 2017PostmenopausalCited 6 timesPubMed

  2. A meta-analysis of randomized trials found whole-body vibration training increased lean mass in young adults but not in postmenopausal women or other groups studied.

    No difference foundMeta-analysis · 2017PostmenopausalCited 14 timesPubMed

  3. In 113 institutionalized elderly women over 6 months, whole body vibration training did not improve muscle strength, mass or hip bone density beyond vitamin D supplementation alone.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 113 women · 26 weeks · 2011PostmenopausalCited 80 timesPubMed

  4. Older postmenopausal women did 6 months of local vibration training, which improved isometric muscle strength but did not change bone density, muscle mass, or physical performance.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 35 women · 26 weeks · 2015PostmenopausalCited 27 timesPubMed

  5. Postmenopausal women aged 60 to 75 did one year of whole body vibration training three times weekly; leg and trunk strength increased and joint pain decreased versus a gymnastics control group, body composition unchanged.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 108 women · 52 weeks · 2011PostmenopausalCited 12 timesPubMed

  6. Postmenopausal women did 12 months of leg strength training with or without whole body vibration, and the vibration group showed greater leg strength gains and fewer falls.

    No difference foundRandomised trial · 151 women · 52 weeks · 2010PostmenopausalCited 10 timesPubMed

  7. Sedentary postmenopausal women did 8 months of resistance training with or without whole-body vibration, and only the combined group showed a significant decrease in percent body fat while both groups gained lean tissue.

    Reported an improvementControlled trial · 55 women · 32 weeks · 2009PostmenopausalCited 44 timesPubMed

How to read this. Each line is one study, summarised in plain language from its PubMed abstract, with the authors' own sentence underneath on the study page. A count of studies is not a verdict: trials differ in size, length and quality, and a result in one group of women may not hold in another. Nothing here is medical advice.

Summaries are generated, then checked by machine against the abstract they came from; any summary that could not be matched word for word was left out. Our clinical lead is reviewing the summaries topic by topic, and this note will change when that is done. Corpus last refreshed 2026-11-03. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix the summary or remove the study.

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