Global proprioceptive resonance

Global proprioceptive resonance is a passive, lying-down therapy that applies low-amplitude mechanical vibration in sequence at several points on the skin.

What it is

Global proprioceptive resonance is a method of low-amplitude mechanical vibration applied in sequence at several fixed points on the body while the person lies relaxed on their back [1]. It is delivered through an ergonomic lounger, with the vibrating contacts placed where the body rests on it [1][2]. The vibration takes the form of bursts of smooth, wave-like movement whose strength and frequency vary, at frequencies of up to 200 Hz (cycles per second) [1]. The developers describe programmes of 13 to 15 minutes, with vibration at ten or eleven contact points from the neck to the heels, synchronised with sound [2][3]. The person takes no active part: there is no exercise and no standing platform, and the body stays supported throughout [1]. The method is proprietary, and in every account we have read it is delivered through one make of equipment [1][2][3]. Global Postural Re-education, a physiotherapy method that uses sustained stretching postures, shares the same initials [4]. For that reason we never abbreviate the name.

How it is proposed to work

Proprioception, the body's sense of its own position and movement, arises from receptors in muscles, joints and skin. Mechanical vibration is one way of activating some of those receptors. Applied to a muscle or a tendon, it is proposed to excite the stretch receptors inside the muscle, whose nerve fibres respond most strongly at around 70 to 80 Hz. Vibration of a tendon is proposed to produce an illusion of movement and, in a standing person, a postural reaction. Receptors in the skin are also proposed to contribute proprioceptive information that the nervous system uses to regulate posture.

Its developers place the method within this physiology, and say it differs from most vibration work in two ways. The amplitude is deliberately low, and the stated aim is to stimulate the skin's mechanoreceptors, the sensory endings that respond to touch, pressure and vibration, rather than deeper structures. Their hypothesis is that low-level input from several skin sites, with the body fully supported and the joints unloaded, produces a general release of muscle tension and a relaxation response coordinated by the central nervous system. "Resonance" in the name is the developers' descriptive term for a multisensory response, not a measured resonant property of tissue. These are proposals about how the method might work, not statements about what it achieves.

What it is used for

Global proprioceptive resonance is given as a session on the equipment described above, so it is not something a person can practise alone or at home [1][2]. The person lies still and relaxed for the length of the programme, and does nothing else [1]. Its developers, and clinicians who have worked with them, describe using it in four settings [2][5][6]. They are recovery after exercise in sport; dentistry, where the interest is the jaw and the chewing muscles; neurology; and general wellbeing [2][5][6]. Those are the settings in which the method has been used and the purposes for which it is offered. They are not a claim that it does any of those things. How we would use it ourselves is set out below.

Our own trials

Most of the therapies and technologies we work with are young as subjects of scientific study, and the published work on them changes from year to year. Rather than point to studies that may already be out of date, HarmoniQ Tech intends to evaluate each therapy in its own trials, to record what we find, and to adjust our methods and our own algorithms to those findings. Our trials have not yet begun. Until they have, we describe what each therapy is, how it is proposed to work and how we intend to use it, and we make no claim about what it achieves.

Safety and who should take care

We have not found a published contraindication list for this method, or any published record of its adverse effects, so the cautions below come from what is known about vibration at work. Regular hand-transmitted vibration at work is associated with hand-arm vibration syndrome, a disorder of the blood vessels and nerves of the hand [7][8]. Occupational whole-body vibration is associated with back pain [9]. Both are daily exposures over years, not single sessions [7][8][9]. Equipment matters: vibration platforms sold for home use have been measured delivering accelerations above occupational exposure guidance [10]. We do not know the acceleration this method's equipment delivers, and we will establish it, with the contraindications and the regulatory status of any equipment we use, before offering any vibration therapy. Speak to a clinician before starting, especially during pregnancy, with a pacemaker or other implanted device, a history of blood clots, cancer, epilepsy, osteoporosis, or an acute injury, fracture or inflammation.

How HarmoniQ Tech uses this

HarmoniQ Tech is working towards offering a proprioceptive vibration therapy. It would sit alongside photobiomodulation (PBM), the application of red or near-infrared light to tissue, and biofeedback, in which sensors show a person a bodily signal so they can learn to influence it. Whether that will be the method described on this page or a related approach under a name of our own is still being confirmed, as are the equipment, practitioner training and the delivery model. As an intervention, it is designed to support the strength, posture and proprioceptive-control goals of a person's step-by-step lifestyle change plan. Whether it supports strength, posture or proprioception is a question for our own trials, which have not yet begun. As an assessment source, we intend to record posture and movement measurements before and after each session, so that change over time is seen rather than assumed. The HarmoniQ guidance system (in development), which we are developing to turn sensor data into step-by-step lifestyle guidance, will aim to use those measurements alongside biofeedback signals and session logs to suggest when a session might fit the plan. It will not diagnose, prescribe or treat.