The investigators designed the current study with the main objective of determining whether Whole Body Vibration Training (WBVT) alone improves muscular force and/or modifies the functional capacity parameters in severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients referred to a rehabilitation programme.

Inclusion Criteria:

• severe COPD defined as a post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume at one second (FEV1)/ forced vital capacity (FVC) < 0.7 and FEV1 < 50% predicted,
• stable disease defined as no exacerbation,
• hospital admission or change in treatment in the previous 3 months.

Exclusion Criteria:

• other significant respiratory disease (bronchiectasis,
• lung fibrosis, asthma, etc),
• active smoking,
• severe cardiovascular,
• neurological, and/or metabolic pathology that could interfere with the results,
• total hip, knee or ankle arthroplasty,
• previous vitreous haemorrhage,
• severe alcoholism (> 80 g/day) and
• severe malnutrition (BMI < 19 Kg/m2) to reduce the risk of falling and dropouts.