Efficacy of core muscle strengthening exercise in chronic low back pain patients.

Low back pain is a health problem suffered by many people and about 5 to 15% will develop chronic low back pain (CLBP). The clinical findings of CLBP indicate that lumbar mobility is decreased and recruitment order of core muscles is altered. In literature, there is no data about the effect of core muscles strengthening in the chronicity (short duration, long duration) of CLBP. This study evaluated the effect of core muscle strengthening intervention on chronicity of chronic low back pain. Thirty patents were recruited from the outpatient department of the National Institute for the Orthopedically Handicapped. These 30 patients were separated into two groups: A and B on the basis of duration of low back pain. Group-A patients complain about pain duration for more than twelve months and Group B complains about pain duration from three to twelve months. Both the groups were received same intervention for six weeks. Assessment was done pre intervention and post intervention after six weeks for both the groups. For both the groups the assessment was done after six weeks for pre and post intervention. The result described both the groups exhibited improvement in all the outcome measures including pain as well as in function using Numerical pain rating scale, Oswestry Disability Index, Sorensen test, Gluteus Maximus Strength, Activation of transversus abdominis and Modified-Modified Schober’s Test. The improvement was statistically non-significant with inter groups and significant within group.

This study concluded that core muscle strengthening exercise along with lumbar flexibility and gluteus maximus strengthening is an effective rehabilitation technique for all chronic low back pain patients regardless of different durations (less than one year and more than one year) of their pain.