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An aerobic walking programme versus muscle strengthening programme for chronic low back pain: a randomized controlled trial
Clinical Rehabilitation, 08/07/2012
Clinical Article
Shnayderman I et al. – A six–week walk training programme was as effective as six weeks of specific strengthening exercises programme for the low back.
Methods- Randomized controlled clinical trial with blind assessors.
- Fifty–two sedentary patients, aged 18–65 years with chronic low back pain.
- Patients who were post surgery, post trauma, with cardiovascular problems, and with oncological disease were excluded.
- Experimental ‘walking’ group: moderate intense treadmill walking; control ‘exercise’ group: specific low back exercise; both, twice a week for six weeks.
- Six–minute walking test, Fear–Avoidance Belief Questionnaire, back and abdomen muscle endurance tests, Oswestry Disability Questionnaire, Low Back Pain Functional Scale (LBPFS).
- Significant improvements were noted in all outcome measures in both groups with non–significant difference between groups.
- The mean distance in metres covered during 6 minutes increased by 70.7 (95% confidence interval (CI) 12.3–127.7) in the ‘walking’ group and by 43.8 (95% CI 19.6–68.0) in the ‘exercise’ group.
- The trunk flexor endurance test showed significant improvement in both groups, increasing by 0.6 (95% CI 0.0–1.1) in the ‘walking’ group and by 1.1 (95% CI 0.3–1.8) in the ‘exercise’ group.
