SRETCHING or STRENGTHENING EXERCISES for BACK PAIN
Research indicates that back pain is the leading cause of disability worldwide, even more than heart disease and diabetes. It’s estimated that about 80% of adults will experience an episode of low back pain during their lifetime. Additionally, more than half of those who develop back pain will either have another episode within the year or their back pain will persist and become a chronic issue. Because of these facts, a key aspect of chiropractic treatment for low back pain is to reduce the risk for both chronicity and recurrence. While maintenance or wellness chiropractic visits following the conclusion of care have proven to help in this regard, exercises performed at home by patients are especially useful. What type of exercises are best in the goal of preventing a future low back pain episode, stretching or strengthening?
To find out, researchers recruited 90 patients with non-specific low back pain, the most common type of low back pain, which occurs in the absence of specific pathology like a herniated disk, spinal stenosis, infection, or fracture—and divided them into three groups: stretching only, strengthening only, or both. After three months, outcome questionnaires revealed the strengthening only group experienced the greatest improvements with respect to pain and disability followed by the combo group and lastly, the stretching only group. A similar study published a month later concluded that strengthening exercises are more efficacious than stretching alone. However, each patient’s condition is unique.
One aspect to consider before starting an exercise routine is that musculoskeletal disorders elsewhere can affect the patient’s biomechanics and contribute to (or cause) their present low back pain. For example, these studies were to prevent the return of the back pain and were not designed to eliminate the pain.
Performing simple motion exercises have been the safest and easiest to do during the acute pain stage.
Many conditions require specific exercises designed based on whether posture distortions, disk conditions, short leg, scoliosis, stenosis etc. is present. For example, extension exercises may be more appropriate for disk conditions and flexion exercises for stenosis findings. Posture transformation exercise requires certain muscles to be stretched while other specific muscles to be strengthened.
Unfortunately, it is not a simple that many think or want it to be in that all you have to do is perform “the one” exercise to resolve your years of misuse and lack of care. Be patient with your body and yourself, be diligent at doing the right things and the right things will happen.
