Original articles  SPORT INJURIES AND REHABILITATION 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2005 March;45(1):84-92

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The influence of exercise on musculoskeletal disorders of the lumbar spine

Kofotolis N., Sambanis M.

Department of Physical Education and Sport Science at Serres Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

Aim. This ­review, ­through a sur­vey of the rel­e­vant ­research, exam­ines the ­role of exer­cise in the nat­u­ral ­course of symp­toms in the pre­ven­tive cat­e­go­ry, as ­well as in ­acute, sub­acute, chron­ic and post­op­er­a­tive cat­e­go­ries of low ­back ­pain. The pur­pose of ­this ­study was to exam­ine the evi­dence for ­cause and ­effect rela­tion­ships ­between exer­cise and ­acute, sub­acute, and chron­ic low ­back ­pain, as ­well as for any ­dose-­response rela­tions ­involved.
Methods. Computer data­base ­research and per­son­al retriev­al ­systems ­were ­used to ­locate the rel­e­vant lit­er­a­ture.
Results. Exercise can be effec­tive in pre­vent­ing LBP (Category A). Specific exer­cise has not ­been ­found effec­tive in treat­ment of ­acute LBP (Category B), but exer­cise can be effec­tive in sub­acute and chron­ic LBP (Category C, D), espe­cial­ly for dimin­ish­ing the ­effects of decon­di­tion­ing. To ­attain the ­effects men­tioned ­above the ­types of exer­cise are ­known ­except in the ­case of the pre­ven­tion of LBP, but lit­tle is ­known ­about ­dose-­response rela­tion­ships; at ­best, ­semi quan­ti­ta­tive­ly on the ­basis of ­just a few stud­ies.
Conclusion. Given the dem­on­strat­ed pri­mary and/or sec­on­dary pre­ven­ta­tive effec­tive­ness of exer­cise regard­ing LBP, the sub­jects who ­would ­most ben­e­fit ­from spe­cif­ic exer­cise ­have not yet ­been iden­ti­fied.