Specialized kinesitherapy program for core stabilization and low back pain in women sports.

Low back pain is a common problem in athletes, especially women who practice strength sports or high impact sports. From a pathokinesiological point of view, core instability inevitably leads to pain and impaired function in the lumbar spine. Various studies have been conducted in an attempt to determine effective methods for conservative treatment of musculoskeletal dysfunction in the back. The majority of studies do not report high evidence or solution to the problem in long term. The present research aims to follow the effect of hypopressive exercise program and myofascial techniques for low back pain in women who practice strength sports. Methodology: The methodology of the study includes conducting functional studies and tests - Merl d'Aubigne and Visual Analogue Scale(VAS) for pain assessment; Shober and Lasseg test to evaluate range of movement of the lumbar region and manual muscle testing (MMT) for abdominal and back musculature. A contingent of 42 women who practice strength sports were recruited according to the indications of experimental therapy and randomly divided in two-experimental group (EG N=22) and control group (CG N=20). The complex therapy for the EG includes - Hypopressive exersice, position-release techniques (PRT) and muscle-energy techniques (MET). The CG received routine kinesitherapeutic exercise for abdominal and back muscle and massage. Every participant received four procedures per week for 10 consecutive weeks. Measurements and tests were done before and after treatment. Results: Mean values of Merl dÁubigne modified scale for dynamic pain assessment show 3.46±0.6 points before, 0.82±0.73 points after therapy for EG, and 3.5±0.61 points and 2.2±0.62 points respectively for the women of the CG. Mean values of pain threshold measured before the complex therapy for women of EG was 7.13±0.94mm before and 2.68±0.94mm after treatment and 7.70±0.86mm and 5.65±0.67mm for the women of CG. Shober test initially shows 12.52±0.14cm for EG and 14.93±1.82cm for the CG and finally increase to 12.8±1.36cm and 14.13±1.15cm respectively. MMT shows much stronger abdominal muscles in women of the EG. Data demonstrates statistically significant differences after treatment (p<0.05). Conclusions: Pain symptoms decrease significantly, and the range of movement and functionality of the lumbar region improves. The abdominal and back muscles are much stronger which provides stability of the spine in the area. In addition to treatment, the therapy can be successfully used to prevent recurrences of the symptoms especially in women who practice strength sports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]