Back in 2006 the Centre for Health, Exercise and Sport Science secured funding to purchase the MedX Lumbar Extension Machine for
the purpose of specific testing and strengthening the lower back, and for
treating chronic low back pain (CLBP).
Since then, Laboratory Director Dr Stewart Bruce-Low has also received funding from Backcare, a charity funding
research into low back pain, to conduct research to further understanding of
the condition and its treatment. Dr Bruce-Low has already published several
studies conducted using the equipment and now his doctoral student, James
Steele, has published further evidence demonstrating its efficacy and refining
understanding of the approach it utilises.
The first study completed by James in his course
of doctoral research has involved examining the effects of the range of motion
utilised during exercise for strengthening the lower back in people suffering
with CLBP. For some sufferers, pain is experienced in the extremes of the range
of motion (either bent fully forwards or backwards) and so investigation as to
whether exercise can be effective even when avoiding these positions is of
great value.
The results of James’ study demonstrated that,
regardless of the range of motion utilised, participants training for 12 weeks
using the lumbar extension machine significantly improved their strength and
significantly reduced their pain and disability.
The reasoning why such strengthening
exercise is so effective is due to the suggestion that, in people suffering from
CLBP, the muscles that extend the lower back are weak and deconditioned. Thus
James conducted further analyses on his data to uncover whether the
improvements in strength were associated with improvements in pain and
disability. The findings revealed that the participants with the greatest
increases in strength also had the greatest improvements in pain and disability,
suggesting a link between the two.
James presented preliminary results from this
research last year in Edinburgh at Physiology 2012 – the main annual conference of the Physiological Society, and the study has also been published in the medical journal Spine. This
study offers further evidence to the effectiveness of a brief, infrequent
specific exercise program using a high intensity of effort to strengthen the
lower back muscles, in rehabilitating those with CLBP. The research team are in
the midst of a number of further studies in this area so look forward to the
results of those in the near future.
