Effect of Nordic Walking Training on Physical Fitness and Self-Assessment of Health of People with Chronic Non-Specific Lower Back Pain

Abstract

In order to determine the impact of a four-week cycle of Nordic Walking (NW) training on the physical fitness of people with chronic non-specific lower back pain and the impact of this form of activity on their self-assessment of health quality, the study included 80 men and women aged 29 to 63 years. The subjects were divided into two equal (40-person) groups: experimental and control. In both study groups the degree of disability in daily activities caused by back pain was assessed with the FFb-H-R questionnaire, the physical fitness was evaluated with the modified Fullerton test and the sense of health quality was assessed with the SF-36 questionnaire. The same tests were repeated after four weeks. In the experimental group NW training was applied between the two studies. During four weeks, 10 training units were carried out, and each training session lasted 60 min with a two-day break between each training. The four-week NW training resulted in a statistically significant sense of disability due to back pain (p < 0.001), significant improvement of physical fitness expressed by improvement in upper (p < 0.001) and lower (p < 0.01) body strength, upper and lower body flexibility (p < 0.001) and ability to walk a longer distance in a 6-min walk test (p < 0.001). The training participants also showed significant improvements in health quality in both physical (p < 0.001) and mental (p < 0.001) components. The four-week NW training has a positive impact on the physical fitness of men and women with chronic lower back pain. Participation in NW training also contributes to a significant reduction in the sense of disability caused by back pain and improvement in the self-assessment of health quality.