Abstract
Objectives. This study explored, described and compared the effects of whole body vibration (WBV) therapy and conventional spinal stabilisation exercises in persons with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Design. A non-randomised sampling technique was used to delineate the base of volunteers gathered by a combination of accidental and snowball sampling methods. Twenty subjects were randomly assigned into either a WBV or a spinal stabilisation (SS) group. The dependent variables were perception of pain and general functionality, abdominal muscular endurance, spinal muscular endurance and hamstring flexibility. These were measured at the pre-, mid- and post-test assessments. During the 8-week intervention, both groups performed the same spinal stabilisation exercises 3 sessions per week, the difference being the dynamic performance of the conventional land-based SS group compared with the static, isometric performance on the vibration platform. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) determined differences between groups at the pre-, mid- and post-test. Dependent sample t-tests were computed to determine whether the increases/decreases over time were significant within each group. Cohen’s d was used to determine the practical significance of results. Results. There were significant decreases in perception of pain and enhanced performance of functional activity of daily living, increases in abdominal and hamstring flexibility midway through and after the intervention period for both groups. Neither of the two methods of rehabilitation was significantly superior except for spinal muscular endurance in the WBV group after the 8-week intervention. WBV could be considered as an alternative method of exercise intervention for the rehabilitation of CLBP.
Highlights
The results of this study indicated that both the whole body vibration (WBV) and SS exercises relieved pain and improved pain-related limitations in the performance of activities of daily living for individuals with chronic low back pain (CLBP)
The mechanism of proprioceptive feedback and potentiation of inhibition of pain whereby an individual’s pain threshold increased, could have contributed to both experimental groups’ decrease in the perception of pain and enhanced general functionality.[6]. This finding that vibration therapy alleviated perception of pain and daily functionality is in contrast to literature where industrial and non-industrial circumstances have been regarded as predisposing risk factors in the aetiology of CLBP
Could aforementioned theory substantiate the finding of a significant maintenance of increased abdominal muscle endurance throughout the 8-week intervention for the WBV group, while the SS group decreased in MS after the mid-test assessment? Increased spinal muscular endurance after completing a 12-week WBV exercise programme has been reported.[7]
Summary
This study explored, described and compared the effects of whole body vibration (WBV) therapy and conventional spinal stabilisation exercises in persons with chronic low back pain (CLBP). The dependent variables were perception of pain and general functionality, abdominal muscular endurance, spinal muscular endurance and hamstring flexibility. These were measured at the pre-, mid- and post-test assessments. During the 8-week intervention, both groups performed the same spinal stabilisation exercises 3 sessions per week, the difference being the dynamic performance of the conventional land-based SS group compared with the static, isometric performance on the vibration platform. Dependent sample t-tests were computed to determine whether the increases/decreases over time were significant within each group. There were significant decreases in perception of pain and enhanced performance of functional activity of daily living, increases in abdominal and hamstring flexibility midway through and after the intervention period for both groups. WBV could be considered as an alternative method of exercise intervention for the rehabilitation of CLBP
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