Kineziterapijos taikymo irkluotojams, jaučiantiems nugaros skausmą, ypatumai

Abstract

Majority of low back pain cases are caused by changes in bone tissue, as well as by pathology of muscles and sinews. Low back pain in many cases can be considered as a consequence of disorders in a person’s lifestyle. Such workouts as stretching of muscle ligaments, development of muscle force and endurance, as well as stabilization exercises may be useful in reducing low back pain. However, there is a lack of research dealing with the peculiarities of various physical therapy measures application for low back pain release and recreation of functional capacities in young rowers. The object of the research was the exercises of trunk muscles stretching, strengthening and stabilization. The aim of the research was to evaluate the effectiveness of different physical therapy programs on rowers’ functional parameters and low back pain. 20 rowers with low back pain were studied. Characteristics of participants were as follows: age 19.4 ± 3.30 years, training experience of two years and more. Subjects were randomly split into two groups. Rowers of the first group performed physical therapy for 30 days, 5 times a week. The exercises took place before and after training sessions. For this group, 80% of the exercises content embraced trunk muscle stretching activity, 20% – strengthening and spine stabilization activity. Rowers of the second group performed physical therapy with the content of 80% being strengthening and spine stabilization exercises and 20% – stretching activity. To evaluate the subjective signs of their back pain and to identify main causes of low back pain in rowers, following research methods were used: visual Analog Pain Scale (Petrikonis, 2004), Schober Test (Pocienė, 2013), test of Static Endurance of the lumbar muscles (Thomas Test) (Chaitow, 2006). Abdominal muscles endurance was evaluated measuring the time demonstrated by the investigated subjects in sitting position with waist being bent over backwards 45 degrees. Investigation of back muscles endurance was performed in position of the investigated subjects lying face down on a couch, without support for upper body part. It was established that many young rowers have complains on low back pain of different level. The reason of this might be training loads which are not in line with young athletes’ adaptation capacities. Rather effective mean for the rowers’ low back pain release and its prevention are physical therapy measures with prevailing stretching exercises. Low back pain in rowers may also be reasoned by excessive mobility, so due to this fact strengthening and spine stabilization exercises for trunk muscles are necessary to be applied. Maintenance of force ratio between trunk muscles flexors and extensors is of great importance. During the process of young rowers’ training, training overload of back segment should be avoided, keeping in mind that positions of body parts play a very important role in prevention of low back pain. Keywords: rowing, low back pain, stretching exercises, spine stabilization exercises. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/sm.2018.3