Do Stabilization Exercise Programs Help Low Back Pain? Maybe

Whether you have had an on-the-job injury, motor vehicle accident, or other injury to your low back, you know that strengthening the muscles in your back is thought the key to preventing further back injury.  Over the past 20 years, developing exercises to stabilize the low back region have been the norm.  These have been referred to as lumbar stabilization, segmental stabilization, or core stabilization. These have been designed to improve muscle control and endurance by focusing on muscles in the trunk and pelvis. Because there has been little in the way of formal study by looking at patient selection, dose response, and long-term outcome associated with these approaches, a study published in 2007 sought answers as to the effectiveness of such a program.

One of the controversies in the previous studies done on strengthening low back were the relatively small number of patients studied. (Studies using a larger number of participants has not had as favorable of outcomes.) Another problem was that studies focused on a certain set of muscles instead of studying the interaction of all of the muscles. No studies have specifically targeted the impact of strengthening muscles in order to prevent further injury to the low back.

Bottom line: little solid data exists to support the conclusion that adding stabilization exercises to a physical therapy (PT) treatment may be more effective than PT treatments alone. There was also little evidence to indicate that focusing on a single set of muscles in the low back was more effective for reducing low back pain that simply exercising and strengthening the entire body. Further, it’s not known how long a patient may need to progress in terms of exercise tolerance or an exercise program to benefit from the work. The authors suggest it may be better to simply tailor an exercise program to the patient’s individual needs and circumstances.

For further information: ”Expert opinion and controversies in musculoskeletal and sports medicine: Core stabilization as a treatment for low back pain,” C. Standaert, MD; S. Herring, MD, Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, volume 88, p. 1734-1736, 2007.