Comparison between the Effects of Core Stability Exercise and Manual Therapy in Athletes with Non Specific Mechanical Low Back Pain

Objective: To compare between the effects of core stability exercise and manual therapy in athletes with non-specific mechanical low back pain.Short-term pre-test posttest randomized experimental study.
Setting: JLN Stadium, SAI, New Delhi.
Participants: 30 subjects with non-specific low back pain divided in three groups (n=10) (mean age ± standard deviation, 19.9 ± 2.64, 21.0 ± 3.23, 19.1 ± 2.37 years for control, manual and core group respectively).
Intervention: Each of the 30 subjects was randomly assigned into one of three treatment programs for 3 days per week for 5 weeks. Group A was the control group, received hot pack, along with normal warm-up and cool down that the athletes undergo during training session. Group B and C were the experimental group for manual therapy and core stability exercise group respectively. In the experimental group also, the subjects were given hot pack and warm up and cool down common as per their training programmer. Schober’s test, plank test, 30ft shuttle run test, lbp questionnaire and self-confidence questionnaire were the dependent variables and were assessed before and after the intervention.
Results: There was statistically improvement in the baseline measures- plank test, 30ft shuttle run test, lbp questionnaire and self-confidence questionnaire- in the manual group.
Conclusion: The data signifies that active rehabilitation approach has definitely a positive effect in decreasing the symptoms of nonspecific lbp in athletes. The experimental hypothesis regarding manual therapy being significant was valid due to the significance of values in parameters- 30ft shuttle run, plank test, LBP questionnaire and self-confidence questionnaire. No doubt, the result was more significant in manual group but the difference is not that wide. Yet that’s suggestive of core also has some significant effect but less than manual.