Current Trends in Exercise Management for Chronic Low Back Pain: Comparison between Strengthening Exercise and Spinal Segmental Stabilization Exercise

Exercise is recognized as one of the optimal managements for chronic low back pain. Among the numerous therapeutic exercises, the approaches of traditional strengthening exercise and segmental stabilization exercise are considerably different. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of the two different exercise approaches, on chronic low back pain through evaluating previous randomized control trial (RCT) studies. Pain, functional ability and physical improvement were analyzed to evaluate the recovery from chronic low back pain. While both exercises demonstrated positive effects on pain relief, functional ability and physical improvement, the evidence level of the strengthening exercise studies was not strong enough because of some methodological flaws. On the other hand, the methodological superiority of the segmental stabilization exercise studies provided high quality evidence. Another positive aspect of the segmental stabilization exercise studies was the significant long-term effect on low back pain and its low recurrence rate. Considering the overall evidence level, the segmental stabilization exercise seems to be more effective than the traditional strengthening exercise on chronic low back pain. However, the number of studies related to the segmental stabilization exercise is currently limited, therefore more direct comparative RCT studies including many other exercise approaches are necessary to confirm the effectiveness of the segmental stabilization exercise.