Clinical effect of deep water running on non-specific low back pain: A randomised trial

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate clinical effect of deep water running(DW R) on non-specific low back pain. Outcome measures were pain, disability,general health and physical fitness. Materials and methods: Experimental, randomized, controlled trial involving 46 persons with CLBP over 15 weekswith two experimental processes, each three times a week. Evidence-basedProgram (EBP, personalized physical exercise program, manual therapy andhealth educa tion) was the common process to which was added 20 minutes ofpersonalized intensity DW R at the aerobic threshold. Measurements were made at the beginning and end of the studyof pain, disability, general health and physical fitness. R esults: The pain of CLBP were homogeneous at baseline.Significant changes between group were don’t found for pain in favour of the EBP+DW R group (p<0.3). The within-group differences were highly significant for all clinical and functional variables. The effect was clinically relevant forpain in the EBP+DW R group (0.70) and in the EBP group (0.58), and for disability degree it was also relevant in theEBP+DW R group (0.48) and relevant for the EBP group (0.36). Conclusion: Significant improvement was seen inCLBP when EBP was complemented with the high-intensity exercise of DW R.

Keywords

• deep water running
• clinical effect
• randomised trial
• evidence-based physiotherapy
• aquatics
• hydrotherapy