Prevent, relieve lower back pain: data support benefits of core strengthening exercises.(Clinical Rounds)

VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Core strengthening, a hot trend in physical fitness, is finding acceptance by physicians in light of evidence that core exercises provide an effective way to treat, and maybe even prevent back pain and lower-extremity injury, according to presentations at the annual meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine.

"I think we all accept the fact that core [strengthening] is probably very good for our athletes, may be good for our blue-collar workers, may be good for our children, and may even be good for our grandmothers," said Dr. Stuart M. Weinstein, a rehabilitation medicine specialist who practices in Seattle.

"We now realize that the transversus abdominus muscle has a purpose," he added.

Core-strengthening exercise is now being employed by many rehabilitation centers, and not just for chronic low back pain, though that is where the approach is most directly applicable, Dr. Weinstein said.

Core-strengthening techniques are also commonly used in the exercise programs designed to prevent anterior cruciate ligament injuries in female athletes.

The research on whether core strengthening can prevent injury is "limited," but there is the suggestion that it can because weakness of core muscles has been associated with back pain, he said.

A group of studies conducted with female athletes has shown that it is possible to predict who will develop lower back pain--a common problem in gymnastics in particular--by the degree of asymmetry they have in their strength and flexibility of the lower back muscles and hips. Dr. Weinstein said.