Background and objective: Low back pain is a common musculoskeletal problem in children and teenagers. The present research has evaluated the effect of a sport rehabilitation program with dynamic neuromuscular stabilization (DNS) approach on pain, flexibility, and muscle endurance of children suffering from nonspecific low back pain.
Method: The research sample consisted of 40 9-12-year-old male and female students, who were randomly paired into two groups: 1) experimental (12 boys and 8 boys) and 2) control (10 boys and 10 girls): the experimental group (11.40±.88 years, 144.45±7.60 cm, and 42.06±7.20 kg) and control (10.10±7.10 years, 146.30±5.10 cm, and 43.10±8.40 kg). The control group received general physical preparation exercises, while the experimental group did the study protocol within 8 weeks (three 45-min sessions per week). From among five tests of modified sit-ups, abdominal leap, sit and reach, SLR, Thomas, and visual analog scale (VAS) were used as the indicators of effectiveness of exercises, which were measured as pre- and post-test.
Results: Repeated measure analysis of variance indicated that there was significant interaction in the variables of pain intensity, flexibility, and muscle endurance favoring the experimental group. The maximum and minimum difference of the progress coefficient were observed in SLR (89%) and sit and reach (23%) tests in the experimental group.
Discussion and conclusion: The results of the present research showed that DNS-based exercises could be effective in improving the factors of physical preparation associated with low back pain as well as mitigation of the pain. Considering the effectiveness and implement ability with simple equipment, it is suggested to use this approach for designing exercises to improve low back pain in children.