Impact of Movement Pattern Training on Muscular Co-contraction in Patients With Low Back Pain During Walking

Purpose: Low back pain (LBP) is a health problem.Rehabilitation could be a suitable therapy for LBP patients.Nonetheless, the effectiveness of movement pattern training on LBP patients has not been assessed scientifically.So, this research examined the effects of movement pattern exercise on general lower limb muscular co-contraction in patients with non-specific chronic LBP during walking. Methods:The current research was quasi-experimental.Forty male adults who experienced non-specific chronic LBP voluntarily enrolled in this study.Twenty samples were assigned in the intervention group and 20 in the control group.The exercise protocol used in this study was based on the Harris-Hayes et al. protocol, which takes 18 supervised training sessions (during 6 weeks).The assessments were conducted before the intervention and again after 6 weeks.General co-contraction of the lower limb muscles was recorded using electromyography while walking, and the total activation of the muscles that abounded the joint was calculated. Results:The findings indicate a significant decrease in general co-contraction of the ankle in the intervention group at propulsion (P=0.011, 2 =0.160).Also, the results show that at the loading phase, general knee co-contraction is greater in the experimental group compared with the control group (P=0.037, 2 =0.110). Conclusion:Our research reveals that the training program improves the general co-contraction of the lower limb muscles in individuals with LBP.