The Effect of Water Walking on Pain Intensity and Motor Function in Men with Non-Specific Chronic Back Pain

Chronic low back pain (LBP) has been one of the most challenging medical problems worldwide which have led to many disabilities and physical problems. The purpose of this study was a comparison of the effect of walking forth, back, and side in the water for 8 weeks on pain intensity, and motor activity in men with chronic low back pain.

In this quasi-experimental study, 30 men with chronic LBP were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly divided into three groups: walking forward, walking backward, and walking sideways. Exercises were performed for 8 weeks with a frequency of 3 sessions per week and each session lasted 30-45 minutes. Pain intensity was measured by the Quebec pain scale and motor function with the temporal rise and move test (TUG) and stork stand test (Stork test).

The results of paired t-test showed that walking in water backward, forwards, and sideways significantly reduced the pain intensity and increase the motor function of the subjects in the post-test compared to the pre-test (p=0.001). Examination of the results of group comparison with one-way analysis of variance showed that there was no significant difference between walking methods on subjects' pain intensity and motor function with the stork test (p> 0.05).  

This article showed that 8 weeks of walking exercises in water reduced pain intensity and increased motor function in chronic LBP. It can be suggested that these exercises are effective for the treatment of chronic LBP.