To Compare the Effectiveness of McKenzie Exercises v/s General Conditioning Exercises in Low Back Pain

Effectiveness of McKenzie exercises versus general conditioning exercises in low back pain.

The study was conducted on 60 adults with low back pain at physiotherapy department at Institute of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Dow University of Health Sciences. Informed consent was taken from each patient. Data was collected through structured questionnaire. The data feeding analysis was done on computer package SPSS Version 16. Sixty patients were randomly selected on convenience base. These patients with low back pain on same medications were divided into two groups in such a way that group A consists of 30 patients who received general conditioning exercises for two weeks. Group B consist of 30 patients with low back pain who received McKenzie exercises for two weeks. Their pain was measured on the basis of visual analog scale on initial assessment and reassessed on same scale after two weeks.

Sixty patients with low back pain were included in this study over a ten months period. There were 70% males and 30% females with a mean age of 35.9+ 5.6 years. After the completion of the study the result showed that Group B patients who had McKenzie exercises protocol made better progress with the P value of 0.23 ±0.43, as compared to Group A patients who had general conditioning exercises with the P value of 2.6 ±1.1.

McKenzie exercises were found to be effective, easy to administer with minimal side effects resulting in reduction in pain intensity in patients suffering from low back pain as compared to patients undergoing general conditioning exercises of back.