Adding stabilisation exercises to back extensor endurance exercises resulted in larger effect sizes and greater gains in pain, disability, function, and sports performance compared with back extensor endurance exercises alone in athletes with chronic low back pain.
Significant time × group interactions were found for pain and disability, indicating greater improvements in the SE + BEEE group than in the BEEE alone group.
Sprint and agility performance showed significant time × group interactions, with greater improvements in the SE + BEEE group.
Functional score showed a significant time × group interaction favouring the SE + BEEE group, though with a small effect size.
Both groups improved in HRQoL, sleep, peak force, and peak power over time, but with no significant difference between groups.
Most improvements achieved after 8 weeks of intervention were maintained at the 12-week follow-up assessment.
The study design was a randomised controlled trial comparing combined SE + BEEE versus BEEE alone in university-level athletes with chronic low back pain.
This research suggests that for athletes dealing with chronic low back pain, combining two types of exercise — stabilisation exercises (which target the core muscles that support the spine) and back extensor endurance exercises (which build stamina in the muscles along the back) — produces better results than doing back extensor endurance exercises alone. The study followed 48 university-level athletes over 8 weeks of supervised exercise training, measuring a wide range of outcomes including pain levels, physical disability, quality of life, sleep, physical function, and athletic performance measures like sprinting and agility. Both exercise approaches led to meaningful improvements across nearly all outcomes, including quality of life, sleep, muscle force, and power. However, the combined programme showed notably larger gains specifically in pain reduction, disability, physical function, sprinting speed, and agility. The effect size for sprint performance was particularly large (ηp2 = 0.45), suggesting the combined programme may be especially beneficial for athletes who need to maintain sport-specific physical capacities while managing back pain. Importantly, the improvements seen at 8 weeks were largely maintained when participants were reassessed at 12 weeks, suggesting the benefits persisted even after the structured programme ended. This research suggests that clinicians and sports medicine professionals working with athletes who have chronic low back pain may see greater benefits by incorporating stabilisation exercises alongside standard back endurance training, particularly when returning athletes to sport-specific demands like sprinting and change-of-direction movements. The findings are specific to university-level athletes, so applicability to other populations may vary.
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Upload Your LabsAnsari S, Sharma S. (2026). Impact of a Combined Exercise Programme on Pain, Disability, Health-Related Quality of Life, Sleep, Function, Sports Performance and Strength in Athletes With Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomised Controlled Trial.. Musculoskeletal care. https://doi.org/10.1002/msc.70222