Physical characteristics of university wrestlers with low back pain

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between low back pain (LBP) and physical characteristics in university wrestlers. We especially focused on radiological abnormalities (RA) in their lumbar regions. Physical characteristics and isokinetic trunk muscle strength of the 55 male university wrestlers were measured. MRI was used to evaluate the cross sectional areas of trunk muscles between lumbar spine 3 and 4 (L3/4). Evaluations of LBP were based on the diagnose of orthopedic surgeons and the questionnaire test. According to this evaluation, we assigned all wrestlers into two groups as the LBP group and the no LBP group. Furthermore, four groups were defined by having RA based on X-ray and MRI diagnose. We obtained the following results. In comparison between the LBP group and the no LBP group, the trunk muscle extension/flexion strength ratio of the LBP was significantly lower than that of the no LBP group. In addition, the LBP without RA group showed significant low strength of their trunk extensors in comparison with the no LBP without RA group. We considered that the relative low strength of trunk extensors should have some effect on LBP in university wrestlers.