Therapeutic climbing improves physical functioning, general health perception in chronic low back pain

Engbert K. Spine. 2011;36842-849. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3181e23cd1.

Therapeutic climbing offers patients with chronic low back pain benefits comparable with a standard exercise regime, according to this randomized controlled study.

This study included 28 patients with chronic low back pain who followed a 4-week program of either therapeutic climbing or standard exercise. Each program included four guided training sessions per week. Before and after the 4 weeks of training, patients completed two questionnaires: the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Hannover Functional Ability Questionnaire for measuring back pain-related disability, according to Kai Engbert, PhD, and Michaela Weber, MSc, of Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany.

The results showed that there was no difference in the before or after scores, nor was there a difference between treatments for the Hannover Functional Ability Questionnaire. Both programs had significant improvements in 3/8 subscales of the SF-36. Only therapeutic climbing patients improved in the 2/8 subscales; in the 1/8 scales, only the standard exercise patients improved. When the researchers compared both groups, therapeutic climbing yielded significantly larger improvements in the physical function and general health perception portions of the SF-36.

“This finding demonstrates that therapeutic climbing is equivalent and partly superior to standard exercise therapy for patients with chronic low back pain,” the authors wrote.