Paramedical Sciences and Military Health

Introduction: Nowadays, many workforces are lost because of chronic low back pain. This costs a lot to both individual and government. Sport therapy is one of the most important programs of these patients. Therefore, this study aimed to compare isotonic exercises and massage therapy on pain intensity and disability in men with chronic low back pain.
Methods and Materials: 30 men patients with chronic low back pain were participated in this study. Their ages were between 20 to 30 and they came from Bojnoord. They were randomly assigned to two groups of isotonic exercises and massage therapy. The treatment was conducted for 8 weeks and each week contained 3 sessions. Data were collected through Ostwestry questionnaire used before and after the treatment. Data were analyzed through ANOVA test at the significant level of P<0.05.
Results: In the pretest, the mean score of pain severity and disability were 5.60±0.837
and 24.93±5.28 of isotonic exercises group respectively. In the posttest, the means score of them were equal to 4.52±0.679 and 14.43±3.96 respectively. In the pretest, the mean rank of pain severity and disability were 5.40±1.666 and 22.156±3.45 of massage group, respectively. In the posttest means score of them were equal to 3.00±1.118 and 15.40±4.10 respectively. There were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of both groups.
Discussion and Conclusion: The findings indicated that both massage therapy and isotonic exercise caused the pain reduction in patients with chronic back pain. However, massage had a better effect on pain reduction than isotonic exercise.