Effect of one session of suspension exercises on characteristic of intervertebral disc and pain in office staff with chronic pain caused by lumbar herniated disc

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a session of suspended exercise using a tool designed for pain and characteristic of intervertebral disc of the lumbar vertebrae. This is a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest design. The subjects consisted of 12 men with chronic low back pain caused by lumbar disc herniation in L4-L5 and L5-S1 regions. After assessing the degree of pain using Visual Analog Scale and determining the structural characteristic of intervertebral by using magnetic imaging resonance, the subjects performed suspension exercises using the designed chair over a 30-min session. At the end of session, the pain and disc herniation of discs were re-assessed. For data analysis, the paired t-test and Wilcoxon tests were applied at a significant level of p≤0.05.  The results indicated significant changes in the degree of pain in the pre and post-test stages, so that a remarkable pain relief was observed in the post-test. In relation to the structural characteristics of the intervertebral disc, despite the apparent changes in the mean of collected data, the results did not reveal any significant change between pretest and posttest. Considering the beneficial effects of the designed device with respect to pain alleviation and thus reduced using of sedatives and anti-inflammatory drugs, this method can be helpful at the early treatment stages for chronic pains.