The Effect of Lumbar Belt on the Variability of Spine and Pelvis Coordination during Repetitive Lifts in Male Athletes with Chronic Nonspecific Low Back Pain: Cross-sectional Study

Optimizing strategies to reduce the negative effects of lifts on low back pain (LBP) have attracted the attention of researchers. One of the practical strategies to deal with the effects of loads on the spine is lumbar belts. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of lumbar belts on the coordination variability of spine and pelvis during repetitive lifts in male athletes with non-specific chronic LBP.

Twelve male athletes with chronic LBP participated in the study voluntarily. Participants with and without belts lifted the box for one minute at a frequency of 10 times per minute, and cinematic information based on the three-segment model of spine was recorded using a motion capture system equipped with 10 cameras. Coordination and coordination changes for these segments were calculated using a modified vector coding (VC) method. To compare the collected data, if normal, paired t-test was used in SPSS software and in variability data, statistical parametric mapping (SPM) method was used in MATLAB software with the significance level of P ≤ 0.05.

A significant difference was observed for the coordination of the pelvic segment to the lower back segment [concentric phase (P ≤ 0.035), eccentric phase (P ≤ 0.043)]. On the other hand, no significant difference was reported between using and not using belts for the coordination of the lumbar segment to the lower trunk segment (P = 0.545), lower trunk segment to the upper trunk segment (P = 0.440), and the variability of all calculated couples

According to the findings, using the belt may optimize the transfer of motion from the distal segment to the proximal segment, which can reduce the pressure on the waist and prevent injury and pain in the lumbar region. Therefore, it is recommended that athletes with LBP use a belt when lifting heavy loads in order to transfer movement from the distal to the proximal segment correctly.