Why are elite athletes suffering from low back pain?
Journal Title: Biology of Exercise - Year 2013, Vol 9, Issue 2
Abstract
Low back pain is a serious syndrome with multifactorial etiology (7). In spite of many research efforts to resolve and enlighten about the issue in the past few years, there is still a major social and medical problem (4). About 60- 90% of the population has suffered from low back pain throughout their lives; it tends to affect individuals mostly during their productive years (3). The causation of low back pain is related to a variety of factors, such as congenital deformities, mechanical causes, degenerative and inflammatory diseases, metabolic disturbances, microbiological inflammations, injuries, tumors, as well as toxic and psychoneurological factors (8-12). Additionally, professions that demand prolonged standing, bending, lifting and twisting, are ranked among the first to cause employees significant suffering from low back pain (15). Core and lower body physical fitness (isometric strength of abdominal muscles, endurance of erector spine and flexibility of hamstrings), appears to protect the lumbar spine (1, 5, 6, 13, 14, 16, 17). Even though elite athletes acquire expertise in top physical performance, there are some who suffer from low back pain (2, 14). Subsequently, the questions that arise are; why are elite athletes suffering from low back pain? Is it accurate to assume that elite athletes are physically inadequate to perform, and demonstrate a behavior similar to the general population in different physically demanding professions that cause them to experience lumbar spine problems? Can those problems be easily prevented?
Authors and Affiliations
STERGIOULAS APOSTOLOS| Faculty of Human Movement & Quality of Life, Peloponnese University, Sparta, Laconia, Greece
Keywords
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- EP ID EP15843
- DOI http:doi.org/10.4127/jbe.2013.0065
- Views 337
- Downloads 17
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