[Comparison of three therapeutic exercises protocols to lumbar hyperlordosis improvement in asyntomatic youths]

One of the causes of low back pain is lumbar hyperlordosis. There are different protocols of therapeutic exercises for its correction, which do not involve all of corporal segments. A modified protocol is proposed, which involves all such segments.

To evaluate the efficacy of proposed protocol with two established protocols for correction of lumbar hyperlordosis.

Simple-blind clinical trial on 42 students of the Faculty of Medicine at University of Colima. The three protocols: A) Pérez-Olmedo (proposed, n = 14), B) Williams (n = 15) and C) Jeffrey Saal (n = 13) were randomly assigned. Clinical and radiological evaluations were performed. Lumbar hyperlordosis was considered when Ferguson's angle was > or = 30 degrees, measured on lateral spine x-ray pictures. During two months they underwent supervised and directed exercise sessions. The improvement in lumbar hyperlordosis correction of each protocol was compared through paired Student t-test and ANOVA.

Average age was 18 +/- 0.9 years. Lumbar hyperlordosis frequency was 31% (n = 15). There was not significative difference on Ferguson's angle average comparation between three treatment groups. There was lumbar hyperlordosis improvement with following percentages: group A = 60%, Group B = 16% and group C = 0%.

Protocol of therapeutic exercises proposed (Pérez-Olmedo) could be an alternative to lumbar hyperlordosis improvement in asyntomatic youhts.