Impaired movement control leads to chronic lower back pain. Patients with impaired movement control face difficulties in controlling their lower back position while sitting down, standing or doing back bending. An earlier episode of back pain often become a cause of impaired movement control. This situation can be a problematic one because patients don’t realize that their incorrect back position can lead to pain. Only 15% of patients suffering from lower back pain get a specific diagnosis, whereas 85% of patients have to settle for a non-specific one. Many international care guidelines favor further research which address the different subgroups of patients with lower back pain.

Previous studies were unable to reveal that which specific exercises should be recommended to which patiet groups. So, a new study was conducted in the University of Eastern Finland revealed that the combination of manual therapy and exercise appears to be an excellent way to treat movement control impairment in the lower back. This combination has effectively improved the functional disability of patients by reducing their disability. The study analyzed whether a personally tailored exercise program would be a better treatment for alleviating non-specific lower back disability, or a generic exercise programme for targeting movement control. Patients who had undergone three-month physical therapy was analyzed after 12 months. Patients had given five physical therapy sessions, including personally tailored and generic exercises. Each session included a brief manual therapy. After completing physical therapy sessions, a questionnaire was filled by patients describing the level of disability caused by their back pain. A total of 70 patients with movement control impairment participated in the study. The results indicated that a three-month physical therapy period significantly improved the functional ability of both groups, and the results persisted at a 12-month follow-up.

 A personally tailored exercise programme was statistically and clinically more beneficial for patients than a generic one with regard to level of disability and improvement of functional ability. The treatment results persist at a 12-month follow-up.