The Effectiveness of the Mézières Method in Elite Rhythmic Gymnastics Athletes With Low Back Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Context: One of the main reasons why athletes with a high physical condition suffer from low back pain disease is because they often participate in sports that involve disc compression movements during flexion, lifting loads, or torsion movement.

Objectives: This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the postural treatment of the Mézières method on elite rhythmic gymnastics athletes with low back pain.

Design: Double-blind, randomized, controlled trial.

Setting: The sports hall of "Puente Tocinos," Murcia, Spain.

Participants: Ninety gymnastics athletes were randomized into 2 parallel groups (intervention: n = 39; control: n = 51), of whom 98.9% were women (women = 89; man = 1).

Intervention: The Mézières method postural therapy was implemented. It lasted about 60 minutes in repeated sessions of 2 to 3 meetings per week by counting in overall 60 sessions during a 24-week period.

Main outcome measures: Visual analog scale of pain, sit and reach flexibility test, Runtastic (pedometer performance android application), Roland-Morris Questionnaire for the physical disability, and the Health Status Questionnaire were used.

Results: The univariate analysis of variance and independent sample t test revealed a significant improvement in the intervention group concerning the visual analog scale pain assessment scale (P < .05, ηp2=.625), and, also, the between-groups effect size was high during the 24 sessions of treatment (d > 0.8) compared with the control one. The same situation persists even for Roland-Morris Questionnaire (P < .05, ηp2=.802), physical score (P < .05, ηp2=.613), mental score (P < .05, ηp2=.736), sit and reach flexibility test (P < .05, ηp2=.666), and Runtastic performance (P < .05, ηp2=.790), where the between-groups effect size was high during the 24 sessions of treatment (d > 0.8).

Conclusion: The Mézières method treatment performed on athletes with low back pain has caused positive effects on all the outcomes analyzed compared with the ones of control group.