Introduction: Numerous adults worldwide suffer from low back pain. This affects their daily activities and well-being. One of the subsets of low back pain is clinical instability in the lumbar spine, which leads to problems in functional motor control and many other problems. Several subsystems are involved in maintaining stability in the lumbar spine: the passive subsystem, active subsystem and the neural subsystem. In a healthy spine, these three subsystems work together to allow normal, pain-free movement. When people have weak trunk muscles, segmental instability of the spine and back pain can result. Recently, stabilization exercises have been increasingly used in the treatment and prevention of low back pain. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to review the literature to determine how stabilization exercises affect the symptoms and function in people with lumbar spine instability. Methods: The literature search was conducted in the PubMed electronic database. The search terms used were: »exercise AND low back instability OR lumbar instability«. English language studies that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Results: The literature search included six studies, with a control and an experimental group of subjects. Results were compared between the two groups. The studies had different training programs and durations of the programs. There was a decrease in physical dysfunction and pain in both groups, but the results in the control group were not statistically significant, while in the experimental group there was a statistically significant improvement in most studies. When comparing the experimental and control groups, there was a statistically significant difference in the assessment of pain intensity in four studies and in the assessment of the decrease in physical dysfunction in five studies. Discussion and conclusion: Stabilisation exercise alone or in combination with other exercise, have an immediate effect on reducing low back pain and physical dysfunction. Further research on the long-term effects of stabilisation exercises on physical dysfunction and low back pain would be needed.
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