Many people will suffer from chronic low back pain (longer than 3 months) at some point in their life making them afraid to go further in their activities and exercise regiment. Worse, 50 to 70% of people don’t even follow their prescribed exercise regiment.

Current standard of practice for those with chronic low back pain is analgesics, pain education, and bodyweight and core exercises. Patients are normally told to avoid heavy lifting, which would often means removal of many exercises in the gym including powerlifting.

For this 8-week single-blind randomised controlled trial, researchers in Australia analyzed 64 subjects, 32 doing bodyweight exercises and 32 doing powerlifting. Both groups received the standard pain education. Exercise sessions were 1 hour one-on-one with a professional.

They found that powerlifting was just as safe as traditional bodyweight exercises with similar positive outcomes.

The study was published in the journal Clinical Rehabilitation.

MT Gibbs et al. Does a powerlifting inspired exercise programme better compliment pain education compared to bodyweight exercise for people with chronic low back pain? A multicentre, single-blind, randomised controlled trial. Clinical Rehabilitation. DOI: 10.1177/02692155221095484