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Observational Study
. 2024 Jun 6:12:e17508.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.17508. eCollection 2024.

Lumbar extension peak-torque, muscle endurance and motor imagery in junior-elite basketballers with and without a history of low back pain: a pilot study

Tim Glazebrook  1   2 , Jennifer Cooke  1 , Gordon Waddington  1   3 , Sarah B Wallwork  3   4
Affiliations
Observational Study

Lumbar extension peak-torque, muscle endurance and motor imagery in junior-elite basketballers with and without a history of low back pain: a pilot study

Tim Glazebrook et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Objectives: Low back pain (LBP) is common in elite athletes. Several peripheral and central factors have been identified to be altered in non-athletic LBP populations, however whether these alterations also exist in elite athletes with LBP is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine whether elite basketballers with a history of persistent LBP perform worse than those without LBP at a lumbar muscle endurance task, a lumbar extension peak-torque task, and a lumbar motor imagery task.

Method: An observational pilot study. Twenty junior elite-level male basketballers with (n = 11) and without (n = 9) a history of persistent LBP were recruited. Athletes completed a lumbar extensor muscle endurance (Biering-Sorensen) task, two lumbar extensor peak-torque (modified Biering-Sorensen) tasks and two motor imagery (left/right lumbar and hand judgement) tasks across two sessions (48 hours apart). Performance in these tasks were compared between the groups with and without a history of LBP.

Results: Young athletes with a history of LBP had reduced lumbar extensor muscle endurance (p < 0.001), reduced lumbar extension peak-torque (p < 0.001), and were less accurate at the left/right lumbar judgement task (p = 0.02) but no less accurate at a left/right hand judgement task (p = 0.59), than athletes without a history of LBP. Response times for both left/right judgement tasks did not differ between groups (lumbar p = 0.24; hand p = 0.58).

Conclusions: Junior elite male basketballers with a history of LBP demonstrate reduced lumbar extensor muscle endurance and lumbar extension peak-torque and are less accurate at a left/right lumbar rotation judgement task, than those without LBP.

Keywords: Chronic pain; Elite athletes; Isometric contraction; Low back pain; Motor imagery; Muscle endurance.

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Conflict of interest statement

Tim Glazebrook works as a physiotherapist at SportsMed SA where he treats patients with musculoskeletal and sports injuries and pain. Sarah B. Wallwork receives payments for lectures on pain and rehabilitation.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Testing position for the Biering-Sorensen task and the modified Biering-Sorensen task.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Assessor comparison for lumbar extension peak-torque.
(A) Scatterplot showing values from Assessor 1 and Assessor 2 for lumbar extension peak-torque, and (B) a Bland-Altman plot showing the mean difference between the two assessors (middle line) and the 95% confidence intervals. Note that zero does not fall within the 95% CI, demonstrating poor agreement between the two assessors.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Left/right judgement performance between athletes with and without a history of low back pain.
Between group comparisons (mean (large circles) and 95% confidence intervals) for (A) lumbar muscle endurance, (B) lumbar peak-torque, (C) left/right lumbar judgement accuracy, and (D) left/right hand judgement accuracy. Small circles represent individual athletes. An asterisk (*) indicates significance at 0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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