Does Manual Therapy Provide Immediate Improvement in Lumbar Range of Motion?

New York Institute of Technology

Status: Completed

Conditions: N/A Healthy Individuals

Treatments: Other: Myofascial Release; Other: Light Touch Contact

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05926674

BHS-1851

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this clinical study is to determine if manual therapy can improve lumbar mobility in healthy individuals.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Is there an immediate local spinal effect?
• Is there an associated distal effect?

Researchers will compare an experimental group and a control group to examine the effects.

Full description

Upon consent, participants will be assessed for lumbar spine mobility using inclinometers, hamstring flexibility using the active knee extension test and the modified sit-and-reach test, and ease of lifting a small, weighted object. After baseline measures are recorded, the participants will receive an intervention that will be either therapeutic (myofascial release) or sham (non-therapeutic hand placement). The choice of intervention received will be previously determined through the use of randomization software. The intervention provided will be applied to the low back and last for a total of 10 minutes. Immediately following the intervention, participants will again be assessed for lumbar spine mobility, hamstring flexibility, and ease of lifting a small, weighted object as noted above.

Enrollment: 40 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• New York Institute of Technology students
• At least 18 years old
• Good overall health

Exclusion criteria

• Pacemaker
• Any previous history of lumbar or connective tissue pathology
• Down syndrome
• Prolonged steroid use
• Oswestry Low Back Disability score of >10 (ODI)
• Inability to provide informed consent

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Myofascial Release

Experimental group

Description:

Myofascial release (MFR) is a manual therapy technique commonly used by clinicians and bodyworkers to provide effects such as decreased pain, improvement in flexibility, ROM, and quality of life. It combines non-gliding fascial traction with varying amounts of stretching to produce a tensional force on the muscle and its associated fascia resulting in viscoelastic lengthening and deformation. Myofascial release will be provided to each subject assigned to the experimental group by the primary investigator (PI). The participant will be positioned in prone and the MFR will be applied along the lumbar paraspinals bilaterally for five minutes per side.

Treatment:

Other: Myofascial Release

Light Touch Contact

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Sham treatment will be provided to each subject assigned to the control group by the designated co-investigator. The sham treatment of light touch will be applied to the lumbar paraspinals in the same fashion as noted above. This form of light touch contact is not therapeutic and is meant to only mimic a manual therapy technique.

Treatment:

Other: Light Touch Contact