Core Strengthening Exercises

Motor Control Training

The Core Strengthening Program participants will have supervised gym-based sessions for 8 weeks. In the first 4 weeks , participants will attend two 1 hour training sessions, followed by self-selected one or two sessions per week. The session will begin with 20min of aerobic conditioning of walking or running on a treadmill, starting at 65% and moving to 85% of HR max. The 5 key elements of focus are i. Centering ii. Breathing iii. Head and neck placement iv. Shoulder placement v. Chest wall placement

A goniometer will be used to measure ranges of motion of Trunk in Flexion, Extension, lateral Flexion and Rotation

One-repetition maximum (1-RM) leg press at 70% 1-RM will be used to evaluate lower body strength.

The Oswestry Disability Index is considered one of the best accepted tools for assessment of low back pain. It is a patient-completed questionnaire which gives a subjective percentage score of level of function (disability) in activities of daily living in chronic low back pain. The ODI is made up of 10 items. Each item consist of 6 statements which are scored from 0 to 5. With 0 indicating the least disability and 5 the greatest then the total score is calculated as a percentage, with 0% indicating no disability and 100% indicating the highest level of disability.

ODI = (Sum of items scored/Sum of sections answered) X 100

The Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia (TSK) was first developed in 1991 by R. Miller, S. Kopri, and D. Todd. A self-reported questionnaire that quantifies fear of movement, or (re)injury.It uses a 4-point Likert scale (Strongly Disagree-Disagree-Agree-Strongly Agree).The 17 item TSK total scores range from 17 to 68 where the lowest 17 means no or negligible kinesiophobia, and the higher scores indicate an increasing degree of kinesiophobia.Scores above 37 (17-item) are generally considered to indicate kinesiophobia.

The pain VAS is a uni dimensional measure of pain intensity, used to record patients' pain progression, or compare pain severity.Using a ruler, the score is determined by measuring the distance (mm) on the 10-cm line between the "no pain" anchor and the patient's mark, providing a range of scores from 0-100. A higher score indicates greater pain intensity.no pain (0-4 mm), mild pain(5-44 mm), moderate pain (45-74 mm), and severe pain (75-100 mm).Test-retest reliability has been shown to be good and moderate to good reliability for disability in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain.