Evidence on the Ability of a Pneumatic Decompression Belt to Restore Spinal Height Following an Acute Bout of Exercise.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of a pneumatic decompression belt to restore spinal height lost following an acute bout of exercise that induced compression.


METHODS
This study implemented a test-retest repeated measures design in which twelve participants (male = 10, female = 2) age, 21.5 ± 1.0 years; height, 179.0 ± 7.70 cm; weight, 84.0 ±11.5 kg; were recruited from a university population and acted as their own control. All participants were healthy with no previous history of disabling back pain, and were frequent weight trainers. A stadiometer was used to measure spinal height at baseline, then following an acute bout of exercise and then again following the intervention (use of a pneumatic decompression belt for 20 minutes) or control (lying supine for 20 minutes). A 2-way repeated measures ANOVA was performed on the change in spinal height in order to evaluate differences between measurement phases and intervention conditions.


RESULTS
The use of the decompression belt increased spinal height gain (4.3 ± 3.0 mm) significantly more than the control condition (1.8 ± 1.2 mm) following an acute bout of weightlifting exercises known to elicit high compressive loads on the lumbar spine.


CONCLUSION
The pneumatic decompression belt restored spinal height faster than a non-belt wearing condition in young healthy asymptomatic participants.
['Cannon|Jordan|J|', 'Emond|David|D|', 'McGill|Stuart M|SM|']
D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena D015444:Exercise D005260:Female D064368:Healthy Volunteers D006801:Humans D007403:Intervertebral Disc D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae D008297:Male D026882:Manipulation, Chiropractic D014891:Weight Lifting D055815:Young Adult
Spine Body Height, Load-bearing Intervertebral Disc Lumbar Vertebrae