PREVALENCE OF SPINAL DISEASES IN PRACTITIONERS OF BODYBUILDING

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Low back pain has a high prevalence, impacting the quality of life. Bodybuilding has been studied as a conservative treatment that helps reduce pain, but it is still underused and often associated with worsening the pathology. Objective: The objective of the study is to describe the prevalence of spinal diseases in bodybuilders and observe the degree of perceived improvement with the practice of the same. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in a gym in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul. The sample considered 40 participants of both genders and was randomly chosen. Bodybuilding practitioners were included for more than six months and those over 18 years of age. A sociodemographic and clinical experiment was used to analyze the individual characteristics of the participants, and an analog pain scale (VAS) was used to compare pain before and after bodybuilding. Results: Of the study participants, 62.5% had no spinal pathologies against 37.5% (p-value = 0.025). The main pathology was low back pain in 40.0% of the cases, but that is not statistically different from the 33.3% with scoliosis/kyphosis/lordosis (p-value = 0.705), nor the 13.3% with disc herniation (p-value = 0.099). In the general analysis of the VAS, the score given for pain before bodybuilding was 5.73, and after 2.27 (p-value = 0.001). Conclusion: The practice of bodybuilding, when appropriate, is a tool that can help improve referred pain in patients with spinal pathology. Level of Evidence III; Retrospective comparative studye.