SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Physical Activity in the Prevention and Management of Disease
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1614906
This article is part of the Research TopicExercise as a Central Pillar for Targeted Health and PerformanceView all 6 articles
Meta-analysis of the best exercise mode and dose study for improving spinal health
Provisionally accepted- Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, China
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Objective: To explore the influence of different exercise methods on spinal health through Meta-analysis, and then provide scientific exercise suggestions for different groups of people. Methods: Randomized controlled experimental studies (RCTs) of different exercise modes on spinal health in CNKI, Wanfang, Web of Science, PubMed, and Ebsco databases were searched. The search dates were limited to self-built databases until February 2025. After screening, 30 articles and 2105 subjects were included and analyzed using Review Manager 5.4 and Stata 18 software.Exercise therapy was significantly superior to the control group in relieving pain (SMD =-0.87, 95% CI:-1.11,-0.63), improving cervical spine dysfunction (SMD =-0.90, 95% CI:-1.47,-0.34), improving lumbar spine dysfunction (SMD =-0.59, 95% CI:-0.77,-0.41) and correcting scoliosis (SMD =-0.82, 95% CI:-1.30,-0.34). Through subgroup analysis of heterogeneous sources from seven aspects: disease type, intervention site, intervention mode, intervention time, intervention frequency, intervention period and age,the results show that exercise intervention can effectively improve the pain level and dysfunction in patients with spinal diseases, and help to promote the recovery of Cobb's angle in patients. Subgroup analysis showed that each intervention of 10-30min, 3-4 times a week and continuous exercise for 10-20 weeks was an ideal exercise plan; Conclusion: Exercise intervention can significantly improve the health of spinal patients, and the 18-style of Zong Jianji has strong universality and is suitable for the intervention of various spinal diseases. The ideal exercise program is 10-30min each intervention, 3-4 times a week, and continuous exercise for 10-20 weeks. Baduanjin has better curative effect on patients with low back pain and scoliosis. Each intervention lasts for 30-50min, exercises 3 times a week or 1-2 times a day, and continuous exercise for 5-6 weeks or 10 weeks is the most practical. In the future, more high-quality, multi-disease clinical studies and evidence should be collected to verify this conclusion.
Keywords: spinal health, Scoliosis, Sports rehabilitation, Exercise Therapy, Physical therapy;
Received: 20 Apr 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, BAO, Wang and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shun Wang, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, China
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